January 28, 2026 – Week 22, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Suited Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
No Suit
143x5
233x3
Added Suit (single-ply)
323x2
413x1
503x1
553x1
603x1

Paused Seated Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (21” box, 1 second)
115x8
115x8
115x8

Supported Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
70x8/8 – 56’sx8
100x4/4 – 86’sx4
140x8/8 -- 116’sx8
140x8/8 -- 116’sx8
140x8/8 -- 116’sx8

Zercher Jefferson Curls (45 seconds rest)
105x10
105x10
105x10

Stretching

Comments:  Cold still here. Tuesday the shoveling was even tougher than Monday (about even to Sunday) as it was the rest of the end of the driveway that was packed from the plow and it had frozen partially. So that ended up being a lot of clanging and banging to get that cleared. As I needed to have it cleared so that I could drive my car to work the next day. Wouldn’t be an urgent thing if I was not having to be in the office. That had me a little worried that this and the cold (and worrying my bursitis was acting up in the left elbow) was going to affect things with being ready to compete and finish off the week of training. Shoulders feeling the ice shoveling and right knee a little sore from training and working in the snow. Streets were not really clear in the city and probably should’ve let us have a delay or off another day honestly. The loss of an hour both ways with getting up early and leaving early and going to bed early definitely hampers my recovery/energy. The office just sucks the life out of me. Energy levels were cratering by the time I got home and I was contemplating just eating and going to bed and doing the session. Part of me is craving just sleeping this off and until I get to Arizona but I want to listen and follow the plan Ms. Funk has planned out over the past 23 weeks here. The commute home did not help matters but I seemed to be able to rouse my spirits enough to give it the ole college try. Soft tissue work to start things. This felt similar to Monday. Kind of going through the motions. Neck rehab was fine. Keeping an eye on things here. No issues with the stretching for hips, knees and ankles. Dead hang followed after that. I was kind of hoping the warming up stuff would have my left shoulder feeling a little better from the shoveling but I guess can’t be that lucky. Still really cold temperatures so once again wearing warm ups at the start of things until I got warmed up. I did the tib into calf raise exercise for two sets to start things off. These felt fine. Nothing felt off or tight so that was good. On to the heavy thing for the evening. Last pulls on the deadlift setup before the contest. Plan being a top single that was RPE 9-9.5. I was to get into a bit more aggression than I had last few times but not into psycho mode. Which should be a no duh here with being 11 days from the show. I’ve had some preps where there was a heavy day this close and others where this session was 18 days away from show. With how I was feeling, I wasn’t going to try and go insane here with the planned attempt or the hyping up circumstances. Just enough to be the most I’ve done and know that it would go up. No suit adjustments from last time. I feel I’ve got it modified how it will work best at this point. This warming felt reminiscent of sessions where every other set working up alternated between hot and cold with how they moved. First set was good and then second set wasn’t feeling it. Suit added and it seemed like I was getting things going well here. I was still coughing up phlegm at times. I was feeling good so I stuck to 90lbs jumps with 503lbs as my first single with everything on. That seemed to move real good. I was tempted to do more than 50lbs jump as really what I wanted to hit was just north of 600lbs here not fully tapping in and hopefully that be a good spot for maybe something between my first and second attempt. Although, no clue how this will compare to venue setup and if I can get the help I need to really get my suit straps cranked down tight. 50lbs more and suit straps a little tighter. This went up well enough but not so well that I felt like going any higher than my planned 600ish. I did have some fighting in my head with adding a few little micro plates to bump it up a little but stuck firm to my plan of another 50lbs added. Compared to how my start for the top double went two weeks ago, I feel that I had a better start. The weight didn’t feel like it hesitated so much and roughly started about the same. However, the lighter weight I got to lockout a little quicker vs this single. The single felt more like the second rep of the double as far as the lock out so I’d say about equivalent then to the effort there with having it be on the money. I also didn’t have my left shin start bleeding this session. This was the goal but I also would’ve liked to have this be stronger and me not feeling sick but it is what it is. I know that once the fatigue (hopefully) falls away to reveal what has been built that I’ll be where I really am on the day. I’ve not pulled 600lbs of more from the floor in about 1.5yrs. The big if of the day was done with the little ifs to follow. I say that in that I was pretty much giving myself outs at every turn if I felt like it was too much. I can just not do that or do it lighter or skip when really I was going to do everything that was written. It’s like I’m giving myself permission and I won’t get mad and takes some of the pressure off the cooker. Anyways, the lighter stuff was up next and first up being seated ssb gms. Weight bumped up a bit here and reps lowered. Keeping these in the range of motion I did last week certainly adds some emphasis on the lower back. Which is needed. I had thought about doing a work up set but figured just move right along here so not taking longer to do the session as I needed rest and recovery this week. From there, it was the superset of supported single leg dumbbell rdls with chest supported dumbbell rows. Increase in reps on both with same weight. I ended up doing less reps the last work up set here. The rdls I switched up on the side I started with this week and that seemed to be fine. Rows were challenging but did feel better as I did these. I did try to speed up the switch between exercises but at the mercy of switching the plate weights. Last thing then was jefferson curls. 45 seconds rests on these again. Same weight as last time but more reps per set. These felt a little tougher compared to last time. Could be due to my air being compromised with the head cold. But it was easy enough to get these done and put stuff away before eating dinner and then stretching. I really hope that I rebound from this cold soon. It stinks having to be in the office and feeling miserable.