April 20, 2026 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Chest Supported Dumbbell I/Y/T’s
10’sx12/12/12
10’sx12/12/12
10’sx12/12/12

Seated Barbell Overhead Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Bent Over Throws
78x6/10x6
80x6/10x6
82x6/10x6
85x6/10x6

Chest Supported Alternating Dumbbell Rows
86’sx10/10
86’sx10/10
86’sx10/10

Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Side to Side Slams
52’sx8 – 10x6/6
54.5’sx8 – 10x6/6
57’sx8 – 10x6/6

Seated Band Pull Aparts
mbx25
mbx25
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching

Comments: Felt pretty blah at work today. I had hoped getting plenty of rest on the weekend and then being on telework rotation would temper that but I guess I’m still just exhausted from the constant deluge or bullshit each and every day. It is getting colder again with a frost warning for tomorrow morning. It had been 90 like a week ago. Bodyweight jumped up a good bit from what it was before the competition. I was about 256ish and now 262ish. As I’ve mentioned, it is kind of staggering how much better I feel when the work reverts to my off site schedule vs on site schedule. At this time, only one event has been announced for Worlds and it is axle squat (I had a feeling it would come back) so regardless of which big show I do in August, I’m going to be doing squatting with an axle and first show with a squat event. I’m not adverse to doing so, just doesn’t come up and I’m not that good with squatting. That will need a bit of head start compared to other events since I think it has been over 13yrs since I did an axle squat haha. Anyways, that is later. Now is this session. Which was going to be similar to the Day 1 from last week. I kind of suspected that but wasn’t too sure. Soft tissue work to start things off. I didn’t need a ton on my legs but boy howdy did my upper back need a lot. Really sore from the past two training sessions. Neck rehab was fine. It is taking quite a while for things to resolve with my neck. But I know it takes time when it gets like that. Lower body stretches followed. Dead hang was fine not as fatiguing for my forearms so I guess they are recovering as well. So like last week, a bunch of silly exercise that I’d have to do light that will make me look foolish. First up was IYTs. Same weight as plan as last week but now 12 reps for each variation. I knew these were going to be burners by the end of things. Feels very easy at the start but by the time I get to the T’s, feeling the burn. I definitely took a bit longer with my rests here compared to last week as those extra six reps per set were telling. My upper back was also quite sore. I wanted to make it through these without taking a break or setting the weights down. Successful on that front. The first of the two odd superset pairings followed. Seated pressing with tempo and the bent over tosses/chucks. 4x6 for both. I got the one medicine ball so that remained the same. Just be powerful with it. The pressing was what I could alter. I was advised to push the weight a bit more this time. I wasn’t sure how that would go as by the end of it was 4x5 from the weight I did last week, my triceps were really fatigued and my shoulders were screaming. Tempo reps with adding more reps feels like difficult increases exponentially rather than linearly. I wanted to go heavier but wasn’t sure of myself finishing things out with how I was feeling after the raises so I went for a tiny increase. No issues with the tosses, those feel great every time. Pressing that first set was ok and I figured I’d go up 2lbs and see. That felt easy enough that I worried I had miscounted a rep but still went up 2lbs after that. I decided to finally do the weight I was hoping I could do for sets next with a 3lbs jump and that seemed to work out for me. The alternating dumbbell row with chest support followed from there. Only thing was indicating 3x10 this week. So it looks like I was doing them right last week. Nothing was saying about increasing weight but I figured I would since it had been quite easy. I have time to mess around with setup so got the plateloadable handles setup for these. I was initially worried that I bit off too much here but these were quite comfortable and easy even with the increase in weight and reps here. Hmm, guess I’ll need to go heavier. The nasty part of the last week session was up next with another tempo pressing with a medicine ball slam exercise. There was some mercy given in that the reps for the pressing were lowered to 8 reps this week. But I was advised to go heavier. I didn’t feel like I could do 70’s for 3x8 with strict tempo adherence so that meant doing the plateloaded handles here. I was leery about that as don’t really want to use the 25’s as won’t be a “close grip” with the crush factor that way. Also issues with the spinning plates and handles causing issues with that as well. The side to side slams were increased to 6 reps here and that was fine. I think I only really had one where I got off balance (I was having that issue at the start of each set last week). I thought I had 50lbs but I miscalculated. And worse still was it felt too easy so I had to add weight each set like with the previous pressing. Which wasn’t as quick since these were my wrench locked collars for safety. Sets of 8 reps infinitely more tolerable to sets of 12 reps on tempo work like this. The last thing then was seated band pull aparts. 4x25 this week. I took a little longer rests than last week only because I felt this was when I could start prepping dinner and not worry I’d be away too long doing the exercise for some kitchen mishap. These were easy but I could tell a little more fatigue by the end with double the sets/volume. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.