April 25, 2026 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
49x5
85x3
108x2
EMOM
130x2
130x2
130x2
130x2
130x2
135x2
135x2
135x2
135x2
135x2

Axle Wagon Wheel Squats to Pads (27”)
125x5
125x5
235x5
279x5
312x5
345.5x5
351x5
356.5x5
362x5

Sandbag Carry and Loads (over 53”)
270x10’ husabag/273x10’ sandstone/275x10’ sandbag
270x10’ husabag/273x10’ sandstone/275x10’ sandbag
270x10’ husabag/273x10’ sandstone/275x10’ sandbag

Sled Push and Pulls (turf)
400x50’/50’
400x50’/50’
400x50’/50’
400x50’/50’

Sprints (walk back is rest)
bwx50’
bwx50’
bwx50’
bwx50’
bwx50’
bwx50’

Stretching

Comments: Last week and the previous two days this week have felt like an off-season session with nothing planned. But we do have something planned and it is more deciding on which big show end of August and what the events are for the one vs the other. Nationals we got 6 of the 7 events (one is a “mystery event”) and Worlds 2 of the 7 events. But no weights for either. Worlds at least has some details for the two events rolled out. Honestly, the end of the week I was bit lackadaisical with work as thinking about doing this particular training day (not anxious, excited) and that World’s Strongest Man was happening. Despite how non-fan friendly the competition is, it is still exciting stuff. I got in walks Thursday and Friday and plan was to get to bed somewhat early on Friday so I could get up at my work time Saturday so that I had time to putz around if needed with new exercises and such. I kind of got the early bed part but I woke up before my alarm went off and felt like I still had some things I needed to work out in my sleep so I turned it off and got up about an hour and 45 minutes later. So I guess I needed the rest. I had packed up stuff the night before so I didn’t need to do much in the morning besides eat before heading out. There wasn’t much in the way of traffic but everywhere people seemed to be driving slower than usual. It took a little bit to get started once I got there as I brought some equipment to the gym and then talking with people. Foam rolling I needed a good bit on my upper calves and my right quad but not too much elsewhere. Neck rehab stuff was good but a little distracted. Lower body stretching was good. Dead hang felt nice. Starting things off with circus dumbbell. A bit of a change as usually these sessions start off with a squat of some type. But I think the change was made due to reasons I’ll mention later. Been doing circus dumbbell a lot lately but that is because it has been in both shows I did this year to qualify for the big shows. And it would appear that it is in both big shows. Nationals has a max dumbbell and World’s has it as part of medley (yoke into two dumbbells). So I guess this is staying. After how the dumbbell felt in Illinois and seeing as how the implements will likely be not like the dumbbell I’ve been using the past two preps, I brought in my Bigg Dogg Strongg dumbbell to use. The handle is 3” diameter and the bells are a little thicker than 12” and it is 130lbs empty. The plan for today was to do 120-135lbs for 10x2 done EMOM style. Another thing I was changing up from the past two preps was not doing touch and go reps. It makes sense to break up the reps fully since this isn’t a max rep thing and I’ll be doing a max at one and two separate weight dumbbells at the other. So I tried my best here to setup a crash pad circumstance. It wasn’t the best. I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the dumbbell as this had felt tougher than the one I’d been using when I had to use at one point during prep back in December. Even though it was pretty cool outside, it was feeling stuffy and humid in the gym and I turned on the fans, otherwise I’d have sweated to death. Seems concerns were unfounded as it fit like a glove and I was launching it up there. It felt easy so I added 5lbs after the first five doubles. I know Ms. Funk will be on me about standing up fully on the lockouts and get back into my stance. I felt like I was but video says I was just clanging and banging. I think I was worried with deloading and resetting the dumbbell each time giving me less rest with EMOM has the impetus to that. I will do better next time. Sometimes when it feels that good, I just go with it and like making it feel light. It is the start of prep. So that went well and then it was on to the squatting. I think the reason this was moved from the start to second in order was that this is going to be an actual event at a competition. Off season without focus it had been more of a pre-exhaustion to the session and building and then in prep more of a primer for the day. So having it be actually contested makes sense to have it be after dumbbell as order of events and not sapping everything for dumbbell or leg drive based pressing. Both shows have axle squat as an event. Nationals doesn’t have any specifics while World’s indicates that it is to pads and that there will be two weights. I decided to go with World’s setup from when they did it in 2023 where it was with wagon wheels and the pads were set at 27” or so (metric conversion) for the open heavy class. The plan for today was work up to 4x5 at RPE 7-8. I’ve not done an axle back squat variation since 2012. I know for World’s they won’t allow anything besides one pair of knee sleeves and belts here so went with that. I needed to see how this felt and figure what works here. I used my tight pair of knee sleeves. These were knee sleeves I bought to use as elbow sleeves a few years back. My other loose pair feel like nothing but leg warmers after wearing these. I messed around with different pairs of shoes at the beginning to see if my usual shoes or oly shoes worked best here. My friend Andrew said oly shoes I looked a little better but I was finding that for whatever reason the movement was feeling harsher on my right hip with them on compared to my usual shoe. So that simplifies things there. I know this kind of thing is going to require a lot of work so another reason to start this earlier than other known events really. These aren’t too bad if you get the groove right and timing with the pads. Unracking the weight and walking back feels darn heavy and the thickness of the bar really can throw you for a loop as requires a good bit of strength and mobility for a lower bar position and high bar will really pull you forward. Using kilo plates for the most part as likely how weights will be and feels “denser”. Got to stay tight while using the “bounce” or the bar will move and push forward. I had two reps on my working sets where that happened and I had to catch it to recover. That first rep tends to feel rough to with the pressure on the body. The tight support stuff takes a bit for the recovery too as can’t be walking around the that stuff on between sets for long periods. I feel like at minimum that I need to work on getting 90lbs more on the bar for a single for either comp to not zero I think. I didn’t put everything away here as it was going to take a bit and I had some other things to do at the gym. Sandbag carry and loads were next. Not exactly competition specific here but keeping something that might be. Plan was 3 bags for 10’ carries and load of 52” bar height and make these RPE 8-9. I wasn’t too sure on how things would feel. Sandbags had been rough at the contest and pick up seems to be my issue as far as repeat effort. I did ask if it was ok to use other shaped bags (sandstone and husabag) for variety here. Sandstone yes but didn’t hear yes/no with the husabag. The gym hasn’t replaced the 250lbs bag and I kind of wanted the variety of different sandbags. Lay them all flat so I was having to pick them in a way that would be most stressful to hamstrings and lower back. My sandstone did lose some moisture from when I last used it (wet sand) but not as much as I thought it did (10lbs or so). So my bags were the cheaper husabag (shaped like a trapezoid), sandstone and floppy bag with all being roughly the same weight. My only warm up was picking up a 200lbs sandstone and moving it like 15’ or so away. The gym bought two of them besides the one I have but have notes on them indicating “don’t use”. Who knows what is going on there. This didn’t go so bad. I do feel like I was moving slow with first two but better on the last one. The pick was the worst on the husabag but the carry with the sandstone was the worst. They were tougher in a way that made the 275lbs floppy bag the easiest, which I wasn’t expecting. I got faster as I went on these. I got a little distracted on the second run as my do-rag was sliding off and got in my field of vision at the start. Right hamstring felt a little twinge on the third set picking getting my stance on the husabag to pick it but nothing after that. I was leery about back and hamstring but I know I can go heavier here. I feel like that is the case for the dumbbell and squats too. Not the case for what came next. The next thing was to do sled pushes into sled drags. I think on the assumption that this might replicate something at Nationals but could just be because Ms. Funk hates me. Four sets of 50’ down and back and notes just said heavy. My initial plan was doing these on the turf but I kind of wanted to do them on concrete instead so that I could feel more weight. That ended up being a mistake as my cheap shoes have no traction on the floor it would seem so I had to tear down what I setup and move it onto the turf anyways. The first set felt like a mistake as I was having issues with traction and my right ankle did not want to cooperate on the push portion. But I made it the distance and then dragging it back which was also terrible. I was seriously considering dropping the weight here but I made my bed and going to sleep in it. The push portion felt better the second set surprisingly but I was slower on the drag. I was taking long rests putting away stuff here to get the lactic acid out of my legs and get my breathing back under control. Other than the second set, these were all about 65 seconds to complete. I took rest putting stuff away as well as smuggling 75’ of manilla rope into my gym bag (it is mine) so that it wouldn’t get soaked in the rain putting in my car. The last thing for the day wasn’t going to be difficult but it still felt cruel. Sprints. Just regular sprints with the only rest being however long it takes me to walk back to the starting line. I say cruel in that I’m kind of awkward in the first place and my legs were swollen from the sled work. And I tell you, I don’t look like how I think I’m running based on what the camera is showing. It took a set or two before my legs started cooperating with me and not feel like they were disconnected and I was going to fall over. This was irritating my right hip flexor (already feeling it a bit from the squatting) but tolerable. Finally got to drinking my shake and eating a sandwich before driving home to eventually stretch. Going to be a long night before I finally fall asleep I think.