May 6, 2026 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Trap Bar B Stance Romanian Deadlifts (5 second eccentrics)
145x3/3
235x2/2
305x4/4
305x4/4
305x4/4
305x4/4
305x4/4

Dumbbell High Pulls/Alternating Reverse Lunges
58’sx3 – bw+10x4/4
88’sx6 – bw+40x8/8
88’sx6 – bw+40x8/8
88’sx6 – bw+40x8/8
88’sx6 – bw+40x8/8

Paused Toes Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts
110’sx9
110’sx9
110’sx9

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (no lockouts)
bw+55x18
bw+55x18
bw+55x18

Sandbag Over Shoulders (EMOM)
175x1/1
175x1/1
175x1/1
175x1/1
175x1/1
175x1/1
175x1/1

Stretching

Comments: Right knee still seems to be a little achy in one spot on the inside. Annoying. It has been a while since my knees had aches like this. Also a little plantar fasciitis in the right foot and likely related to that (I ordered new shoe inserts so on the way). Not ideal to have that with this session on the menu. Another event for Worlds’ announced. So another tick in that direction with plans. With 7 events, either option was/is going to be a pain with programming for a weekly rotation to be ready. I wasn’t expecting it to be rainy today. But not like in the way where it stays cool. Still pretty warm and now just gross humid conditions. Soft tissue foam rolling starting things. Kind of surprised that only my quads really needed it today. Just the usual for calves and hamstrings. Upper back did need some too. Neck rehab stuff followed. Chest felt tight and needed those movements today. Other stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was good (did two of one variation as hamstrings/hips tight). Dead hang was fine. Once again, unfortunately starting things off with the same eccentric loaded trap bar deadlifts with a split stance. Though a change in a good way here in that weight increased and reps decreased. Taking off 2 reps a set was going to feel great. Notes were to go up 15lbs but it felt easier to add 20lbs for easier plate math here and I knew I could do it fine enough with drop in reps per set. Right knee was achy at times when my left foot was forward. But seemed to shut up for the most part when dealing with the working weight. I had the little fan on from the start here because of the humidity. Initially, right foot forward felt tougher but I think just my stance wasn’t as stable as left foot forward off the bat. I only felt like my grip balance was off on two sets at most and it wasn’t as egregious as last week. Just treating this as 10 sets of 4 reps to get through it mentally. I needed to change out of my shirt to a fresh one once I was done here. Again, superset of dumbbell high pulls and alternating reverse lunges. Same as last time but do another set. Also indicating that not “breaking” at the upper back and that I don’t have to lower them so much in the rdl position. I figured that best thing to not do that would be to not worry about treating these literally as high pull from the floor and then from hang. Pick them up the least taxing way and then get into whatever position stance and then do power high pulls from the hang with the dumbbells. I was a little worried about how the knees would take lunges today with the aches. Took about as much coaxing as last week to get them ready. The first reps on the high pulls was rough. The dumbbells tend to get in the way (or maybe I’m the one that does?) but I seem to find the groove by the end of it. But ends up being the case each set. Hopefully this is more in line with what I should be doing here. I will say I really felt my upper back on these this time. Lunges as per usual seem to take a bit to get going and then I’m going other than my legs getting fatigued. This mini off season with all these reps and such for legs and back are needed with both big shows stressing these areas a lot this year. Took a slight break to rest a little before moving on to the second half of the workout. Put in a food order and get stuff figured out. Toe elevated dumbbell rdls was next. Advised to bump up the weight substantially as these were rookie numbers. Dropping to just 3x8 and adding a pause at the bottom. I wasn’t sure how these would go as hamstrings and calves were pretty tight but seemed fine. The weights are definitely feeling heavier here and the weight is noticed out in front at lockout. I can get these heavier but I’ll need to be creative. I miscounted the first set and did nine so I just did that for the other sets as this was comfortable enough and I didn’t want to really mess with adding more weight since this was already a 44lbs jump on these in total weight. Next after that was heel elevated goblet squats. Indication was same weight as last week but 3x18 with no lockouts for the knees. My knees had needed a good bit of coaxing to feel ok for these last week and weight was underwhelming and I felt I could do a fair bit more. Well the knees only needed a little bit of help to feel ready to go here so I added 5lbs to the weight(I’m on a kilogram jump kick with pound weights). No balance issues this time around. The added reps were noticed. Can tell the right side fatigues sooner than the left side (knee and hip thing). But all good. Last thing for the evening was once again chucking the sandbag over my shoulder for doubles done EMOM style. 175lbs and these had been kind of fun last week. I had surprised myself a bit with how these had been. This week an extra rep added to it. The first set was a bit like how it was last week for the most part. But then the second set I seemed to actually be quite explosive here. Which is the goal. So once I got a taste of that, that was the goal each rep and set. I didn’t feel like my upper back and neck were tensing up this time around. Fifth set on the left side my left knee seemed to give a little on me so I was a little cautious immediately after that but it was fine and resumed with abandon by the last set again. Put stuff away and ate dinner before finally stretching out for the evening.