June 14, 2026 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Wagon Wheel Squats to Pads (27”)
35x15
125x6
197x5
263x4
307x3
346x2
379x1
412x3
Added Pauses
351x3
351x3
351x3

Yoke (drop and turn halfway)
240x50’/50’
420x25’/25’
510x50’
600x50’/50’ in 21.76 seconds
600x50’/50’ in 21.54 seconds
600x50’/50’ in 21.43 seconds

Yoke Pick and Holds
710x2 seconds
820x10 seconds
820x10 seconds

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
49x5
85x4
108x3
130x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x2
150x2

Keg/Sandbag/Keg/Sandbag Carry and Loads (52”)
145x25’ (keg)
200x40’ (sandbag)
225x25’/225x25’/225x25’/225x25’ in 49.16 seconds
225x25’/225x25’/225x25’/225x25’ in 46.03 seconds

Backwards Sleg Drag (turf)
635x69’7” in 70 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I had to adjust my schedule with the gym closed but also because my sister was competing at the gym for the contest they were running. Other than one event that was big ask, she hit everything that was the goal and actually won her first show after doing these for over a decade. I was nervous for my own training as it had been a hot one yesterday and I had been on my feet for hours and sweated a ton. So I was worried about if I’d be able to handle my training. I got sun burn on my neck being outside for the truck pull which wasn’t even that long at time. Thankfully I’m back on the telework schedule so I didn’t have a ton of pressure to get things down early. I slept in until I felt like my knees weren’t going to bother me. I forgot it was Sunday and didn’t weigh myself. Numbers from blood work are consistent/stable so still good to go I guess. Drive out was fine. I was alone when I got there at the gym but the fans were going so it felt comfortable. At least at the start. Some people did show up while I was there but none doing strongman stuff. Foam rolling was ok. Right quad continues to need like double of the left one. Neck rehab stuff was ok as well. Lower body stuff was ok as well. I did do some stretching twice to loosen up stuff that was tight. Dead hang after that. Then on to Axle squats. The heavier week. Plan being work up to a top set of 3 reps (RPE 8-9) and then take 15% off for 3x3. I was a little worried that this would feel like it did 3 weeks ago when I bailed on the session because Saturday was not a chill day. Trying to get the wheels to not hit the pads uneven. At this point, I’m starting to think I’m lopsided. There was a big floor fan on in the gym but it wasn’t enough to keep my cool doing squats with the neoprene on so brought over the smaller fan with the extension cord. I tried moving the boxes a little to see if that made a difference and then put the hard rubber wheels rather than the metal ones since those have some dents in them. These didn’t seem to fix matters and it would sometimes be the left and sometimes the right. Adding a little to the right was probably a little too much that side but I don’t have anything thinner to adjust things with. 346lbs felt not great so I was starting to sweat bullets (besides the normal sweating) but 379lbs felt like it should and I went with just the tiniest of increases on the weight I’ve done on these just to make sure I got it. I could tell I had it after the first squat. However, the other two reps I was not able to get the balance right and it was more on the right vs the left and I’m sure that it wouldn’t count as reps because the one side hit and the other didn’t on those two reps. A slightly wider stance felt better on these this time around. For the down sets, since it was actually lighter than what I did last week, I figured I should control these a bit with pausing slightly in the hole so that I made sure the wheels touched both sides. My belt wasn’t secured the first set and popped off but made no real difference. I essentially left everything out as I went about the session as I wanted to get through the majority of them before I took a break to recover and refuel. Use that time to put stuff away. From there, moved on to yoke. Plan being contest runs with 30lbs more than last week and then do some heavy holds after that. Lower back and knees were feeling yesterday but I should be good here. I wasn’t dealing with any weird hamstring tightness. I felt comfortable but I wasn’t moving as quickly as last week here as I didn’t get below 20 seconds like I did on two of my sets last week. Didn’t get under 21 seconds here. But these felt good and moved well so I’ll take that. The heavier part was pick and holds. Notes were to work up to as close as I could to contest weight without overdoing it and burning out. Contest weight is 370kgs which is a little over 815lbs. I’ve not gone over 800lbs since 2024 but I’ve done over 1000lbs on picks before and it isn’t exactly something that leaves you even if it has been a while. Do pretty big jumps to get used to things here. This weight definitely dug into my upper back and traps more than 600lbs did so much more noticeable sunburn sensation here. Knees were achy for the pick but felt ok holding it. Second set I was a little more unstable initially as I thought it was going to move differently and kind locked/unlocked my knees there. It did feel heavy. Rice Krispie break and on to circus dumbbell. I waited until I was using my big bell before swapping in a fresh shirt. I may need to bring more shirts if it is going to keep being this close to 90 degrees every weekend. The plan for today was work up to 150lbs for 5x1-2 with 60-90 seconds rest. My hope was 5x2 but not really rushing the rest since sweaty and the setup with crash pad aim and reset can make it a little dicey. 49lbs didn’t feel great on my joints but 85lbs and 108lbs felt good and crisp. 130lbs did not so I was a little concerned with how 150lbs would go. Hand sweat did start to impact this and having the proloc collars didn’t quite have things stable so I took a beat to have things ready on my shoulder before launching it. These felt good. No farmer’s stuff today so that was good. I took my time with getting ready for the loading and carrying medley after seeing how much setup that took. I was also trying to cool off as I was sweating up a storm here with what I’d done so far today. Plan was to do 225lbs for all four implements with the keg and sandbags. 25’ carries for all of them. Last week I had 2” high setup but I was able to figure out a way to have it be contest height. Initially I thought I’d only have a single 225lbs bag so there was an adjustment if needed there. But I located another at the gym so I had two to work with. As far as a second 225lbs keg, I used one of the plate loaded kegs for that. With not having farmer’s before this, I figured it was probably a good idea to do some warming up here so I did carry some lighter objects. I made sure to tape up my thumb this time and figured I’d wear my hard belt so as to see if that helped with carrying stuff up higher and potentially not getting in the way. I wasn’t moving the fastest but I felt I had less errors on the kegs this time around. The last sandbag on the first set seemed to mess me up on the pick as it felt heavier than I was expecting it and seemed to be out in front of me. But I recovered and got it into position and moved along. It takes a good bit of time to reset this and then resting from that. Second set was much smoother although I suffered a bruise on my right arm as the copper sleeve slid down on me and got direct contact on the second keg lapping it. Guess I’ll have matching ones with the left side being where I got the blood drawn. Last thing being a heavy backwards sled drag. Same weight as last time on the turf but 10 second more. I made sure my shoes were tied tight as I noticed my feet were moving in my shoe with how heavy this was. Things did not start off great as initially it didn’t feel like it was budging this time. It took a bit more effort to finally get it started but then once I did, I seemed to be motoring. I was getting close to 60’ and I saw that it wasn’t even a minute yet. But that was where I started to slow down a ton and kind of eeked it out the last few seconds as the clock counted down. I was definitely gassed at this point. Down my shake and put stuff away that was still out before drinking the rest of my fluids before driving home to finally decompress and stretch.