June 27, 2026 – Week 11, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Wagon Wheel Squats to Pads (27”)
90x8
160x6
200x5
250x4
300x3
350x2
405x2
405x2
405x2
405x2
405x2

Yoke (drop and turn halfway)/Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
255x40’ – 70x4
345x20’/20’ – 100x2
435x20’/20’ – 137x1
525x40’ – 160x0,0,0
160x1
615x40’/40’ – 137x1/160x0,1 in 94.80 seconds
615x40’/40’ – 137x1/160x1 (ugly) in 48.94 seconds
615x40’/40’ – 137x1/160x1 in 48.80 seconds

Keg/Sandbag/Keg/Sandbag Carry and Loads (53”)
200x26’/220x19’/250x13’/250x6’6” in 41.53 seconds
200x26’/220x19’/250x13’/250x6’6” in 40.96 seconds

Sled Push, Sprint and Pulls (turf)
306x30’/30’+30’/526x30’ in 42.53 seconds
306x30’/30’+30’/526x30’ in 39.50 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Sometimes you train for competitions with unique equipment and events and majority of that time, you just train with what you got. Other times though I’ve decided that my obsession to not leave any stone unturned will result in seeking out someplace that has that stuff. That was more so the case when there wasn’t a somewhat local training gym and options were commercial gym and stuff I had acquired or going to someone’s house or storage unit. That had been when I was still of the belief I’d be a pro heavy weight strongman with just the right events I think and when I assumed I needed to have the exact thing. The last time I went out of my way was about 8yrs ago and that was a 2hrs drive each way and I had my father with me for that one. There is always a risk with that kind of travel in that if the drive takes it out of you or not recovered and you end up having a poor session and now you are hours away from home and got to drive with your thoughts. With World’s, the only thing I don’t really have the best to replicate is the unique style of dumbbell for the one event. It has been almost 16yrs since I last attempted to press one of these dense globe style dumbbells and it had left enough of an impression on me that I figured if there was the opportunity to touch them at least once before going overseas that I should take it assuming that I could do the rest of the planned trainings as close to the letter as I could to make it worth it. Well this week’s session kind of fit the bill. Not ideal though as I’ve had to kind of move and squish some days in and not get as much rest/recovery as I’d like. The drive wasn’t going to be the longest but it was going to be about 3hrs out of the day coming and going travel and I’ve not been up in the northern part of the state on my own. Rainy all day. I meant to get up an hour earlier than I did but body kept going back into dream sleep after each hit of snooze so I just moved it to an hour later. I was already worried about being recovered for this and had not done walks this week to try get workload in order and get to bed early and ready to just eat breakfast, defecate and leave. The first half of the drive was fine and moving well as it was interstate. It was when it got to the state routes in the factory/mining towns that it got a bit squirrelly and slowed things down a good bit. I was not aware the gym I was going to was in kind of a strip mall setup. Met my friend Ty (he’d already been there for like 2hrs already) and he buzzed me and showed me the stuff and setup. I’ve not trained in a gym with AC in over 6yrs now. There is a lot of stuff at the gym I go to but there is no AC or hot water there and the flooring is uneven. I only went through one shirt this session. I was a bit tired but seemed to be wearing excitement on my face being here. I was told that Chase and Calvin would be in a good bit later due to changes in their work shifts. Ty ended up leaving before I got to my working sets on the first thing. Lower back was a little stiff. Right heel was still a little achy (I didn’t notice that I had a bruise there and until I was home and stretching) and I did have bruising on the biceps still from kegs and some forearms from log. Foam rolling was ok, nothing really felt that tense thankfully. Neck rehab stuff was ok as well. Lower body stuff was ok as well. Dead hang after that. Then on to Axle squats. The plan was to be 405lbs for 5x2. I did similar to this about 6 weeks ago. This was a something I was little nervous with after the long drive and not feeling the freshest after doing Day 2 not 48hrs earlier. I was surprised how smooth stuff was feeling. Not that it wasn’t feeling heavy mind you. The axle I had the option to work with was 90lbs empty with knurling and I had stable boxes to squat to. I didn’t have the offset touching happening this week and I think a part of that is the floor is level here. Initially the box height was about an inch low working up and I had to adjust slightly. I wasn’t feeling any wrist ache/pain on this working up (which is why I’ve been wearing the wrist wraps). Only like 6lbs under when I did this 6 weeks ago and just 7lbs or so under my top triple (which I think I could’ve done for 5 rep). I knew I’d get these done but I took my time. They never felt easy mind you. I was just thrilled that it didn’t feel like that one session where I was to do 400x4x4 and I struggled to get one rep. So squats was done and then it was on to the main reason I drove all this way; yoke into dumbbell. This gym by happenstance ended up having 3 of the inch style dumbbells; 137lbs, 160lbs and 176lbs. 176lbs is about the weight of the first dumbbell at world’s and my plan session was to be 140lbs and 160lbs on the dumbbell portion so I figured it lines up so make it a trip. Another bonus is that one of the yokes they have there is similar to the style at world’s they will be using. There is turf section in another part of the gym (which is in the open commercial area) and I figured it was best to stay in the little studio area I did squats in since that was also where this yoke was and the special dumbbells. One tricky thing though was the floor was part turf and part rubber. My understanding is the turf may end up being gone in a week or two and be all rubber by then. There was just enough room to do the yoke for 40’ running the room diagonally. Warming up was a little tricky. Unlike at the other gym, there are many circus dumbbells and usually I’ll work up to something under the working weight but that may not fly here with the dumbbells being tricky and unique. Warming up with the yoke was fine (but actual runs not so much and I’ll get to that) and standard. The dumbbells I brought a fatgripz extreme and did reps up to the heaviest normal style dumbbell. Then I did the lightest cyr dumbbell. It went up but man are they dense and awkward. The last work up set was the one that told me this wasn’t going to be a fun time. Yoke run was fine and then I figured I should probably get in a rep at the 160lbs dumbbell so it wasn’t a on the spot thing after running yoke and another dumbbell. Oof this wasn’t good. It felt light on the shoulders but just was doing that thing where it was not in the right spot and I couldn’t lock it out. I missed the sucker three times before I took a step away and rested a bit. It didn’t feel like a strength issue. It was technique issue. Came back and got it on its own solidly and moved on to setting up the full run. With that, I knew I was going to have to take a break and not rush from the yoke here. Warming up with the yoke had felt good and fine but I had felt like I couldn’t really go fast. It felt comfortable but I’m thinking the flooring with the part turf and then rubber (not stall mat rubber but like rubber mulch rubber) was making it harder to go fast. Chase showed up right as I was about to do my first run. I was nervous. I had gone a little heavier on the yoke (only 5lbs) due to plate math and it felt a lot heavier than the 525lbs before had felt. So I was in a little bit of panic mode there. Just had to tough out the yoke all these sets and just do my best on the dumbbells. Not worry about time. I never had any real issue with the 137lbs dumbbell as it was light enough that I could muscle out if my form was off, unlike the 160lbs. First run I missed the 160lbs outright and took 30 seconds or so to catch my breath and work up the nerve to give it another shot. I’d have probably called it there if I did miss it again. But I got it convincingly. So this can be done. So now I need to get it done within the time limit and with no misses. Second set the yoke felt about the same and the 137lbs went up similar (slight catch to lockout). 160lbs got as close to lockout as it could and not stabilize it. Went too far away. I held it for a good bit but ultimately had to bail. I counted it for training purposes only for my own mental health. I knew that if I went for it again that I’d probably get annoyed and drain myself. I was already taking some pretty long rests here and talking with Chase to try and recover and cool down and calm down. Third run the yoke again about the same but I do feel like it was more labored each run. The 137lbs dumbbell went up the smoothest it had all day. Time for the moment of truth. Took my time and went for it and it went up there perfectly. Finally. So a good note to end things on. With how these dumbbells are, I may need to consider another trip during prep but change focus a little. Need to talk to Ms. Funk about my thinking. So the two things that were key of going right finally did and kind of made the trip worth it. I still had some stuff to do and I took this moment to talk some more with Chase and eat a rice Krispie treat as I got the rest of the session figured out. Honestly, the rest of the session was just gravy. I had to move some stuff around this meant also being in the main area of the gym with the commercial equipment. The fellas indicated that gym patrons aren’t too sure about what to do with people doing moving events as far as walking on the turf path. As mentioned, I’ve not been in a commercial gym in over 6yrs and the one I had frequented was a YMCA so there were some wild conversations happening here. So first thing was the loading medley. Unlike the previous weeks, I was to do this to the contest distances rather than all at 25’. So staggered at about 2m intervals. What was written was 225lbs keg and sandbag and then 240lbs keg and sandbag. Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much variety at the gym compared to the other gym. Only three kegs (150.200 and 250) and a bit closer at least with the sandbags (lot more of them). I was going to run into the same issue though at home with the gym not having a 250lbs sandbag anymore and the one I ordered has not year arrived. So I was going to do 200lbs keg, 220lbs sandbag and then the last two being 250lbs each. No real way to load things for the upright setup like at more local thing (I didn’t want to lug out jerk blocks as no handtruck, only dolly) so I was going to run up and get high enough to do the load that style and then set to the side on crash pads to not damage the floor. I was initially thinking about duct taping weight to the 200lbs keg but thought better of it. These kegs were filled with water so that was already adding a challenge component. The duct tape did come in handy to fix the 250lbs leaking sandbag. fairly light and then becomes quite heavy. This took a bit to setup and I did have a fairly long drive so I just went right into this. I wore two copper sleeves on the right biceps to hopefully cut down on the bruising. I forgot to tape up my left thumb as I wasn’t going to standing the kegs upright but I guess that was still and issue as I got a little cut on my left thumb and right pinky. These went about the same but just a little bit of hiccups with figuring out the keg placement stuff. If I do this again, I’ll bring my own handtruck and my plateloadable keg so I have options. Last thing was the push and pull medley. I was initially looking at doing this in the studio room but realized that it would be a hassle trying to load up plates on the two sleds. I didn’t know the weight of them until I was done training and I assumed 100lbs but turned out to be 106lbs after weighing them. Another reason was that the turf in the studio might be gone if I come back. So not really thinking this will be applicable to local training with setup. But plan was again push 30’ and then down and back sprint and then drag 30’. 20lbs added to the push portion but 40lbs added to the drag. No medicine ball this time but did make sure I touched the ground. The push was quite easy. The drag not so much. I had a bad setup the first run with how the straps to pull were positioned so that ate up some time there. No real issues the second set. Ended up talking with Chase and Calvin (he did show up eventually) before cleaning up and fueling up the car for the drive home. It was still raining off and on. I ended up ordering food rather than try and clean up my kitchen after the training and travel. Eventually stretched and got to bed pretty late as bit wired. Will have to see how these next few weeks go with planning around trips and weather.