August 12, 2026 – Week 18, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps, platform, wagon wheels +20lbs/+75lbs)
135x3
225x2
40 seconds rest
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1
275x1

Farmer’s Rows/Back Extensions (5ct hold every 5 reps)
95x5/bwx10
95x5/bwx10
95x5/bwx10

ATG Split Squats (6”)/Seated Banded Leg Curls
bwx10/10 -- lb’sx20
bwx10/10 -- lb’sx20
bwx10/10 -- lb’sx20

Stretching

Comments: A little miffed that my left shoulder had gotten sore from log strict work on Monday. I feel achy and very tense and I know that has to do with the peaking and deload and just the stress I’m feeling with the upcoming travel and competing. Doing my best to recover now. Sleep has been so much better on the telework schedule. Been acting as a “floater” on top of my own work this week with upcoming travel. They aren’t really giving me new work of my own since I’ll be out until 9/1/2026 once I leave next week. Walking felt good Tuesday. It is nice to have option to walk at lunch time vs only having after work option. Foam rolling starting things off. Left calf needed it more than the right. Hamstrings fine. Good lord did my quads need it a ton today. Upper back needed a good bit but that expected just with the tension I’m feeling. No issues with neck mobility stuff. It was needed for sure. Glute and mobility stretching for lower body was fine. Added a little razzle dazzle here. Dead hang felt better on some areas vs other areas compared to Monday. Namely the impingement/compress felt better this time around. Then on to weights. Well, maybe not right away. I spaced out a little after work and then a little bit longer after warming up. My intent was to get some stuff setup for the session during lunch break to streamline but that didn’t happen. And then I got a little sidetracked with some options for the rest of the session. The only confirmed thing was to do banded pulls for singles with light weight and short rests. So that was how we were starting things. Same setup I’ve been doing with band pulls with aim at 50% of my 1rm for 6-8 singles with 90 seconds rest. 275lbs was about right and didn’t really want to get too particular here as this was more just pull weight fast and feel good about it as I know that 551lbs is not my max based on how things went. As long as the weight was moving fast and good, I’d do the 8 singles. I was also wearing all I will wear to do this lift at the show so full gear. My knees felt incredibly achy just getting into position at the bar. I can tell I’m in the deload week as that seems to be when I feel achy and have to temper expectations and go with the flow. Some reps went up super good and others just good. I ended up taking closer to 40 seconds rest vs 90 seconds with my pacing. I tend to think speed work and going fast and when I’m feeling a certain way letting that impetus take over. To glorious purpose as it were. Then the more up in the air aspect of the session. Light stuff whatever it was and not to be taxing. I eventually landed on doing the remaining stuff in superset fashion to have my heart rate up a little going back and forth and keeping me moving. The first pairing had something new. I did bent over rows with the farmer’s handles. Like in the stance I would take to pick up and go. Never done this before and I wasn’t really seeing anyone else do them how I was going to. This was just a spur of the moment thing where I wanted to have one last touch of farmer’s as of the events, they’d have the most time away from the implement with how things panned out. This wasn’t very heavy and I only did reps that felt not super taxing here. I could sense my right arm was a bit more tense than the left. This was supersetted with bodyweight back extensions that were having holds every 5 reps on them. Just trying to work positions and get some blood flow. Only taking rests after each series. I took a bit of a break here to clean up space in the garage so that I could do the last two exercises also as a superset. The first part being the  ATG split squat progression with elevated front foot as I’ve been doing. My knees have been feeling better as of late and I can’t say it is only because of these as I’ve done more mobility stuff and increased fish oil intake and adjusted exercises/equipment. But been feeling good and not like it was a month ago on my right knee. Aim was just to get blood pumping here so I had a rep range of 10-15 and ended up with 10 just to keep the RPE down here. The other half of the coin was banded leg curls. Those haven’t really come up and I feel like these have been missing to some degree so I wanted to make sure that my hamstrings and knees were getting some love here too. I’m definitely out of leg curl with bands and high reps shape it would seem. I did these as back to back no rest to keep things exciting as these weren’t too bad to recover from. Put stuff away ate dinner before stretching. Just one more to go.