October 14, 2026 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Seated Band Hamstring Curls (3-3-0-0 tempo)
lb’sx20
lb’sx20

Wide Grip 1” Platform Romanian Deadlifts (beltless, straps, 5 seconds eccentrics)
135x5
185x5
225x3
275x3
320x10
280x10
280x10

Safety Squat Bar Front Foot Elevated Split Squats (6”)
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
65x10/10
70x10/10
75x10/10

Paused Copenhagen Plank Lifts (1 second)
bwx12/12
bwx12/12
bwx12/12

Standing Band Hip Adductions/Hanging L-Sits/Safety Squat Bar Single Leg Seated Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
(2)µbx20/20 – bw+10x20 seconds – 75x20/20
(2)µbx20/20 – bw+10x20 seconds – 85x20/20

Stretching

Comments: Fall weather is up and down. Had to put the AC back on as it got up to 83 degrees. And looks to get 25 degrees cooler Saturday. But like I mentioned, haven’t had joint ache issues or bad allergy stuff so far so knock on wood. Forgot to mention Monday that I was about 120kgs on the dot so seems to be consistent at this weight range since I truly started off season prep beyond that initial 2 weeks period post contest. So about 3lbs heavier average. Also noticing my upper back/lats feeling “full” which is a good feeling. So not bad there. Only four work days this week, just got to eek across the finish line to home base again to spend a weekend recovering again. Got in walk and soft tissue work Tuesday. Ran out of instant oatmeal and store out so yogurt replacement for the moment. A little distracted after work before starting training. Foam rolling and the only things really needing it today was calves (especially the left one) and my upper back. Everything else was just maintenance. Neck rehabbing exercises were ok. Not really noticing anything from Monday. My biceps and forearms from Saturday finally calming down. Lower body stuff with glute activation and mobility felt fine. Dead hang was ok too. On to training. Tempo band leg curls with 2 sets of 15-20 like last week. Keeping same band tension as aim for 20 reps. As tends to be the case, first set felt easy and second set I was tough by the end. But maybe a little easier overall from when I started with these. Beltless work on the rdls continues with the 5 second eccentrics with these on the wide grip style on 1” platform. The main goal was a top set of 10-12 reps with 2RIR or so and then take a bit off for 2 matching sets. Warming up indicated could do 3-5 reps so I did first two as 5 reps and the next two as 3 reps to hopefully prime and get an idea of what I could handle. Lower back wasn’t feeling as beat as it had been last week coming into these. My hope was to do 315-325lbs. I could tell at 275lbs that 325lbs might be an ego trip to attempt so I compromised and went with 320lbs. I have to remind myself that I’m doing greater ROM than I’ve done in the past on rdls and I didn’t do these without any support gear last time (soft belt). So I should be fine with matching numbers or slightly below honestly from 2021. Felt fine at the start but I lost count of reps at some point. I thought I did 11 reps and because I wasn’t 100% sure of reps I went for 11 to make sure I had done at least 10 reps. Turns out it was 10 reps so good on me for that. Didn’t feel as if I hit my limit here like I felt with 300lbs two weeks ago. The down sets were to be matching reps with 85-87.5% of the top set weight. I was initially going to split the difference for 275lbs but went with the higher end for 280lbs. These felt surprisingly comfortable but man was my upper back and lats just exhausted by the end of each of these sets. I knew if those broke down, I’d be in bad position and my core brace would fail. Survived the deadlifting again and took a little break to come down from the high and recuperate (get fluids and not spew) before moving on to the rest of the session. Some changes from last workout here. No lunges but still doing single leg work focus. I was debating switching things up but figured I should just to see how things would feel. The exercise being brought back was ffe split squats. I’ve not been doing them with weight and I’d been mostly doing these with bodyweight and working my way down to floor with getting knee over toes. I had managed to get to floor with these eventually without major discomfort. I’m also trying to do no knee sleeves on this day and save that for the Day 3 session. I did have to do a few sets bodyweight to get used to things. Right side feels harder/stiffer and really just seems to be balance issue after getting used to the initial movement. Plan was 3x10 today but not really pushing these just yet since new. I don’t want to overdo it when in the stressed stretch position as don’t want to tear/pull something like what occurred last year with off season. Slight balance issues with the right side. Took a short break between sides and normal rest between sets. So not bad, I know I can progress on these further. Copenhagen plank lift holds after that. Same as last week with 3x12 with bodyweight and only 1ct holds. Not going for longer holds on the last reps as these are decently challenging enough. Trying to get through the sets quicker but seems more rest still needed as ended up being like a minute to recover for the last set. I ended up putting on fans for that last set as I was sweating a good bit at this point. The final thing was a triset of the last three exercises from last week. Band hip adductions combined with hanging l-sits but now putting the tempo seated calf raises as well. Only two sets but more reps on the adductions (20) and while dropping to just 20 seconds on the holds, adding weight to those finally. I was a little nervous about how that would go with how tough these have been. With having these three exercises though, I had to adjust the arrangement to get them done. Really just the adductions I had to change where they were done. No issues there. Held the slam ball between my feet for the hang. That went surprisingly well. Continuing to push the calf raise stuff while there isn’t a ton of event work yet. Getting stuff feeling like something there but still a work in progress. Kind of hoping this work on Day 2 and Day 3 will help with ankle and knee stuff. Put away the equipment and ate dinner before stretching.