October 17, 2026 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paloff Back Breaker Presses/Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (12”, ab)/Dead Bugs
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5

Paused Push Presses (beltless, 3 seconds in dip)
45x5
67x5
89x3
111x3
133x2
152.5x2
172x3
172x3
172x3
172x3
172x3
172x3

Front Squats (beltless, 3-1-0-0 tempo)
45x3
89x3
133x3
177x3
221x5
232x5
243x5

Reverse Band Hack Squats (lb’s)
+90x5
+180x5
+270x5
+340x12
+290x12
+290x12

Sandbag Carries (turns at 50’)
225x200’
225x200’

Paused Snatch Grip Back Extensions (3 seconds)
105x6
110x6
115x6

Belt Squat Donkey Calf Raises/Paused Tibia Dorsi Calf Machine (3 seconds)
bw+110x20/+80x30
bw+110x20/+80x25

Stretching

Comments: Work continues to be a drag but tolerable. I know next month will be rough with being back in office as commuting switch and hour shift back as well as another program becoming active at that time. I didn’t force the issue with getting to bed early and setting an alarm as I could tell just from how sleep and dreams have been that I’m working somethings out in my head during that time. I did get some stuff prepped for the next day (also walked both Thursday and Friday). I had a hunch that the bridge was going to be a problem and seeing as the route guidance suggested I take the toll route (I’m not paying $3), I ended up going through parts of the city I’ve never been to before (options were that or the bridge and have my drive take over an hour again). Not much bad driving today at least. Colder today (had to turn on heat last night) but still nice. I wasn’t expected there to be people like last week at the gym. Which is nice when it is friends. Haven’t seen some people for what feels like months and years. But as usual, most gone before I’m really that into the session. But I did end up talking off the ears of those that were unfortunately to linger. Foam rolling to start things off. Stuff needed it but not in the way that has been the case with a lot of direct work. Stuff just needed the usual amount I guess. Neck rehab stuff was ok. Didn’t feel tight in some areas but others did on the right side. But didn’t seem to become a thing. Glute activation fine and lower body mobility I held the stretches a little longer than usual. Dead hang was fine. On to training. It was thankfully cooler in the gym but that also meant the fans were off so I was likely going to be sweating a lot in a little bit. Starting the lifting with the triset of the back breaker paloff presses, step ups with band TKEs and dead bugs. I remember them this time. Felt fine for the most part. My left knee was feeling a tad off on the TKE’s but otherwise things were moving well and feeling smooth. From there, on to push pressing again. Using barbell at the start of this had felt weird but it seems to be the right call at this point with how things are feeling. Second of three weeks of pause variation. Still no belt, only wrist wraps. Back up 5% to the same weight as 2 weeks ago here but doing 6x3. A little different than previous wave where volume was about the same week to week as this time decreases each session. This was the best push pressing has felt this entire off season prep so that was nice to feel like things are clicking. One more week of these before getting into log instead again. From there, onto front squats. I turned on a fan for these. Initially, the plan was to adjust the tempo to 5 seconds from 3 seconds but rethinking things, it didn’t make much sense to increase again so decided to stick to 3 seconds and continue the progression for the next 3 weeks. Aim is to keep beltless on these. 3x5 this time around. Again, looking to add 5kgs to last week but I knew it might be possible to add on that with dropping reps here. I ended up taking a bit of time after my last warm up set before I did my first working set but I felt like I could go up in weight and still leave enough in the tank. Ended up adding 10kgs to that first set over the course of things. So not bad. I may be getting to bodyweight for reps and sets without a belt here. Reverse band hack squats up next. That lady was just now getting to the hip thrusts at this point and I really didn’t want to have to drag this over to the smith machine again. Especially since some guy was using the rear delt machine in front of that. I just took my time and eventually got it where I needed it to be. I should mention in my haste this morning I forgot to screenshot a copy of training from my PC to my smart phone so I was essentially going off of memory here for the session. I did eventually check archives on my training blog website to figure out the “down set” weight (I was off by 2.5%). Any ways, warm up in 5’s and do a top set of 10-12 reps with something in the tank and then 2 matching sets with 15% less. I knew from last time I could get away with doing big jumps initially. For whatever reason, I thought I went heavier on these than I have in the past. But appears not the case and anything over 320lbs would be new territory for me. These do not feel great on the knees but I feel like I’m getting some benefit from this movement with my quads and at least something I’m doing for my lower legs is letting me feel like I can adjust where I put pressure on my feet. Front of foot feels best on these. I won’t be going heavier this prep as can only handle so much and more event work will be coming soon. I took long ass breaks here not because I needed them but because I got stuck talking shop with a friend. Down sets felt quite easy after the top set. Sandbag time once again. Distance carry training. The plan was to do moderate bag (225lbs-255lbs) for 2 sets of 100-150’ with turns at 50’. I think I altered it just to make sure I “still got it” and maybe some pressure seeing a lighter athlete doing the qualifiers and a bit further out from theirs moving with a heavier bag. But I know that I need to ease into things as I tend to go too hard on stuff if I don’t put limiters in place. Doesn’t do me any good if I don’t enjoy what I’m doing and able to string coherent sessions together. So I figured that this would be my “lighter” week for the moment (heavier being the roll ups) as start to wind down the gym stuff for the event stuff. If 150’ felt easy, I’d do 200’ instead for both sets. Sandbag did feel easier and not all fatigued like last time but I could tell that still bit slow and lagging on the last bit. No support stuff or grip aids. A little longer than 2 minutes to rest between sets here. Chucked the bag into the pile on the second set. A good pace I feel for distance expected. Back extensions with snatch grip followed that. I had done these as part of a triset last time but figured best to do solo like the 2-1 lying leg curls. 3x6 this time around with 3 second holds. I was not expecting to need as much weight as I did on these compared to last time with cutting down the holds and reps. These are tricky in that recovery between sets isn’t really a thing as just fatigue builds. I was helping George with tips on a gnarly event for OSG. Downed my shake at this point in the session (and realized I had the “wrong” flavor). The last thing being lower leg work with the newly implemented belt squat donkey calf raises and the tib machine raises. I’m starting to see benefits from doing this stuff lately. I went up a bit on the calf raises and I’m glad I was able to push things here. What did surprise me is how easy the tib raises were. I actually got distracted and miscounted big time the first set as I was aiming for just 25 reps here at most. I’m going to need to increase the weight a good bit on the tib raises next time I think and moderately increase on the donkey calf raises. Smoother drive home than leaving and stretched out when I got back.