March 2, 2026 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Dumbbell Push Presses (4-1-0-1 tempo)
40’sx4
80’sx4
80’sx4
80’sx4
80’sx4

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds at lockout)
86x6
136x4
186x2
236x6
236x6
236x6
236x6
236x6

Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (1 second at lockout)
10’sx12 – 10x6/6
40’sx8 – 40x8/8
40’sx8 – 40x8/8
40’sx8 – 40x8/8

Banded Close Grip Push Ups/Band Face Pulls
bw+mbx20/abx25
bw+mbx18/abx25
bw+mbx15/abx25

Stretching

Comments: Saturday seemed to get most of the mental funk out of the way with how training went. Joints were quite sore so it was hard to fall asleep and stay asleep so Sunday was pretty lowkey besides getting the usual weekend things done and getting in a walk. Weight was surprisingly up a little from last week so still holding a bit above 258lbs. As I mentioned it was up to like 64 Saturday and it was now about 27 today (didn’t get above freezing) so a bit of whiplash with the temperature. Apparently freezing rain tonight into the morning causing delay for work tomorrow (not me). This is the quicker of the sessions at this point. Soft tissue work to start. I was expected a lot being needed for my calves after how they were feeling Saturday. But not as much as I was expecting. Still a decent amount. Normal amount for everything else. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Feels good to get things to loosen up and then blood flow. Lower body stretching was ok. I again, almost forgot to do a dead hang as thinking about starting. Felt good. Wearing my warm ups to start things off. So once again, starting off with dumbbell push presses with tempo. The working weight was increased by 10lbs and the sets and reps dropped to 4x4. Fine with moving on up but it brings its own hassle. I only have the one solid 80lbs dumbbell and I saw how different things are with the plateloaded ones and trying to do one plateloaded and one solid doesn’t work out so good. I don’t have enough smaller plates to get much about 70lbs on the handles so I need to use 25’s. Not that much of an issue but it does become one with having to now do these outside since the diameter of the plates are too much to fit in the recessed lighting fixture in the garage. That first set was a little rough. The size of the plates, how it felt shouldering the weight and just how the weight sat/felt in the dip/rack position. Didn’t feel comfortable and the weight felt alive. Could also be because I didn’t wear my hard belt this session. I don’t know why, I guess I felt like I didn’t really need it for these. So that first set had me a little concerned but then the second set felt like it has been and I was ok with that. Got a little more challenging again on the third and fourth set but never felt as difficult as that first set did. Shouldering the solid dumbbells that are smaller diameter is definitely “smoother.” Got that mess inside and was able to continue the rest of the workout in the garage like I have been doing the past two weeks. More floor presses with the axle and holding lockouts for 2 seconds each rep. I had done better with keeping my head down last week and there seemed to be more of a consistency with my movement. My hope was to repeat and improve on that. For today, indication was same weight as last time but add another set. Unlike last week, I didn’t feel like my triceps were twitching like crazy on the warm ups. It didn’t feel so bad in my hands with warming up either. The working sets were a little odd in that sometimes the weight felt heavy on the unrack for the first rep and other times it wasn’t. Regardless of how the weight felt, I usually blasted up that first rep like it was speed rep and I tried really hard to mimic that on the following reps but it seemed like at best I could keep that for the second and maybe the third rep and then it was bit more labored. It doesn’t feel however like that first week when I’d have it feel like a little bit of a hiccup at lockout on the later reps and sets. I was tempted to increase the weight a little here but stuck to the plan. As I was going to be a little greedy with the next thing in the session. With the bigger movers for the session done, it was one to the supersets. The first one again being chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps with lockout holds. The notes had the reps and sets decreased on these movements. 3x8 for flyes and 3x8-10 on the triceps. Suggested weight was 35lbs on the flyes and 35-40lbs on the triceps. Notes indicated that for flyes that hopefully this was fine and wouldn’t irritate anything. This is where I made an executive decision. I was going to warm up with reps on 10’s and then do the working sets with 40’s. I’d rather use my solid 40’s then use plateloaded handles for this stuff. They are solid and it generally feels better with the movements. The more compact dumbbell would actually increase the ROM on these things as well. No issues on the flyes. Felt stable. Left triceps takes a moment to get ready at the start with the rotation aspect. Triceps was tough. I knew going back up to 40lbs here that I was aiming for just 8 reps with the holds and that was pretty challenging. This was the most challenging thing of the session besides that first set of dumbbell push presses. Slight change to the last superset. Still close grip push ups for the first part but adding band tension to that. The second half was untouched (band face pulls). Push ups still indicated as 10-20 reps per set with no changes to the reps or band tension for face pulls. I wasn’t too sure on what band tension setup to use so just went with a mini band across my back by default. I was not expecting those first two sets to be like the no band sets last week. Last set was more like I was expecting. Banded face pulls were fine. It is a fair bit of band tension as it feels similar in my lower body to brace in the same way I have to for standing arm over arm pulls. Put stuff away and finished cooking dinner. Stretched afterwards.

February 28, 2026 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Box Squats (4 second eccentrics)
45x5
111x4
155x3
221x2
265.5x5
265.5x5
265.5x5
265.5x5

Double Paused Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, 1 second dip and catch)
49x5
85x3
108x2
120x1
132x2
132x2
132x2
132x2
132x2

Sandbag Carries (turf)
250x60’
300x60’
325x60’
turns at 60’
225x120’
225x120’

Standing Arm Over Arm Pulls (turf, uphill)
295x60’
305x60’
315x60’

Reverse Hyper Extensions
50x12
55x12
60x12

Pulldowns (drop sets)
150x8/120x8/90x16
150x8/120x8/90x16

Stretching

Comments: The last session did not end on ideal terms. It was good I called it when I did as even with what I had ended up on that last set with the sandbag had really gotten to me mentally. Psychic damage I think is what some people jokingly refer to stuff now. I had an early dinner and took Nyquil not really due to the allergies but more so to make sure I slept most of the time I was in bed as usually not sleeping near 12hrs on a weekday unless I’m sick. I didn’t need any Claritin the rest of the week but did need nasal spray just about every morning after I was up for a little bit. February into March weather is essentially bipolar as well. I meant to walk Thursday but work got away from me and then I just felt still tired after work even with there being more daylight out and decided I’d try and just recover some more. I made sure I did some activity on Friday for my own mental wellbeing. Get out of my own head and get some movement so I wasn’t feeling stiff come Saturday. My neck, shoulders and upper back stuff felt tight (not painful) this week. I had plans here to get stuff ready to go out on Saturday but fell by the wayside. But hey, I actually woke up when I planned to and didn’t sleep past it or hit snooze. It was potentially going to be high 50’s today (ended up low 60’s) so I brought extra shirts just in case I sweated through them. Body not liking the drastic shifts in temperature with it being below freezing on Monday. And it looks like it will be the same this coming Monday and then be high 70’s this weekend. Pick a lane. Drive out wasn’t bad. Getting there when I meant to had a lot of people at the gym for strongman stuff as well as youth group stuff for athletics. Unlike last week, I did manage to get in my warming up and do some of my workout sets rather than waiting until my one friend was finished with their Arnold training. She likes to have wrung out every drop before a show as it is fun whereas I see that I need to pull back hard as my stress levels start to catabolize me a week out. Lower legs needed a fair bit on the foam rolling. Not so much anywhere else. Neck rehab stuff was good. Lower body stretching was good as well and dead hang felt nice. Box squats with accentuated eccentrics again. I got notes for this from last time about not needing to have this be so taxing (think of as primer like the pause squats end of last cycle) and that is a little on me as I forgot that not as high intensity on the squats during contest prep vs off season prep. The plan here was to do 4x5 instead of 5x4. So aim being about 10-15lbs less than last times weight. However, I was also advised to sit full on the box, which I hadn’t done as I think I was so focused on the eccentric and keeping tension. As such, I figured that I probably need to consider lowering the weight more than that with that change in the execution so I went with 10kgs less for these. On top of that, I used a regular power bar vs the big ole squat bar. This actually felt better for me. Knees a bit achy on these still but I feel these were closer to what I was to be doing here. Unrack felt uneven when I did 100kgs and 120kgs but just my imagination each time that first attempt. These felt still a little tougher than I’d have liked but I think these went ok. From there I moved on to circus dumbbell. Ms. Funk indicated that things this cycle to work what she saw were issues at comp on this is two part. Part one is absolutely fatigue the triceps until they just give up and part two is work the positions where I can potentially miss the lift. So for circus dumbbell, that would be pauses in key spots. I’ve done these in some fashion in the past with 1-3 points of pauses/holds on dumbbell. This was to be a 2 point but a bit different for one of those points. Often, a pause in the dip is a no brainer. But the second point was in the catch position. Usually I’ve had to hold lockout. But generally I get it there, it is stable. I think part of why never done this one is usually the pause style hasn’t been done as my contest style (push press vs jerk) but this makes sense. So suggested here was 120-130lbs for 5x2 with the pauses and rest as needed. I wasn’t sure how this would go and my right hamstring decided to feel sore after the box squats and I was a little paranoid I’d pull it. Thankfully, this worked out. No issues with the hamstring and these positions felt solid. So much so that I didn’t bother to make it 130lbs with my collars and just did 132lbs. Now fatigue did build faster here vs the EMOM last week with the holds but this was quite easy work here. This is a quick turnaround for this show though. Then sandbag carries. Plan for today was a bit different from last week. Work up to 2x60’ at RPE 9 and then drop down to 225-245lbs for 2x120’ with turn at 60’. I had mentioned to Ms. Funk that I felt I could do contest weight now for the distance no issues so the 2x60’ was planned for 300lbs. But that was before I had an existential breakdown over sandbag to shoulder earlier this week. And my right hamstring chirping at me like a smoke detector with low batteries didn’t help matters. But feeling good on circus dumbbell did. I wasn’t sure how I’d go with the lighter stuff but I figured I didn’t want to do a lot to get to the weight I wanted and maybe I’d use a little more if I felt good so I brought out the 250lbs sandbag do a warm up for 60’. It had a small puncture that I taped up. I had been worried we either didn’t have a 250lbs anymore. This carry felt like hot garbage. It felt like RPE 9. Had me worrying about how I was feeling with sandbag to shoulder and the first working set of deadlifts. But I know that sometimes that is just how it is and told myself I can do 300lbs. I’ve done it many times. But there is still anxiousness. This actually went well. Too well as this didn’t feel like RPE 9. I figured I’d go up to 325lbs to combat some lingering doubts after sandbag to shoulder. Couldn’t hurt to be having something in reserve here. I’ve picked up and carried a little heavier sandbags but not in training and not for this distance. So still nerves here. The bag slid on me as it past my knees so it wasn’t the most ideal grip position to have it secure and stand up with but I wasn’t going to let that stop me and put in the work here. So this also helped with pushing out negative self-talk. Popped the snack as this was going to be the only time that worked here before standing arm over arm pulls. But of course I was still having indigestion from nerves and such. I think part of it was just thinking about how draining what I was about to do was going to be. Same setup as last week with plan being 3x60’ with 10-30lbs more than last time. Notes were to try and get more in each stroke as it seemed like I was doing short strokes and stressing biceps more. I didn’t feel like that was the case and this is kind of what I went with on instinct. I think my worry was changing the cadence would slow me down and that extending more could have me off balance with my center of gravity as it is a strange position to brace and keep tension when just bodyweight and traction of the floor to move and break inertia of the implement. I went with 295lbs as that was what was left out from arm over arm stuff for my friend for base weight. I got myself ready and mentally prepped and had at it. Well I’ll be damned. This change up went well and smooth. I hardly felt like I did anything by the end of that first run. It felt easier than any of the sets last week with 30lbs less. So I decided to add a little weight. But I guess it did catch up to me as it most definitely felt like an effort on the next set. I mistimed the pulls near the end. I took a bit longer rest after that and added another 10lbs to it with hopes that I’d feel like that first set. Unfortunately not quite and again some mistiming on pulls near the very end. But within 100ths of seconds from the previous set. I started to get a little bit of calf cramp in the left from the strain and trying to keep my balance. This does seem to be the way to go with training this but again, no clue what is going to be the case when I get there. Adjust on the fly. Put stuff away and another break to just rehydrate before moving on to the lighter stuff. Reverse hypers again. 3x12 with 50lbs is what was indicated. Jumped right into this and thankfully I didn’t get any reps that had that sensation I didn’t like in my back and kept these pretty controlled. It felt easy enough that I went up 5lbs each set here and still feeling fine. So happy with this result. Then last thing being pulldown drop set. Same weight as last week but reps decreased from 10 to 8 reps. Reason being that Ms. Funk wants me to not be so sloppy in my movement as I was getting a good bit of lean back on these with the fatigue rather than more lat focused and upright. So I made it a focus to try and stay as upright as I could here. I took a bit longer rest between the sets this time for fatigue but also to help someone on fingal fingers. I was doing that stuff during my rests and breaks as it popped up. Got done about when I wanted to this time around and drank a shake and ate a sandwich before heading up to stretch and decompress.

February 25, 2026 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Axle Deadlifts (straps)
141x5
231x3
321x2
371x1
421x1
471x3
471x3
471x3
471x3
471x3

Sandbag to Shoulders (left side only)
175x1
225x1
265x1
175x1/225x1/265x1
175x1/225x1/265x1
175x1/225x1/265x0,0,1

Comments:  It was nice to get a walk in. A little worn from stuff but I feeling decent enough. Not very sore in my upper body but upper back and shoulders a little stiff. Another dose of the second day and I was looking forward to it. But I guess my allergies had other ideas. I initially did nasal spray and that didn’t seem to cover it and then Claritin. I didn’t want to use Dayquil as this didn’t feel like it was that serious. Just annoying. I can tolerate annoying. So started things off with soft tissue work. I had been tempted to do this during my lunch break just so that I could get right into training but I figured it was best to do this together and not get cold from desk work for hours beforehand. Lower legs needed it. Still some soreness in the hamstrings that was present Monday. And about what was expected in the quads and upper back. Rehab for the neck pretty standard with getting some tension out of the chest, shoulders, upper back and neck. Lower body stretching for the hips, knees and ankles after that. Dead hang felt good. Then garage time for heavy lifting. I had needed my warm ups Monday at the start but it felt like it was warm enough to not need them this session. Axle pulls with the wagon wheels again. What was planned was expected by how the last session went and kind of how I imagine things would be. So work up to 470ish and do that for 5x3. With how things had felt last week, I figured that this would likely feel rough and heavy at the start getting ready and then pretty decent on the working sets with getting more used to it. Maybe be doing reps with +500lbs the next “heavy day” (assuming like with the bendy bar prep). This is a much shorter one though. Again, the plate jumps have things feeling a little odd with how heavy stuff feels around 315lbs. From there, singles with 50lbs jumps to the working weight. I had gotten a little excited last week with my last warming up set not inspiring confidence and then it seemed I undershot a little on the effort. So I knew that could be coming and maybe that had me not as hyped here. But that first set felt rough. I felt lightheaded on that first pull and had to take a moment after each pull that set to make sure I was still conscious and pull it again. I did not pass out here thankfully. But not an enjoyable start to the deadlift session. Now thankfully, I didn’t have that issue after the first set. Allergy meds do not help with the pressure unfortunately. I do have this with some working up sets but usually once it is like that, I’m inoculated for the rest of the training session. I also made it a point to hold the lockouts for a beat here as there will be up and down commands on this event. Third set felt the best but could be because the music was having me a little more excited vs the other song choices (it was the same song that came on doing dumbbell Saturday). I got through this volume work with decently heavy weight here without incident so that was good. The next things was sandbag to shoulders. This was adjusted from last time with instead of being doubles now triples with the 175lbs, 225lbs and 265lbs sandbags. At least that was the plan. I was advised if that was too much at this time to do a double with the 225lbs bag after the 175lbs bag. I didn’t want to think that as too much for me as I’ve thrown around 225lbs easy enough for multiple sets for time in my off season prep (albeit my previous pick and shoulder style). I was thinking that this would go better than last time as I tend to improve on these things quickly and I wanted to see how a full bag would feel vs the floppy ones. So my plan here was to do singles with each bag rather than try and jump right into it like last time where I didn’t have a good time. This did not start off well. 175lbs felt awful to shoulder that first rep. Really hoping just getting some rust off here and still recovering from the pulls. 225lbs wasn’t too great either. My hope was that 265lbs would be my salvation. That I could say that I didn’t need to do these lighter bags that won’t be like at contest with the setup. Certainly felt firmer but I seemed to not know what to do with it. Like a serious brain fart and my attempts to bump it up my body had it barely moving. It just felt so damn heavy on my side and I didn’t feel like I could stand up with it in position. This is not a sensation I’ve ever felt before with this event. Honestly, I wouldn’t have counted this lift if I was judging but I figured this was a warm up and that when I went live, it would be better. With the actual sets, I was told to not go right from one to the other, but take a 5-8 seconds breather between each bag. I’m doing reps at this time but it will be a max and this is to train for me making multiple attempts in that minute if needed. With how rough warming up was, I went with 8 seconds to start. 175lbs was easy and 225lbs was not the best but it didn’t feel terrible. 265lbs was up now. The upright style is not doing my any favors it seems as I’m not staying close to the bag as this size bag is really low to the ground. It took like 3 bumps to get this to the shoulder and it was not a smooth transition up there but it was world’s better than my warm up attempt. I decided with how much pressure that was putting on my left side to “lockout”, that I’d see if my hard belt helped with that. I’ve tended to avoid a hard belt on things like sandbag, stones and kegs but I’m willing to learn and adapt to what I have. So hard belt on for the second set. 175lbs was easy, 225lbs the pick the bag didn’t go how I wanted so a little tougher. Still doing 8 seconds rest here. 265lbs went up in one movement after I got my position settled in the lap after the pick. So I guess this did something. So aim now was to make last set the best set here. 175lbs went up easy and despite a little issue with the bag on pick with both that and 225lbs, they went up easy with 5 seconds rest. So I went for the 265lbs bag. But I didn’t balance it right on the pick so it was bottom heavy and didn’t quite clear my legs. I didn’t want to drop it (should’ve) and rotated on my knees so that I was holding it like I would for a carry and generally how I’ve shouldered sandbags. But it felt foreign to me and I couldn’t get it to the shoulder and I dropped it. Starting to panic here. I reset it and take a decent amount of breaths to try again and I get a better pick but it gets stuck on me like my warm up with this bag did and it won’t go up. Really starting to freak out. I’m trying to keep myself composed but I break out into a cold sweat. My breathing is labored and I’m trying to get myself focused to try once again because I’m stubborn. This was a better pick and it gets up better but stuck again like my warm up and it gets to the point (even with a hard belt) that it is very difficult to stand up and lockout. I got as close as I could fight it and dropped it. Like the warm up, I wouldn’t have counted it. I immediately took off my belts and knee sleeves and just laid on the carpet in my house panting and sweating. This kind of sensation happens when I miss a lift I’m expecting and I’ve put some importance on it. Trying to get any motivation or energy back but it seemed futile and I just took a semi-conscious nap. I’m not sure how much time went by but it was at least 10 minutes but possibly 30 minutes. I had no appetite to do the rest of the workout with the gms and zercher split squats, pull ups and single leg rlds. I was going to just frustrate myself and my myself angrier than I already was. So I figured best thing was to call it there. I had at least done the event work for the day. Now to clean up and sleep it off like a honey badger bitten by some venomous snakes and hope the rest and distance improve my clarity of thought. I’m like 99.9% certain I’m just going back to my previous style of sandbag shouldering after this session.

February 23, 2026 – Week 2, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Dumbbell Push Presses (4-1-0-1 tempo)
10’sx6
40’sx3
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds at lockout)
86x6
136x4
186x2
236x6
236x6
236x6
236x6

Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (1 second at lockout)
10’sx12 – 10x6/6
30’sx12 – 25x12/12
30’sx12 – 25x12/12
30’sx12 – 25x12/12
30’sx12 – 25x12/12

Close Grip Push Ups/Band Face Pulls
bwx20/abx25
bwx17/abx25
bwx16/abx25

Stretching

Comments: The rest of the weekend was weird. Later Saturday got alert about conserving water due to an incident and then that was resolved by the morning. It was hard to fall asleep and then stay asleep after the training Saturday. Snow was pending but it looked like it was just going to be rain. Color me surprised when I woke up Monday morning to a blanket of snow. Not even close to what the last snow was. Office was closed (kind of surprised since streets plowed) but working offsite these next four weeks so not affecting me in the slightest. My father did my driveway and walkway with his new snowblower he got after the once in a decade snow but I still had a little bit on the back patio to clear during my lunch break. The weird weather caused some issues with getting my usual groceries resolved in time so today’s meals a little different. No walking Sunday but plan is to get in my walks going forward now. DLS is coming up so I should have more daylight after work for when in office for walks then. Weight was surprisingly up a little from last week at 258.6lbs. Even though work is dumb right now, I’m bit more rested and relaxed with the offsite schedule. Stiff and sore from Saturday training and just getting to not be so sore from Monday session in the upper body. Just in time. Been making sure I get the soft tissue work in. Needed a bit of foam rolling for my calves and man were my hamstrings sore from box squats. About the normal amount for quads and upper back. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was ok but I could tell still soreness in posterior chain. Dead hang felt the best it has since I’ve come back from Arizona. No real changes to the plan for this session with stuff so that meant I could do everything in the garage. Dumbbell push presses with tempo for the start. I wore my warm ups as it was getting below freezing again. My right knee was feeling a tad achy so I didn’t just rush right into the 40’s like I was initially planning. I had done 70’s for 4x6 so this was just adding another set to that. That first set didn’t feel as comfortable as the first set did last week but overall these felt better I feel than last week had with recovery and execution, even with the extra set. These are still a slow cooker for my triceps and shoulders as those first three reps feel really easy. From there it was on to floor presses with the axle. Holding lockouts for 2 seconds each rep. Ms. Funk is indicating that were are going to annihilate the triceps this prep from what she say with the competition and my pressing. I can only hope they adapt and survive. I started heavier here as I felt like essentially empty bar was too light and just took up time after the tempo dumbbell work. Plan being 4x6 with 5-10lbs more than last time. Also told to keep my head down. I feel like I don’t intend to do that but I made a note to try and keep that from happening. First two sets working up my triceps were twitching like crazy again but then no issues with weights above that. My last jump felt really heavy in my hands and I was second guessing the planned weight but that was fine. I hit the rack one on the second work set and I think I realized at that point that I was still thinking about going back over my eyeline when I should be trying to keep it in a set groove and that seemed to help with keeping things stable after that. Pressing done and now supersets. The first one again being chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps with lockout holds. Notes indicated another set on top of last time and suggested using the same weight on the flyes as the “top” set (I was adding 1lbs a set) for those. Notes on the triceps was to try and keep elbows tucked in (it is hard having body awareness with this movement for me) and potentially lowering weight to do that style. I figured I shouldn’t force things. I did more reps to warm up my pecs and went a little heavier and then lowered the weight a bit on the triceps. Pecs did feel better (there was tightness still). Triceps were tough. I’ll have to keep working at these things. Close grip push ups with band face pulls superset to end the session. Still bodyweight on the push ups with notes being to try and get more reps total than last time with the 10-20 reps scheme. Face pulls reps increase to 25 reps per set. I wasn’t so dead in the triceps this time around as I was able to increase the reps on the second and third set (I didn’t try and go above 20 reps the first set) so that was good. I was surprised how much more exhausting the face pulls became with the extra five reps per set. The session done and got dinner ready as I put stuff away. Stretched afterwards.

February 21, 2026 – Week 1, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Monster Texas Squat Bar Box Squats (4 second eccentrics)
66x6
110x5
154x4
198x3
242.5x2
287x4
287x4
287x4
287x4
287x4

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

Sandbag Carries (turns at 60’, turf, 60-90 seconds rest)
200x120’
200x120’
200x120’
200x120’
200x120’

Standing Arm Over Arm Pulls (turf, uphill)
270x60’
270x60’
270x60’
270x60’

Reverse Hyper Extensions
0x3
20x2
30x12
40x12
50x12

Pulldowns (drop sets)
150x10/120x10/90x20
150x10/120x10/90x20

Stretching

Comments: Not the best sleep amount the past few days but with reverting back to the preferred work option schedule, that should hopefully be back on track for at least the next four weeks. Traffic issue was manageable for the rest of the week and it should be all resolved (for the current issue) by the time I need to be worrying about it. Potentially getting more snow but with it being warmer out, it will likely not stick around if it does accumulate. My intent with training today was to get up at my normal work time (not the earlier work time) and get ready to go and rather than try and do all of it the night before. I did feel like I was going to be rested enough when I woke up for the early work time but then I guess I got tired again in the following hour and slept for an additional 70 minutes past that time. Oh well. Training wasn’t going to be as bad I felt compared to prep for last competition with doing 4 of the 5 events on one day. Drive out wasn’t bad. Some people at the gym for strongman stuff and got some congrats for my result at the show. But I’m already on to the next one. I didn’t end up starting my own training for a bit after I arrived as helping my one friend doing the Arnold in two weeks with the more irksome to setup events (and one I would be doing something similar to). I didn’t have anywhere to be. I mentioned what I had planned for training today and another friend felt like that was too much this soon after competing and for my age in their unsolicited opinion (and they indicated it was such). I get it, it is a lot but I was bored out of my mind with the week off and I’ve seen the results on my ability to recover and keep pushing with this training. Granted, I do feel that stuff needs to be pulled back sooner for the deload for the competition and that has been discussed with Ms. Funk as it is a learning experience with coach and athlete figuring out what works and such. Especially when its remote. Anyways, I was able to start my session. I’ve not had the chance to do walks with the work schedule but hopefully I can now back on the telework option. So I was expecting some soreness/stiffness in my lower body. Soreness still present in the stuff worked on Day 1 and now stuff from Day 2 which was mostly my upper back, hamstrings and outer quads. Surprisingly, my right calf didn’t need any real work done with soft tissue. My left one though needed it like usual. Other than the right calf not needing it, everything else did. Neck rehab stuff was fine and dandy. Felt good to get some stuff stretched and moving. Lower body stretching was needed. I was not sure how the dead hang would go as my left forearm has felt a little tight/tender since I got back to training from the week off. But it felt fine for the most part. So as typical of this day once the warming up is done is some kind of squat. I was bit surprised with the choice, not because of the style or tempo but because it was just going to be with a barbell. It could be over 6yrs since I’ve done a back squat of any kind with a barbell. It has been with some kind of specialty bar. I think because the other bars tend to make it harder on the upper back and that barbell can put stress/strain on the shoulders and wrists with positioning. So box squats with a barbell and lowering to a 4 seconds count to a parallel box. My assumption here with wider stance as it seemed emphasis was the hips and to “explode” off the box. I elected to use the monolift again and my intent was to just use a barbell. But by the monolift were the squat bars. One was a 25kgs squat bar and the other a 30kgs monster squat bar. Longer, thicker and stiffer than the regular barbells. I decided just for the heck of it and novelty that I’d use the monster squat bar and for further distraction/fun, just use kilogram plates here. I didn’t expect that 18” box height would be my parallel box and with the kilo jumps, I ended up going a tad heavier than I was planning. Low bar squat position hasn’t been done by me in a while and I ended up wearing my wrist wraps so that my wrists weren’t feeling terrible here. I look really weird when I squat. I got immediate muscle soreness in my inner thighs on these and I was a little worried that I potentially would or did strain something in the inner thigh muscles but I seemed to make it out of these unscathed. From there I moved on to circus dumbbell. One of the reasons for picking this show (speaking of which, the west coast one sold out and the southeast got cancelled) was that this had circus dumbbell a little heavier than what I had for the last show so I could keep on trucking from that rather than having to switch to something else with a somewhat short turnover in training time. Contest is 160lbs for reps in a minute. No run up like last show. This was to just get some good reps in and knock some rust off. I did my abbreviated warm up I adopted for this and the plan was 130lbs for 8x2 done EMOM. Despite my right knee feeling a little stiff (it was a lot stiff after Wednesday and thankfully no issues on the box squats), things were moving good with warming up. It took me two sets with 130lbs before I got things figured out with the movement and not rushing it and such. I had to shake my head after the first double as that was pretty garbage and I had to wait a beat on the second set that first rep before it felt right. But after that it was pretty automatic. Last three sets a song came on that I tend to get excited to and those were the easiest reps. I did a little walking around after the last rep of the last set. It is good to see this was feeling good albeit with light weight. Put that stuff away and got things setup for the next thing. Sandbag carries. Show is 300lbs for 120’ with turn at 60’. I’m not the fastest with implements in a carry so this was light and for several sets with short rest (relatively). IE 200lbs for 5 sets of 120 with 80-90 seconds rest. Not yet time to use outdoor stuff at the gym so this was on the turf but I started with the sandbag on stall mats so that I didn’t have to worry about scraping my knuckles on the pick each time. I re-chalked after each run and ended up taking longer rests for the first two runs and then shorter rests at the end. I felt good the first three runs but could tell I was fatiguing in the last two runs. At this point was when I felt I could pop in a rice Krispie treat as I had some setting up to do for the last event and the following accessory work. Need a little boost and didn’t want to just wait until I was done for sustenance as it was going to be a tad later in the day than I was originally planning. Standing arm over arm pulls since that will be an event. Kind of a crapshoot with figuring out what will be the case until you get there. But indication is 50-60’. I’ve only had this event once and it was part of a medley and it was brutal training it and then show it was underwhelming as course was drastically shortened and the convention floor made the 250kgs or so weight a joke (when struggling with 365lbs on turf). I’m assuming show will be on either blacktop/concrete if outside or on something like a basketball court if inside. But that’s not here or now. What I got is turf at the moment with weather so turf it will be. Doing arm over arm pulls on surfaces with high friction and no momentum is exhausting and I take pretty long rests to recover. Plan being 4x60’ at about RPE 8. I just guessed what that would be and I think I got it about right. Form is weird with this one as the closer it gets, the angle changes and what was working early on seems to not be as good a choice. I’m not sure why the up and down motion feels right here. I was getting better as I went on these but fatigue got the better of me by the end and I was missing the rope at times. Going uphill on these so I can’t really imagine that contest will be tougher than this unless really shitty conditions. This took bit of time to put away and that was helpful so that I could recover and get some fluids in before the last two things. I’ve not done a reverse hyper in over 9yrs. I think I’ve just done them wrong in the past and last time I tried them was coming back from my 2016 back injury and it seemed to irritate things (and I wasn’t even using much weight). But I’d figure I’d give them a try and try to do them in way that felt right. So no weight to really light weight. I also think I may be little too tall for the one at the gym. Took a bit to feel comfortable but 30lbs ended up not being so bad so I figured I’d add weight. Somehow, 10lbs added was having them not feel so great and I was trying to adjust during the set. The traction/shearing is not ideal and trying to have it feel in the muscles and not the wherever. 50lbs on the thing did feel better than 40lbs. Pretty obvious I lack strength in this movement but I think if light and progress slow that I can rectify that. Last thing was listed as optional if I had time. Look, I got all the time in the world most days and especially on my last day of the training week. I will make the time for it. This was something that was in training briefly leading up to worlds being pulldown drop sets. Those had been with neutral grip and doing 3x10 and 3x12 respectively for the 2 weeks in the program. This time a little different in that regular grip and the last set was to be for max reps. I went with the same weights I did then since I’ve not done pulldowns in over 6 months and my pull ups are not where they had been due to lack of doing them. First set started off fine enough. I don’t think I took a set rest when I did these last (just recall less than 15 seconds) but I decided with the last set being for max reps that I should do something more consistent. So 15 seconds rest after the first one and then 20 seconds before the max rep set. I do think I could’ve kept going with the 90lbs but I felt like I was going to be missing a rep shortly. Second set was rougher going with the other sets taking a bit more effort to get the reps and I was thinking that I’d not get to 20 reps on the max rep set with how my upper back and arms were fatiguing. But I guess I felt the symmetry was more important and made it to 20 reps. Again, not sure if that was max but it was a lot of reps and I’m ok with that after a long training session. Finally got to drink my shake and eat a sandwich before cleaning up to head home to then stretch.

February 18, 2026 – Week 1, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

13” Wagon Wheel Axle Deadlifts (straps)
116x5
206x3
296x2
346x1
396x1
441x6
446x6
451x6
456x6

Sandbag to Shoulders (left side only)
175x1/225x0
175x1/225x1
175x1/225x1
175x1/225x1
175x1/225x1
175x1/225x1
175x1/225x1

Deadstop Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
65x8
95x6
125x4
155x8
160x8
165x8

Sandbag Zercher Stationary Lunges
bwx5/5
bwx5/5
112x10/10
112x10/10
112x10/10

Deadstop Supported Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Pull Ups
62x4/4 – bwx3
102x8/8 – bwx5
102x8/8 – bwx5
102x8/8 – bwx5

Stretching

Comments:  Well, I was right about being incredibly sore in my pecs and triceps. And it is a kind of soreness that will likely be present until next week’s session where I do all again. But hopefully it will not be a sore then and not take as long. Work itself hasn’t been as draining but it is a lot but light at the end of the tunnel at least with this being the last week of the four weeks on this rotation and back to my preferred schedule that will allow for more sleep/time. But can’t just let it go by easy as the city decided that now was a great time to do a construction project on the route I take to work and having to take a detour to get to and from. I ended up being late for work Tuesday as I got lost on the detour but no issues today. I wasn’t too sure how long the workout tonight would take as some of it seemed like not bad on paper but other stuff could take longer. Soft tissue work to start things off here. Considering how much I needed on my lower legs Monday, things were pretty easy and quick here on this today. The neck rehab was where I was going to get reminders of my sore pecs. But even that just felt good on them. Lower body stretching was a little tight but not in a way that had me doing double like Monday. I remembered to do the dead hang today in the warming up. Man, am I still feeling whatever as my left forearm was feeling sore besides my tight pec, triceps and (by extension) lats. With that done, it was time to do the lifting. No tib/calf raises at this time. The next show has a deadlift event with an axle using the 13” pull setup of the “wagon wheels” that have become popular. So this would be a first touch of one of the events. Contest is 535lbs for reps (no suits). Instructions for today was to work up to 4x6 at about RPE 8. Not sure where I was on this as been pulling from the floor on axle and bendy bar setup and last month or so has been with a suit. But the hope would be that the elevated position with my levers would potentially be more advantageous to me. I’ve also not felt like I had good juju with the wagon wheels as of late with the last prep for a show using them as an event I had bailed out on due to a lot of strong emotions and then trying to bring them in to spice up my training out of boredom. The math says that if I’m good for a single at competition weight, I should be able to do 8 reps at 426lbs so that was the bare minimum for the working weight. I was initially going to do 40-50lbs jumps but I’m kind of used to the plate jumps to start now and then switching to that. Going above what is “3 plates” is where things get tricky to gauge how I’m feeling. Feeling like do this and then dropping back and so on. I was feeling a lot of pressure doing the singles working up. I settled on 200kgs or so and really hoped I didn’t overestimate myself here. Other than my body being confused on why I’m deadlifting, this felt like I lowballed the RPE a good bit. So added 5lbs and figured I’d do that each set. Well the second set didn’t feel as easy as the first and had me reconsidering adding more weight but I did anyways and that felt a little bit better. Last set is when I think I remember that key to having a tight and short stroke on the deadlift and that seemed to be fine. I felt I had reps in the tank but I could tell my back and hamstrings were fighting hard. Hamstrings were twitching like crazy and it was having the weights shake on me on some of the later reps of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th set. This is a decent starting point here. With the exercises as they were here, this was likely the only break between where I could use the time to tear down and setup to get some liquids in me as the rest of it would get a bit tricky. The next things was sandbag to shoulders. Another event for the Midwest qualifier. Max weight but you have 60 seconds to achieve that out of selection of bags. Not sure what those will be but I have some idea. So this would appear to be the placement of this event on this day rather than with all the other events like last prep. Only doing singles to my strong side with 175lbs and 225lbs bag. Plan was to do 5 rounds of that but I biffed it the first attempt and then noticed after my first “good set” that my camera was off so I added another since this wasn’t too taxing. This was a little trickier than it should’ve been because I was trying out a different style of shouldering. My method has worked with bags up to point with size wise and weight but if the weight bag option I think will be available is there, I’m not sure if my way will be manageable. So trying something that may work with having the bag upright vs laying on the ground. This was also a reminder that the chalk I bought most recently is garbage quality and I need to get something better. Last set felt the best here. The rest of the workout was not going to be events and was not going to be fun. The mention about my lower back not feeling as strong was received loud and clear as I got more good mornings on the menu after all the deadlifting. Dead stop style with the ssb. I had did somewhat of a version of these when I was doing my own thing last year but that had not been to a dead stop. Plan being work up to 3x8. I was initially expecting more weight to be needed here but that had been based off the other variation and I ended up lowering what I needed here by a good bit wanting to keep form strict/good after the axle pulls. I could tell my lower back was feeling the previous two exercises as unracking the weight had the weight feeling the most heavy on my lower back and feeling relatively fine when doing the movement. This was another humbling one but need to work things to be stronger. The exercise that followed may be the most terrible thing Ms. Funk has had me do since she started my coaching. Notes said to do zercher stationary lunges while holding a sandbag to my chest. Be tight and move fast. My lightest sandbag at home is 112lbs and don’t know if I’ve gone above 100lbs total for any split squat or lunge type variation since starting with her. I did bodyweight (well I also held 3 couch cushions so I was bearhugging something) and my knees (mostly my right) were not thrilled with this. So knee sleeves were going to be needed here. I also added my soft belt. Getting into position wasn’t bad but man was this intense just getting the reps here. I had to do a double take that very first rep as I didn’t feel like I could do it at first. Now I’ve been doing unilateral stuff with this training as doing maybe 30 seconds rest between sides at most. But when I’d done other training where the single side stuff is really pushing things, I’ve treated each side as its own set and rest accordingly. That hasn’t really been viable when these are supersetted into things. With this one, with how intense this was feeling, I went that route as I feel that if I went right into the next one like that, I’d not have a good time with short rest to repick the sandbag back up. This took a bit longer than I was expecting and I was not expecting this to be the most intense thing of this session. I had to take a bit to recover after that before I got to the final thing and it was already pretty late considering having to get up earlier with the current shift. The last thing was a superset. A slight modification to the supported single leg dumbbell rdls in that suggested to do them from dead stop if I could. The other half of this being then regular ass pull ups. Aim for max reps. It has been months since I’ve done these. I was initially going to do the same weight I was doing and left off on with the rdls but with how beat I was feeling and the increased effort of pausing the reps on the floor, I had to reduce the weight a good bit to keep from stumbling (even with support from the rack). In hindsight, I probably could’ve gone a bit heavier with how things were moving. The pull ups was a different story. I did a set of 3 reps as a warm up and those were really tough. I was not going to be doing a lot of reps today. I used the rack in the garage rather than go outside to cut down on time between the exercises. I got a rough five here. This was going to kill me. I dry heaved a little during my rest. I didn’t have that issue on the other sets and I managed to match the reps on the pull ups. It was only after I was done that I realized I had forgotten to turn on the camera so I missed that last exercise pairing. I guess there is next time. I was moving slow like a zombie after this and took a bit for me to get dinner down after the retching. Eventually stretched and got to bed late. Hopefully doesn’t effect me too much tomorrow and I can try and get some sleep in the coming days again.

February 16, 2026 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Dumbbell Push Presses (4-1-0-1 tempo)
10’sx3
40’sx3
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds at lockout)
46x8
96x6
136x4
186x2
226x8
226x8
226x8
226x8

Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (1 second at lockout)
10’sx6 – 12x6/6
26’sx12 – 30x12/12
27’sx12 – 30x12/12
28’sx12 – 30x12/12

Close Grip Push Ups/Band Face Pulls
lbx3
bwx20/abx20
bwx15/abx20
bwx12/abx20

Stretching

Comments: While I may not bee feeling 100% physically after competing, mentally I was going a bit stir crazy come a week off from training. I came back to dumb work stuff and still kind of getting over stress from travel. Nothing was done while I was out so a bit frustrating to come back to a mess. But only two days of work before a three-day weekend. Bodyweight up a bit to 258lbs at that is after coming back and eating what I eat normally so I must have been eating good in Arizona. But got to get back to the grind. And hope that it doesn’t wear me out so much in the first week. I’d only done a walk on Saturday and did soft tissue work Wednesday. Training so far has some stuff present last cycle but doesn’t look the same. So starting things off with my usual foam rolling and man did my lower legs need it a lot. I was expecting that. Probably going to need a ton more next time around. Not so much elsewhere besides my right quad but that was still not as needy as my calves were. Good that this was day off session from work to get back into it. Neck rehab stuff felt fine and was needed. I was surprised that some stuff wasn’t as stiff as I was worried it would be. That came with the lower body stretching where I pretty much did double what I normally do here. I plum forgot to do a dead hang before moving on to lifting. So first thing in the session being dumbbell push presses. These have been generally tempo based and notes were to not kill myself with effort but not coast along. Aim for RPE 7-8 on everything. My shoulders (especially my left) were still feeling like I needed to baby them so I wasn’t sure what I’d handle today so I didn’t want to assume that my usual 70’s were going to work today. I went really light to make sure I was moving all good and 10’s felt like a joke and 40’s moved easy. The dumbbells do allow me to train this inside under the recessed lighting fixture so I didn’t have to move a bunch of things around and could stay in the garage for the session. There were times when the reps felt piss easy and others where I could tell that I was feeling fatigue from the eccentrics and holding the lockout. Apparently holding the lockout is now going to be my thing on all my pressing accessory work it seems. And I didn’t realize how much more tiring things were going to be because of that. I had one rep where I wasn’t quite under the lights and hit the ceiling tile and that through me off. I took a little longer rest before doing the last set. After that, I did do a dead hang and many were my chest and biceps sore. Needed that stretch. Axle not forgotten in the prep, just changing to it being a bench vs overhead. So bringing back floor presses with the axle. I did these for a few sessions for the world’s prep but those were with pauses at the bottom. These were at lockout. Plan being 4x8. Even from what I had done for the push pressing with holds and eccentrics (the pauses in the dip felt easy) had my triceps twitching something fierce. I worked up like I would with bench pressing usually and assumed 2 plates a side would be about right and if it was too light, I could add a little each set like I’m wont to do. That triceps fatigue built and the start felt a lot easier than the end did on these sets. Lockout was slowing down a good bit by the end of the third and fourth set. My triceps would receive no reprieve this session. While the heavier pressing stuff was done, I still had more things to do. Now one change I noticed with this session is that no leg work coming into the mix in the later half of the session. This is all purely upper body-based stuff. But some familiarity with it being supersets to end the session. First one being a pairing of chest flyes and single arm triceps. I’ve not done flyes in a while but at least done some triceps extension work in the off season. These flyes were a little different in that I was to end on an internal rotation. I did both movements light to start to make sure that nothing was feeling funky. My left shoulder/pec is tight so there was some strain there with these but felt better as I went honestly. The triceps extension felt harder with the weight I picked. They fatigue so fast with holds and many reps. I didn’t really have small amount of weight to really bump up the flyes (didn’t feel safe to do 40’s off the bat) so added 1lb per set with microloading. I know just from how the movement was that my chest is going to be really sore tomorrow and the next day. Probably all week. It was already too late for my triceps. With those done, one last superset. Close grip push ups with band face pulls. It apparently has been quite some time since I’ve done a face pull which didn’t sound right but judging by my notes, it has been close to a year. My left elbow was a little touchy at first with them but after doing them, I probably could’ve done a heavier band tension and had these be closer to the needed effort. The push ups were humbling. Just bodyweight but after all the other stuff, my triceps were toasted and I knew from experience that I tend to fatigue fast and hard when doing things like this. I got 20 reps pretty well that first set but then I knew that my triceps were just on fumes and called it before I started to make them ugly for the remaining two sets. Well one workout down. Put stuff away and stretched out before having dinner with my parents.