August 15, 2026 – Week 18, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Wagon Wheel Squats to Pads (27”)
26x15
116x2
166x2
221x3
221x3
221x3
221x3
221x3

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
2 second pauses
87x2
107x2
EMOM
127x2
127x2
127x2
No pauses
153x2
153x2
153x2

Sled Drags/Prowler Pushes (60 seconds rest)
195x75’/195x75’
195x75’/195x75’
195x75’/195x75’
195x75’/195x75’
195x75’/195x75’

Stretching

Comments: Besides having workouts hopefully taper and go smooth, the idea has been to deload on the stress and hopefully be feeling loosey goosey by next week. I don’t feel like mentally I’m stressing at this point but I can tell I’m holding a good deal of tension in my shoulders. Monday had not been ideal with my left shoulder getting sore on me at the start but it has pretty much evaporated as of today. Which is good since plan is to touch log one last time haha. Work is thankfully tapering down as well so shouldn’t be that bad hopefully for the two days I got next week. Plan being Monday session of just moving around with my dynamic warm ups and some extras added with stretching and then walking Tuesday and then packing/traveling Wednesday. Walked Thursday with soft tissue work and then just worked on stuff to prep for travel as well as try and figure things out with plan getting back with training. My plan today was to go out to the gym to do this last session but I was tired and the things I was to do the night before didn’t happen and I eventually figured out I could do everything at home and would rather save myself the hassle and stress of driving. So eventually got on to getting ready. Foam rolling stuff felt fine here. Need more on the right side for the calves compared to left but they both needed it a good deal at odd spots. Quads tend to be tight but they seemed even this time around and not as much as they’ve needed previously. Upper back I needed it today as well. Neck rehab protocol felt good and needed. Nothing felt off here thankfully. Glute activation I’m still trouble shooting some things here but good and mobility stuff felt fine. Dead hang felt fine and not feeling tension in the left shoulder like I did at the beginning of the week. So there is that. Today would be last touches of anything weight related and for three of the seven events. With first up being axle squats to boxes. I’ve been doing these at the gym with actually having boxes to use. The setup takes a bit even there but once setup, the weight loading is convenient for the most part. I’ve also not really thought it would work at home but apparently I could’ve based off what I was able to setup with the wooden spool “tables” I had. I think part of me was also leery just with how bad my knees were hurting the last time I did squats at home. Plan here was to work up to about 50% of my max on this and do 5x3 with 2 minutes rest. Ground is a little uneven unfortunately but either this weight or the sturdiness of the “boxes” made this not so bad. I think knowing that a wider stance and more gm style of hip loading has me taxing my time with the setup and feeling more solid if not fast on the movement is best. Knees a little achy but was moving well and felt powerful/strong as I went. Granted, this is like 50% and I’m wearing full gear to compete so it should be moving easy. But that is the point. Right hamstring a little tight. So this part of things done and it was on to next thing, log. I know, I said I moved “event” pressing to this day so that I would be doing stuff in a gym with a bit more temperature control and an even floor (I’ve busted up the concrete from doing axle in the past unfortunately) but this is light and needed. I did do heavy strict log on Monday but I want to make sure that I’m doing the actual movement and fluidly for that matter with the competition coming up. Strength should be there. It does seem that this will be something I need to work on. The clean doesn’t appear to be an issue here, I seem to have that figured out. It is finding what actually is a good base to press from and being stable. Narrow I feel like stuff feels solid but then if I misgroove, I can’t muscle it out through the sticking point while wider I can do that but it feels not as strong with my lower body drive. A little too late now. Anyways, the plan here was to do 3x2 with 50% with a pause in the dip and then 3x2 with 60% normal tempo. I decided to make these EMOM style and no rest between the different modalities. I don’t know if it was the floor or just overthinking things with getting setup for the drive for the press but only the clean was consistent on these. This weight is light enough that a bad rep isn’t going to be a miss here. But thankfully, most were good and I seemed to figure it out by the end of each. I had sweated up a good bit by this point and I had one last thing which was going to be a gut/lung buster. Something from Mr. Westerling in that the progression of the deload week being something heavy-ish for upper body, speed work lower body and then something that got you breathing hard and heartrate up to end it that was easy to recover from. Which was often sled pushes and drags with short rest. Since one of the events at world’s has a sled drag and sled push component, felt like a no-brainer to do that to finish things up. Since this is usually it’s own thing with maybe something light beforehand, I did indicate that I would have a range here of 4-5 sets with 60-100’ for down and back. The old me this would be three separate deload sessions for contest but I’ve improved work capacity and I can’t really do anything training week of with travel. I split the difference as that was about enough length of street without inconveniencing any of my neighbors and would keep me mostly in the shade. This got difficult fast and I was immediately regretting my decision to do this on the second set. The uphill drag wasn’t and issue. It was the downhill push as my legs just decided to not work and get full of lactic acid. Mostly my right one. I was breathing hard after the second set here. Progression is usually first set ok and then faster second set and maybe third set but then usually a decrease to what first set was and then a decline until reaching a dramatic one if not recovering well. For this go, about 29 seconds first set, 27 seconds second set, 29 seconds third set and 30 seconds fourth set. I was considering ending it after the fourth set with how my legs were feeling and breathing hard. I can see my conditioning from the beginning of this year’s prep has kind of diminished. But I got back into it and did one final one that took me 44 seconds or so to finish and I was done and absolutely gassed/knackered what have you. Ate a decent lunch (putting three small meals in one) before stretching out. I’ve done what I can to be ready at this point.

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.

August 10, 2026 – Week 18, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses 
87x3
117x3
147x3
167x1
187x1
207x1
227x1
(head through on last rep only, 3 seconds hold lockout)
197x3
197x3
197x3

Scap Retraction into Pull ups
bwx3
bw+22x4
bw+22x4
bwx7

Paused 12” Log Floor Presses w/ Bands (+6lbs/+30lbs, 2 seconds)
110x3
160x2
60 seconds rest
200x3
200x3
200x3
200x3
200x3

Band Pullaparts/Band Shoulder Dislocations
mbx15 (overhand)/mbx10
mbx15 (underhand)

Single Arm Band Overhead Triceps Extensions
mbx25/25

Stretching

Comments: The home stretch so to speak. My last planned “heavy” session. I was pretty whooped from Saturday training and I was feeling quite sore in areas that haven’t been sore this cycle. Hips were sore and needed to do trigger point stuff on my left elbow to get stuff to relax and calm down. I utilized Sunday to get sleep and get my shit figured out before work this week. Knowing this is the telework cycle helps in that regard as I tend to recover better. Weight down a little bit but still consistent. I waited until it was later to walk as it was still like 90 degrees (but at least dry and not humid). It was essentially dark when I woke up today due to storm coming through. Depending on weather, I was considering rescheduling the session until tomorrow or modifying it so I could train solely in the garage. Storm went away and sun came out and evaporated all the rain water and then another storm came and that at least passed and mostly dried up by the time work was done. Foam rolling starting things off. Calves and quads were really tight but worked them good. Neck stuff went fine. I figured some stuff would be a bit touchy considering the density of the dumbbell and how many times I lifted it as my left shoulder was quite raw from impact. Lower body activation and mobility stuff felt good. Dead hang to finish things up. I could tell here that thankfully my hands/grip were feeling fine but that my left shoulder was feeling impinged a little. On to the lifting. Log again. Last heavy touch of log with strict press. No bands. Plan was to work up to a top single but not like a true max. Similar to the deadlift in that working up to something that would have me get agitated and tap into that. Something that would make me nervous. No holds working up and initially doing triples and then singles. Things didn’t start out great as my left shoulder decided to become sore immediately. I knew this was a possibility with how much I did with dumbbell and this style of log press. I don’t feel like it affected my strength but I could tell a tendon or something was irritated on the eccentric portion. That is usually when I feel stuff doing tempo work and know I’m pushing things a bit. This has flared up before and I’m only planning on light log push presses Saturday for last session. So a little bit of a damper here but pushing onward. 30lbs on the triples and then 20lbs on the singles. My lower back was a bit stiff and feeling fatigue from the previous week sessions. But still felt fine here. Balance point was a bit of issue I think because I was used to the reps style rather than just going head through. 227lbs was just a hair under what my projected max would be based off reps from 2 weeks ago here. 4.5yrs ago I did 40lbs more than this in prep for a show following essentially this workout. But this is where I am now and I need to get some numbers to know where to go from here after World’s. I didn’t get as psyched up as I did for deadlift last week but this went up well enough and I pleased with that. Down sets I went on the higher end percentage wise. 3x3 with 30lbs less weight. Holds at lockout on last rep and no head through until that rep. I went with 3 seconds mainly because I was trying to not stress my triceps at lockout as much this week considering how my left elbow was feeling just the day before. I altered a few things to be less intense and I probably didn’t need to with how it was feeling today for the most part. Pull ups followed this. I made adjustments with this and initially I was looking at doing just 2 sets with one with weight and one without on the scapular retraction into pull up. With how my left shoulder feeling, I elected to do a few reps with bodyweight first so that perhaps the weight version wouldn’t be such a shock. I don’t know if it really helped here as the bodyweight only felt really good and then adding 22lbs of chains felt like a ton. I had hoped to be good for a set of 6 reps but not happening today. So I decided I’d do another set with weight to match those reps and if feeling good, I’d do another bodyweight set like I had originally planned. I was able to match reps and go to bodyweight. I actually had to slow myself down as I was moving to forcefully and getting a bit of swaying action. I was only going to do 6 reps but decided I’d try for one more here. With pull ups done, back to more banded log floor pressing. The plan was to do the same variation I did the past few weeks with holds at lockout but I switched to pauses on the chest instead to be less stress on my elbow possibly. Aim was to do these as my last “heavy” speed work. These felt pretty good. I was supposed to do 90-120 seconds rest but this ended up almost like EMOM rests instead. I liked doing these this prep though not sure on the carry over to the actual log press event. I’ll have to play with it some more I think. Now the end to the session as originally going to be like last week with superset of rear delt upper back and dumbbell triceps. But I forwent these to do stuff with bands that would potentially be gentler on the left elbow area. I’ve done this before but I had used the micro bands. But they were being used as my band setup for log and I wanted to move things along so I used a mini band instead. 15 pull aparts into 10 band dislocates and then 15 more pull aparts. Overhand pull apart was fine and dandy and the dislocations went good. Underhand grip was a bit more stressful with this band tension. Final thing being band triceps stuff. Did single arm overhead with mini band as well. Aim was 20-30 reps but not going to failure, just a good pump. Right side I stopped at 25 reps so matched that with left side (which felt a little easier). Nothing intense after this session. Put stuff away and stretched before eating dinner. Just two more sessions to go.

August 8, 2026 – Week 17, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Yoke (drop and turn halfway, turf)
235x40’/40’
375x20’/20’
505x20’/20’ 
595x20’/20’ 
685xpick 
685x40’/40’ in 22.34 seconds
735x40’/40’ in 25.77 seconds
660x40’/40’ in 21.73 seconds

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
70x4
100x3
137x2
160x1
178x1,0
178x0
178x0
137x1/160x0
137x1/160x1
137x1/160x1
137x1/160x0,1
137x1/160x1
137x1/160x1
3 point pauses (2 seconds in dip, catch and lockout)
EMOM
137x0,1
137x1
137x1
137x1
137x1
137x1

Sled Push, Sprint, Sandbag Carry and Pulls (turf)
266x15’/220x15’/296x15’
266x33’/280x33’/576x33’ in 59.30 seconds
266x33’/300x33’/596x33’ in 57.03 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I really wanted another day rest but I knew I had to kind of push through here so that I can deload to recover in time. I could tell there were some compression symptoms that were back that had arisen after the log session that had me take the rest of the week off that I think kind of went away and I hadn’t noticed until now that I felt they were back. Digestion issues popped up after the last training session and I’m not sure what this all about. Hopefully with having me back on telework option next week and through this last bit of prep will have me feeling better and recovering better. I didn’t walk after work as I felt that sleep and soft tissue work was higher priority to feel good for this last heavy event session. That did seem to be the right call. I woke early enough on my own accord to take care of some things before I took the drive up to the one gym. Ty had indicated he would be there but I guess family had other plans. I’m getting used to the drive but I don’t really see myself making the drive up this frequently unless it is for specialty equipment and if temperature is like it has been this summer. Foam rolling was ok. Back of my knees and calves/hamstring inserts felt odd but thankfully chilled out by the time I was done with warming up. The calves themselves didn’t seem to need much but quads did. Neck rehab stuff was ok as well. Lower body stuff was ok and felt decent. Dead hang after that and as good to go as I was going to be. Starting off with yoke. Yoke and dumbbell had been separate at the start of prep and then merged together for 3 weeks with 2 of those sessions being up here to train. And seeing how different these dumbbells are compared to what is usually contested has made simple linear progressive not as feasible. So this session was to get in the last heavy touches for both and I felt that in order to get that being close to contest weight for both without worrying about one or the other’s performance was to break them up again to focus on the parts. My proficiency with yoke has improved so that is less a worry. The initial plan under coaching had been to do 3 runs of contest setup with 685lbs on the yoke and 160lbs on dumbbell for 1-2 reps. But things changing with going to master’s as well as splitting things up. But it sounded like a good idea to get 2-3 runs of yoke with this being the last session since the previous session had been like a month ago and had not felt good with my knees and such and stress at the time. It showed as hamstring felt tight and my one working up set I started to black out on the first half of the run. I thankfully didn’t have that issue with the first working set though. My hope was even if not necessarily getting contest weight, the turf would be what was making things tougher and it would be less taxing at the show. 685lbs didn’t feel that bad. The notes I had was to actually do 685-725lbs here for the 3 sets with aim of going up 20lbs a set. But I guess I felt that I should just go up and maybe only do 2 sets instead of 3 sets. Like I did with farmer’s walk. I put what I thought was 725lbs but turned out to be 735lbs so accidentally a little over contest weight here. It felt heavy but fine, with only issue being coming back and bumping into one of the many objects I had to move out of the way to even do yoke runs today. I did elect to do another run here but dropped it down to 660lbs which would be 90% of contest weight to just get a little bit faster run. I had some issues with the initial leg of the run but it did move better once I got that sorted. I happy for the most part with how these went as I’d not tried this with the new belt, didn’t feel that far off what I was doing for the AZ show 6 months prior despite lighter weights. The turf definitely makes things harder to move. I’m giving myself at least 30 seconds to get through the dumbbells. Which was next. This went through some changes as initially I was looking at just getting more work on the 160lbs dumbbell to drill heavy technique with 6-10 reps done EMOM style. But then I thought better of it just based on how the event will be doing 2 dumbbells and with master’s, I actually have a shot at both lifts rather than just one. But I figured I’d see how things went and kind of be on the fly with it. Working up had me realize it has been over a month since I’ve done a circus dumbbell. I don’t count those javelin presses as such. Form was off once I got to the inch style dumbbells but I corrected quick enough. I decided to go for the 80kgs dumbbell again and got it on the first try this time. I felt good enough that I did try for a double that was close but not there yet. I imagine if I hadn’t taken 5 weeks away that I’d be better here. I did give it two more shots after that to try and get another rep in some capacity but called it there as I was burning myself out and taking away from the obtainable for the show. Something like reining in my worse impulses here would be helpful with coaching/instruction. So what came next was the intent to do doubles with a rep on the 137lbs dumbbell, followed by the 160lbs dumbbell. And start out from under the yoke to work transitions. Initially wanting to do these as an EMOM but with the first attempt not going great (missing the 160lbs twice), I scrapped that and went with just rest as needed and try to get 5 good sets. I need more work on the 160lbs dumbbell as I was having about an even ratio of misses/bad/good reps and want that to not be the case. This is definitely something that needs more work in the future if this comes up as an event for me as some reps the clean feels effortless and others if feels like it saps my arms and back. I then decided I still wanted to do EMOM singles to ingrain things in and went with the 137lbs dumbbell to do iso-holds at 3 points vs 2 points like I had been doing. Reason being that these dumbbells are really unwieldy at lockout compared to other circus dumbbells. I must have misremembered how heavy I had done paused reps like this as I initially missed the first rep attempt on the catch. But I did manage to clean things up and it was going quite sold by the end and feeling automatic. I could tell that I had pushed it here today as my forearms were sore and so was my right elbow (in a musculature way, not joint pain). I swapped in a fresh shirt as I was covered in rust and sweat and ate a rice Krispie treat. This break between things wasn’t going to take nearly as long as last week having make an implement first but I did want to try and recover before finishing out the day. Last thing was the push and pull medley. Like circus bell, it has been over a month since I did this and last time had been the first time doing it with any sandbag weight. Hope I think with prep had been that doing the pick and carries of keg and sandbag would build for this until closer than then worry about. For master’s the weight is a good bit lighter on the push and pull but sandbag is the same weight. Plan was to do 2-3 runs here since no longer doing the 1st medley right before this to kind of warm up things. With heavier sandbag but lighter weights, I had to get creative for the drag by putting a plastic plyo box on it so that the loading pin didn’t puncture the bag. I was definitely feeling everything I did on Thursday and the session by this point. I did half the course or so to warm up as I didn’t want to do a full run as I was having a nagging feeling that the sandbag portion was going to suck. Aim was to do 280-300lbs for the sets here and I was honestly not feeling super confident in this today after how tough the 300lbs sandbag was last week to pick up. So went with 280lbs the first set for the sandbag, which meant. I had meant to add another 10lbs on the sled for the push portion but it feels like busy work rather than an actual implement at this weight. The 280lbs sandbag wasn’t too bad but where I screwed up was the drag. I fumbled big time with getting the handles and the other blunder was I forgot to tighten my shoe laces so my feet were loose in my shoes with pulling this weight on the turf like that. Barely under a minute here. I felt I had to do 300lbs and hopefully not make those unforced errors this run. Better but man was the pick up of the sandbag rough. Similar to last week with how I was on my second run with the sandbag to finish the medley. This may end up being how it goes at the show. I did manage to be a little faster despite that. I’ve made a note of how this has felt on sandbags this prep to address it during offseason. Put stuff away after I downed my shake and made it home well enough. I kind of needed to just chill for a bit when I got home and finally get something to eat and stretched out afterwards. I knew I’d be tired but have issues actually getting myself to settle down for bed. One more week.

August 6, 2026 – Week 17, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts (straps, platform, wagon wheels)
135x5
225x2
275x2
315x2
365x1
405x1
455x1
495x1
551x1
Cluster reps (15 seconds)
482x1+1+1
Pauses (3 seconds with 5 second cluster)
408x1+1
408x1+1

Paused Inverted Ring Rows (2 seconds)
bwx3
bw+20x3
bw+37x8
bwx12

ATG Split Squats (6”)/ Copenhagen Planks
bwx12/12 -- bwx25--25 seconds
bwx12/12 -- bwx25--25 seconds
bwx12/12

Stretching

Comments: I did not have the same level of soreness after the first session this week like last week. Probably from not being detrained compared to last time. Also like last week, this session ened up having some changes from the initial plan during the session as well as right beforehand. I had added stuff last week to it from how last week went and then thought better on it as this session came up and just considering logistics with some exercises and recovery for these last few heavy sessions. Walking had felt good after the previous session. It has been quite humid with rain happening now. I ran the fans in the garage more so for air flow and to hopefully dry out some of the dampness. The big focus today was going to be the last heavy deadlift session. And that is one of those things that takes a bit out of me. So starting the order of operations here with getting ready with foam rolling. Calves didn’t feel like they needed as much but I am trying to put more pressure on them to see if that gets them feeling better and if that lessens time needed to get ready. Hamstrings fine. Quads were tense but manageable. Upper back I needed but perhaps not as much as Day 1 session. But I could tell things were being worked hard as of late. Neck mobility stuff was feeling pretty good today. Glute and mobility stretching for lower body was fine and followed up with dead hang. On to the heavy deadlifts. The plan was always on this one to work up to a top single that was not quite a max. But something that felt like “danger” and would require me to get excited and hyped for it rather than just pull it low key. What I wasn’t sure on was after that bit as this was the most important thing. If not for the competition it would give me a working max to gauge things for off season and planning purposes. My lower back was not feeling the freshest and understandable with having done heavy farmer’s the week before, my heaviest squat of the prep on Sunday as well as doing the heaviest load and carry medley of the prep. So I wasn’t sure how this would go. Aim was to do 545-551lbs here. I figured I had to be good for at least 545lbs with how 537lbs had gone about a month and a half ago and then with me being able to do 8 singles with 525lbs. The problem or issue is that at this point in deadlift training, everything feels slow and heavy off the floor. But I feel that getting 537lbs was a breakthrough in getting my deadlift going that it will just feel like a bunch of suck but it will go up. The many singles kind of reinforced that for me. So 40-50lbs jumps just like when I worked up to 537lbs. With how things were going, I was not feeling super confident in things but I decided I’d put the pressure on here and go for 551lbs or 250kgs. This had been the aim in my mind for the top single I’d need if I wanted to have a chance of not zeroing the deadlift in the open class (260kgs). Now that weight is the 3rd lift in the series so it is less about bombing and being competitive. I got really hyped up mentally for this with the music on. If I missed, it would take so much out of me and be quite devastating but if it went up… well that is seemed worth the risk here. I got set and yanked the bastard and I knew it was going up. Let out a good shout after I put it down. Such relief that I’m on I’m on the half way point between 500lbs and 600lbs for a floor pull once again. Hands were shaking after this one and the thing is that I maybe had that 10kgs more in me today. But aim was not the true max but to have something that was enough that it made me go into the realm of needing that true max strength to do it. Everything after this was just gravy really. Initially, the plan was to do the top single and then do 2 paused doubles. Then I thought about with now doing master’s, I may be able to do more than just the opening lift here. So I adjusted to doing a cluster triple with about the weight of the first rep on the deadlift. Walk up and strap in and do a rep and then rest about 15 seconds and do it again and then one more time. This did feel a bit wonky compared to the set and go pulls I was doing leading up to it and I could tell I had put in a bit effort on my brace on that top single as it was a struggle bus now. I had actually thought of doing two doubles this cluster style but went with just a triple so I didn’t have to another set of the nonsense. Dropped off some more weight to do the paused reps. 3 seconds just breaking off the floor. These felt better. I stayed strapped in and took like 5 seconds rest between reps. I don’t know how quickly the weights will get added each rep and I may be better staying in the groove vs going away and coming back, depending on time and such. Want to prep for both outcomes really. The rest of the workout was light stuff. I had liked the combo of rows into jeffersons and was going to do that with a different row variation but then figuring out setup logistics wise had me reconsider it and just do the row since I was going to be not getting 2 days rest after this for my last heavy event session. It has been a good bit since I’ve done the inverted ring rows. And old standby that feels good. Plan was pauses here (really trying to work to get the clean feeling better on log as well as working on holding stuff to the body well) with plan working up to a top set of 8 reps (2RIR) and then doing a set of 12-15 (3-4RIR) after that. Pauses were to be 1-2 seconds. It has been a bit here and I know that holds and such really bring down the numbers I can do on rows so I had to do some testing working up. I’m glad these felt good on my body. The top set went as it should. The down set I just went with bodyweight as I knew it would be tough getting those reps and leaving that many RIR on it. Nice and tidy finishing here. chest supported dumbbell rows and then some stuff for my knees as separate exercises. Finishing up the session like I did last week with offset superset of ATG split squat progression with elevated front foot and Copenhagen planks. These had been a bit rougher than I was expecting them to be last week and my joints were not happy about it initially. This time around, things seemed to be better. I only persisted as things had actually felt good after the session and the following days. For this time around, doing 3x12 on the ATGs and 2x25 seconds on the holds. No adjusting of the height as I used 6” for the whole thing here. Felt pretty good. Keeping an eye on things that feel achy or off when doing the ATG stuff. The holds were fine and I think I was ready for them this go around. Kind of hoping these don’t sap me too bad for my last heavy gym session. Put away stuff and ate dinner before stretching.

August 4, 2026 – Week 17, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (+14lbs/+28llbs, head through on last rep only, 5 seconds hold)
87x3
107x3
127x3
147x3
60 seconds rest
167x3
167x3
167x3
167x3
167x3

Scap Retraction into Pull ups
bw+11x6
bw+11x6
bw+11x6

Paused 12” Log Floor Presses w/ Bands (+6lbs/+30lbs, 3 seconds lockout)
140x3
180x2
220x1
255x3
225x3
225x3
225x3

Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Rear Delt Flyes (3 seconds)/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions (0-1-0-1 tempo)
11’sx8 -- 22x15/15
11’sx8 -- 22x15/15
11’sx8

Stretching

Comments: Well the rain issue ended up being a nonissue as seems all the bluster decided to hit Sunday afternoon and evening. So nice out Monday and Today. I didn’t realize that the storm Sunday caused two more branches to fall. I didn’t realize the one in the front yard until I was leaving for work Monday and the one in the back yard not until today when I was warming up. I needed the rest and I was feeling a good bit of soreness in my ribs and midsection. I’m going to have to assume that is just from the heavy medley as this isn’t really anything different from the squats and log pressing I’ve been doing. Cautious with my biceps as they were feeling Sunday session and I know that sometimes if I work stuff hard like that, I can get some cramping doing stuff like mobility work. I did feel a little underwhelmed with how rough things were after the fact but I can’t dwell on that and realize this right now is just getting the boxes checked for the big show and I can ruminate on things after all is said and done to work on the plan for the next season. Foam rolling starting things off. Really trying to focus on more pressure on the calves as mentioned to try and get them not so tense as there may be a nerve component connected to my back issues. I’d say sides were about even today. Hamstrings were fine (surprised they weren’t super tight) and quads needed a good bit as well. Upper back felt nice and needed. Neck stuff went fine. Chest a little tight but nothing like it was last week at times. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. Dead hang to finish things up. On to the weights. As kind of explained last time, Day 1 is more overhead event assistance focused and upper body and saving event stuff for the most part on Day 3 sessions with some temperature control and not working about finishing up to go to work early. Log being the focus. So last week had been work up heavy with the lean back and only putting head through on last reps of sets and holding that on the last rep. Same this time but doing with band tension and for triples. Ideally with short rests as well. Plan was like with deadlift having 10-15% of 1rm for the band tension and going for about 72.5% of estimated max single on this strict style press. I had to retest band tension setups as I wanted to make sure it was right and the previous setup was a little less due to bands aging so I went with an older setup with multiple bands that did the trick. I wasn’t used to the bands at the start but eventually did. Short rests didn’t make things so easy and I’m still finding my form on these again. Last set I feel was the best consistent form. From there it was on to the pull up variation I did last week. The one starting at dead hang into scap retract into dead hang and then pull up. As I mentioned, I was a bit surprised I got 3x6 with bw last time. Not that that is amazing but I was surprised it happened on the first session and not needing to get my body used to it. So I decided to add 11lbs to my upper body with draping a chain around my neck, which would hopefully add more resistance to the retraction aspect rather than hang from my waist (though the traction/decompress could be nice). This was the one I was worried that my biceps would be really sore and cramp up on me just getting into position. It has happened before after heavy stones. Thankfully, no issues like that here. I didn’t even have that bad a bruise from kegs on the right lower biceps or any really from log cleans either. Last set was a bit rough with an iffy last rep but I already know I’m reducing stuff for next week with that being the deload week. After that, more time with bands and the log. Banded log floor pressing with the holds at lockout. Dropping the slam ball portion as wanting to hit more triceps on something else and cut back on that movement as finishing up prep. Borrowing from the same plan as the log strict pressing with doing up to a top triple and then dropping down 12.5% for 3x3. The RPE here was higher but the caveat was that had to be moving fast and not grinding like how a good log press should go up. I had setup planned jumps here depending on how I felt as I felt that the range could be large here depending on how I felt on the day. Sometimes the unrack feels terrible and other times like nothing is in my hands. The top end I was hoping to be 250-270lbs. Warming up the first weight felt like a joke but then the second weight felt a little off and right shoulder not feeling great so lowered the next jump and that one felt bad all around. I was really considering do the lowest end here as that could be a max effort but I know that sometimes I undersell. I did add 5lbs to it. And of course that set felt near perfect and leaving 5-10lbs on the table here. Oh well. Down sets felt ok, I could tell I was getting a workout in my pressing. Into the garage for the offset superset (that’s what I’m calling it I guess when uneven set pairing). I did the paused rear delt stuff by itself last week but squeezing in tempo triceps stuff. Three sets vs two sets. Light weights but very tough here. Left elbow was a bit achy but seemed to warm up on the extensions eventually. This was good work here with these light weights. Put stuff away as heated up dinner. Stretched afterwards.

August 2, 2026 – Week 16, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Wagon Wheel Squats to Pads (27”)
35x15
125x2
191x2
257x2
301x1
345.5x1
389x1
422.5x2
2 seconds pauses
312x2
312x2

Log Clean and Push Presses (one clean)
12” Pitbull 
86x5
116x3
146x2
13” Beast Metals
176.5x1
198.5x1
220.5x1
242.5x1
clean every rep
215x2
215x2
215x5 in 60 seconds

Keg/Sandbag/Keg/Sandbag Carry and Loads (52”)
240x26’/255x19’6”/275x13’/300x6’6” in 48.20 seconds
240x26’/255x19’6”/275x13’/300x6’6” in 48.87 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I meant for this to be a Saturday session but the week got away from me. Day 2 session went later than planned and I was kind of playing catch up on sleep and getting other stuff during the week outside of work. Short of it was ended up not walking Thursday (did do some ankle stuff and a ton of soft tissue work) and then walking late on Friday after the heat had died down followed by loading stuff into my car for this weekend (sandbags and such). I was holding too much stuff in my head and I was worried I’d forget something for write ups on sessions and just planning purposes. A friend had sent me a little information based meme about autistic people and handling stress being similar to someone consuming alcohol. A cumulative effect not felt right away and that did seem to put things in a way I was noticing and understanding. I’m still learning things about myself. I figured it was for the best to just let my body take the sleep and rest it needed and if that ended up being where I was getting up after 9:30AM, I’d reconsider training Saturday. Well about 10:00AM I finally got up and I decided to check weather forecast to see if shuffling days made sense. My normal M-W session would have much higher chance of falling on day with thunderstorms when I’d be training so I decided to take another rest day here and get caught up on everything and hopefully be refreshed for training on Sunday. Raining a bit but that’s fine. Weight has been down since I got back from vacation with family last month but seems to finally bounced back from whatever funk I was in as weight is up 4lbs from last week. Slept well enough and it was definitely a difference from how I felt yesterday vs today. I was still nervous about the session though but not paralyzingly so. Rain seemed to clear up before I headed out to train. Drive wasn’t terrible going out (coming back there was a bit of congestion at spots and it was raining). No there really doing strongman stuff I think. Not really expected being Sunday. So good for me in that what I needed wouldn’t be in use. It was unfortunately humid so I was sweating good bit here. I didn’t miss that haha. I’ve not been to the strongman gym in over a month. Foam rolling stuff felt fine. Need more on the right side for the calves and quads. Upper back I needed it today. My chest had no soreness doing stuff to get the neck and such feeling good so I guess that deep sleep Saturday was good for something. No issues with the other mobility stuff other than feeling like I was going to overheat. Dead hang felt fine and then on to event work. Axle squats to boxes. It has apparently been close to a month this I last did these. My knees had been achy at that time and they had felt even worse doing box squats at home the week the power went out. This was an iffy one as I wasn’t sure how weight on my back would feel on whatever disc symptoms that popped up last week. My knee has been feeling better (well at least back to how it was before last month) so that was at least something. With dropping to masters, I actually have a shot at getting a rep on the mercy weight (190kgs). Things had not been consistent and gone well with other things to give the open mercy weight (230kgs) a chance in hell. Assuming no issues, the mercy weight for masters I should be good for based off training when things have felt good. I was worried that they wouldn’t feel good. The original plan had been to do 415x4x1-2. The change was to have it be a top double leaving 1-2RIR with working up in doubles and then singles. My hope was to hit right around the contest weight here for the double. This would be the last heavy session on squats until show time. Initially, I was trying to do the fast drop with a shoulder width stance to try and get bounce off the pads. But it was feeling like not the way to go to be consistent as there was risk with losing tightness and getting out of position. My last single told me that was the case. This honestly felt like my limit for the day with how that felt but I decided to try a wider stance with more hip focus and control. So less quad dominant. Well, that apparently worked and I was able to get the twofer with something left in the tank. I had been sweating like crazy here and had a big fan on me the whole time. I took off a good bit of weight here for two sets where I paused right at the boxes for 2 seconds each rep in the same stance/style. Those went well enough. No back issues and no knee issues. I feel that I just got to get through a yoke session to know if I’m good to go on everything. With how much I was sweating, I took my time putting stuff away rather than moving on to the next thing and leaving stuff for the end. That next thing was log. I know, I already did log out of the rack strict and with floor pressing against bands this week. And I had done heavy log clean and press the week before that had not been kind to me. But one does what one must. My thinking was that I wanted another heavy touch on log with the movement of a clean and push press (I will do another heavy log session before show time out of rack) for few reasons. One to see if I felt better training inside at gym setup vs at home. Another being trying to get a similar setup to world’s with a heavier empty weight log and higher pad pull height. And finally, to see if I could do a deep lap and feel comfortable with my normal lifting shoes. That would hopefully help with my knees and save me some luggage space. I did some stretching with the log on my thighs to get my ankles and calves to not be so damn tight. I was only feeling ok on these today. I forgot how rough that Beast Metal log is after not using it for a while. My hope was that I could do the mercy weight for master’s here and not have it be an absolute max on this log after squats. The clean was very rough on these but I did manage the rep I needed. I contemplated doing a second rep or going up in weight or doing just cleans with more weight but decided it was best to move on to the next thing with less weight for some reps. Which was apparently a good thing. This I wasn’t too sure with the plan but aim was to either do some sets and then a rep set for time or just do the rep set for time. I figured I needed more reps without a worry about time. It is good I did go down in weight as I eventually figured out how I’m supposed to clean this log on these sets and finally got the press clicking on the last set with doing reps in a minute. I paced myself there and with my setup there wasn’t really any recovering to do another rep if I wanted to as the log came off the pads. I know this will need work this off season. I had already gone through both of my shirts being soaked at this point and tried to dry out the least wet one. I took an intermission here since it would take time to setup the loading medley. But also because I had to build one of the implements. My last show I got a discount code for a purchase from a company that did sandbags and got one of those eventually after it was pretty obvious a replacement 250lbs sandbag was not high on the priorities for the gym. I had filled it to 150lbs and put in my car to finish the job at the gym to hopefully be something to kind of cool down and let me get some food and fluids in. This thankfully was not even close to as bad as stuffing the husabag. A little heavy but that’s fine. This was going to be my last time touching the medley before the show. And I had to bump up the weights considerably. I had found out that the kegs at the other gym had been light. The event does change with it being master’s as each implement is a different weight vs same weight for the two sets on the open. I was initially thinking about doing a lighter set and then a heavier set but decided I’d do what was easiest to setup and closest to contest without going over. The height will be 2” lower so maybe that helps with it being a little light. I was darn sweaty and didn’t have a fresh shirt to chalk up so didn’t bother besides liquid chalk for my hands. I figured this was going to be rough and rude awakening with not doing this in a month and with it being way heavier than what I’ve done. The first keg I figured would have some hiccups with going at it cold. The fabric on the new sandbag offends me but I got over it. Just feels dense. That didn’t feel like it went over as easy as it should so I did slow myself a little on the next keg. I got it upright in one motion but it wasn’t quite all on so I had to shove it to be sure. 300lbs sandbag was a tough pick after all that but I got it up high enough to go over. And then I had to set it up to go again. The first two implements I feel I was moving better and even though the pick on the second keg felt a little more labored, I feel that I was good enough efficiency wise to be on a faster pace than the previous set. Well that was until I got to the 300lbs sandbag. I fumbled a bit with it to get the pick and it wasn’t as secure in my lap to pull it up high. I had to keep adjusting it in the lap and eventually just stood up with it at the bar. And thankfully it didn’t move the yoke and I was able to shove it over. About a half second slower than the first set so I know that if I move like I was doing on the other stuff and not peter out here that I can shave at least 3-5 second off here. Downed a shake before putting everything away and driving home in the rain. Filled up the gas tank before hitting rough traffic near home and finally stretched out. I got to survive 4 more harder workouts and then I should be as ready as I can be.