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.

July 29, 2026 – Week 16, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps, platform, wagon wheels +20lbs/+75lbs)
135x3
225x2
275x1
315x1
365x2
365x2
370x2
370x2
375x2
375x2

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walks (16” pick)
135x50’
185x25’
225x25’
drop and turn halfway
275x50’/50’ in 23.17 seconds
285x50’/50’ in 24.67 seconds

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)/Zercher Jefferson Curls
66’sx5
86’sx5
106’sx8/115x10
106’sx8/115x10
86’sx10

ATG Split Squats/Copenhagen Planks
bwx10-10 (9”)/ bwx20--20 seconds
bwx10-10 (8”)/ bwx20--20 seconds
bwx10-10 (7”)/ bwx20--20 seconds
bwx10/10 (6”)

Stretching

Comments: I’m not sure exactly what caused it but I was incredibly sore in my chest and upper back after the last training session. I’m leaning more towards the lean back strict presses as far as my chest but it could very well be the holds on the log floor presses as well. Upper back I’m sure is from doing those pull ups after not doing them a good while and those holds on the rear delt flyes. I think I’m surprised how much DOMS I had as I didn’t think that two weeks of not much besides the one not so good session the week prior had me so detrained to movement. I think it is more so that I just haven’t been hitting those areas that hard with what I’ve been doing as of late. I had time for the chest soreness before I’d need to do that again but I wasn’t sure on the upper back stuff as I was going to need them in a lifting and stabilizing capacity for this next session. I had survived my first session of training on my own and there is always that worry of not having essentially the bumper lanes on this bowling alley setup as I may overdo it. This session actually ended up with quite a few changes before I actually had the barebones settled here and even then, I made changes during the session as I went. Foam rolling starting things off with trying to put more emphasis on the calves to get things not be so tense. Right tends to need it more. I was a surprised I had some soreness in my quads from the previous session as well. Upper back definitely needed this today. The stuff sore from the previous session was tender but appreciated the mobility and stuff I do for my neck. Glute and mobility stretching for lower body was fine. Dead hang was less for spine decompression and more getting a good stretch in the pecs and lats. Then on to weights. Banded pulls for doubles with same band tension I used last time. I wasn’t sure how “into it” I wanted to be. What I mean is that should I get into the neoprene shorts or just wear casual wear kind of focus. I didn’t wear them to do the log pressing since no clean involved but I did wear the knee sleeves then. I eventually decided that I should so as to keep that intent and focus. The plan here was work up to 365-375lbs for 6x2. Just stick to 40-50lbs jumps after the initial 90lbs jump. This was more going by ease of loading and feel. I wasn’t trying to just push things as this was more to get things primed as next week is my proposed last heavy deadlift session and trying to get myself to hit the bare minimums with less touches on stuff so that I feel I’m at least somewhat ready for the different events. I’ve done more reps and volume with this weight this prep. I could tell that I was still feeling a bit of wear and tear on my body from this month so I wasn’t feeling like lower back was 100% here. It was good no issues picking up any weight (so first hurdle cleared there). I was feeling a good bit of pressure on my body with the first set (I went with 365lbs). I didn’t stick to a strict time rest like last time (60 seconds) and I thought I was doing more like a 90-120 rest but ended up being more like 60-75 rest. Second set felt a lot better so I decided I’d add 5lbs every two sets and that seemed to finish things off well enough. My only regret with this is that time it takes setting this up. Next week will be the test session to see where I’m at on this setup without bands. The next thing was the main thing to be tested today; farmer’s. This prep had me doing yoke and farmer’s in the same week and moving it to my Day 2 had made the most sense with the higher frequency of volume and touching of implements. But heavy yoke/farmer’s/deadlift/squat every week and something had to give. With recovery kind of tanking on me, it is possible that I’d not do well on this event at the open weight vs masters weight. It is also hard to gauge as I do not like these particular handles and the uphill portion with how my street is makes it very tricky to figure out how strong I’d finish on the second pick up. But with the master’s, I know that I can do that on a bad day and this would be the last session I touched them most likely as I’m more concerned with the other three events being on point. I’ve not yet hit contest weight on the yoke or squat. I’d be seeing how my back handles things and that was key (though will still need to see about weight on back with yoke/squat). Initially, I was looking at having this on Day 3 but it was getting that session a bit too cluttered if intent was to do last heavy touches of 4 events in one day. So kept this here on this day like it was previously done. The initial workout (which was to be reps with 500lbs on deadlift beforehand) was to do 265lbs for 3 sets of contest run. Which I was thinking of doing here as that should be fine to get work in. But I think I wanted to make sure I did stuff closer percentage wise just to be sure. I also wanted to make it so that I was not cooked for last heavy squat session on Day 3 so I made it being 2-3 sets depending on how I was feeling. So 2-3 sets of 265-285lbs is eventually what I landed on. Gauge things on how my last warm up set felt. My knee wasn’t feeling 100% but it seemed to be handling what I was asking of it today well enough. Another thing was this new belt I got with better Velcro wasn’t as stiff compared to other one I had and I’d only used it on log clean and press last week so I wasn’t sure if this would work out well here so this was also testing that. I may look into getting another belt to replace the one I gave to George’s daughter for her powerlifting meet but this will do I think for this contest. So first set I went with 275lbs and that seemed to be decent enough. Rather than dropping right at the line on the way back like I’d been doing, I walked all the way through, just to make sure I wasn’t slowing down. I was feeling like I was moving well on the downhill but the uphill I was feeling it. The sky wasn’t looking inviting and I was worried about getting caught in rain (I did not) so I decided to go for 285lbs (essentially contest weight) for my last run (dropping to 2 due to possible weather). That added weight was noticed immediately and I felt damn slow on the return trip but I got it done. Funny thing is that this was faster than my fastest run with 280lbs last time. But that was also after a log more deadlifting. This did end up taxing me a bit and I had a blister on my left pinkie finger (I do not like these handles). But this was done and another box checked on the prep. Into the garage for the rest of this session. Now I had initially add a plan here but I ended up changing it on the fly. Plan was initially to do some chest supported dumbbell rows and then some stuff for my knees as separate exercises. But I was feeling that I should do some weighted mobility stuff for the back after those heavy ass farmer’s carry sets with how my back has been acting the past two weeks on me so I added in something and then made these supersets so as to not have it take forever. I was not expecting it to have gotten this late this quickly. This deviated from what was the original plan from last week. First pairing was chest supported rows and zercher Jefferson curls, which was what I was doing before. However, I cut the sets of the jeffersons to 2 and the rows I was going with 3 second holds at contraction and then dropping 20lbs for the third set and doing max reps. I’ve not really pushed the rows and definitely not with pauses lately and I wasn’t exactly giving full rest with supersetting. The rows were tough and jeffersons were quite relaxing. The last pairing was something I came up with to hopefully help with my knee issue. The first part being ATG split squat progression with elevated front foot. My left side can do them from the floor no issue but my right side isn’t stable and strong enough right now with issues going on. But I’d been working my way down the past week with sessions. The other aspect was then pairing with Copenhagen planks for inner thigh static strength and knee stabilizing. I recall those being good. So 4 sets of the ATG split squats and 3 sets of holds. Didn’t start off great as my right knee was feeling incredibly achy, which it hasn’t felt doing these the past week sessions. And I decided to lower the box but I didn’t want to go right to 6” from 9” so those in between setups were not stable. Eventually my knee started to feel better as I did them and as I got lower. The Copenhagen stuff was a lot tougher than I remember it. I was starting to shake like crazy on these. I guess another area that has been missed. Eventually got stuff away and had dinner before stretching. This did unfortunately end up being a late session.

July 27, 2026 – Week 16, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses (head through on last rep only, 5 seconds hold lockout)
90x3
110x3
130x3
150x3
170x3
190x3
210x3
180x5
180x5

Scap Retraction into Pull ups
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Paused 12” Log Floor Presses w/ Bands (+6lbs/+30lbs, 3 seconds lockout)/Med Ball Slams
180x3
225x5 – 10x12
225x5 – 10x12
230x5 – 10x12
230x5 – 10x12

Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Rear Delt Flyes (3 seconds)
10’sx10
10’sx10
10’sx10

Stretching

Comments: Compared to last week, I was having a bit more energy and pep I feel. Still dealing with knee issue on the right side but I feel like I have a good plan of approach to work around and through it for now until World’s is done and then if still in not the best way, off season work. It is also possible that some of the stress with having coaching and programming and not having it laid out before me is gone with me doing my own thing but obviously that has its own issues to go with benefits. Foam rolling starting things off. Trying to work the calves a bit more here with pressure. Nothing really to say about other stuff other than just the usual. Neck stuff went fine. Glutes I could tell there was some detraining there and needing more time in stretch with the lower body mobility. Dead hang to finish things up. I was kind of hoping that would get any kinks out of my back (as feeling a little bit in the left side). And then it was time for training with the weights. Log again. But not how I was doing it previously. This would be the strict style with lean back. My thinking here was that I could work upper body and not nearly as much stress on my knees compared to clean and push press. It would likely be less weight as well and I was feeling like I need to work on my shoulder strength here. The other part of it is I’ve been not enjoying doing event overhead stuff on the patio with how things have been and I’ve noticed that for a while now. Doing overhead event work on Saturday at the gym has felt better to me and that is less contingent on the weather whims (besides heat). I’ll flesh things out better hopefully as I go. Dealer’s choice right? So plan was to do something I did before when I felt like my log press was feeling strong (and I mean within the last 5yrs, not all time) was doing strict pressing with log in the lean back style and with holds at lockout. May not have necessarily expressed it the best at the show but this had felt strong and this would give me another opportunity to deal with problems in lower body drive. Plan being work up in triples to a top set leaving 1-2RIR on that set. Then take off 12.5-15% off for 2x5. Lean back with no head through until that last rep and hold for 5 seconds. I think last time I did these I only did the hold on the top set and down sets. I did that for all of them this time. I wasn’t too sure how this would go. I just knew my pressing on log/axle is down from when I’ve done stuff and made the assumption I was probably at about 85% of my best. With how things panned out, that seemed to be about right. Mentally, I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to go well just based on vibes from the last time I did these and was having issues. I did fine the first time and then the next time it was rough. 20lbs jumps here and that built up a good bit of volume and confidence. I did get a little unstable on the last set before going for last rep. I also switched back to my regular lifting shoes as worried that the oly shoes were stressing the knees. While helpful with getting ankle mobility for the lap, feeling like hampering other areas with stabilizing my base to press. I’ll have to see if I can shake it on clean and press. Would save me some luggage space with just two pairs as opposed to three. After this was done, moving on to something that was to be done as part of my programmed sessions last week (but not on this session). Pull up variation where I was to start from dead hang (I tend to jump the gun), do a scapular retraction, go back into dead hang and then pull up. That being one rep. The plan would be see how I feel but aim being 3x3-6 on these. These did feel better than I was expecting so I did 6 reps for all three sets. I wasn’t expecting them to be that easy after not doing any pull ups for a bit there. I was kind of hoping these would last me out until the competition. Got to think on whether I want to add reps here or just add weight and aim for same range again. It might end up being something on the day. And just because I’m not doing programming with coaching, doesn’t mean that I didn’t think there was good stuff in it. The next thing was something I was to do last week as well, superset of banded log floor pressing and slam ball. This time the pressing was to hold at lockout for 3 second each rep and try to be forceful with it. 4x5 on the pressing and 4x12 on the slams. I actually ended up using a little more weight than originally planned as I was feeling pretty good here. I added 5lbs after two sets as well. Slam ball stuff was pretty exhausting. I think I forgot these also hit triceps besides lats with the ROM and the slam. Put stuff away as I got ready for upper back/rear delt stuff. The raises have been fine but I figured I’d do some that use less weight and hit the spot hard with the hold position I need for carrying the sandbags and kegs and for the clean on log. Lying on incline bench and holding the contraction for 3 seconds. These get tough quick. I took a bit longer with rests as I was putting stuff away and getting dinner ready as well as figuring out some more stuff. I got done at decent hour here and ate dinner before stretching. Hopefully things continue to go my way and be on the up and up here.

Training Update for July

 Last week had not been great for me. This month has on a whole been not great either. I’ve not handled stress well compared to last year this same time. There are changes besides my age from then with work stuff. The power outage thing at the beginning of the month messed with me quite a bit. The sleeping with no air potentially had me recalling a similar unpleasant time almost exactly 6yrs ago. But I had to take a step back from something last week and figure out what I’m doing. Last week had been the first time where I’d truly felt old and not just in a jokey way. Couldn’t really stop work (already took off two days from the power stuff and then a 6 day for trip) with another trip coming up (assuming I was still going) so training stopped, at least what was programmed. I spent the week catching up on work and sleep and researching to see if there were things I could do to get my knee feeling better. I was saving the weekend to really sit down and figure out what I was going to do going forward. Some of the things I worked on before the weekend was figuring out the knee issue and it potentially is nerve issues with back besides joint issues as nerve glides for sciatica increased my ROM with ankle dorsiflexion. That week had been doing protocols from the Knees Over Toes guy. I’m also having issues with my strength in my right calf that I noticed while on vacation at the beach and I’m not sure if that is something I can fully fix by competition time, I’m doing what I can and will try to figure that out in off season. Speaking of competition, I also reached out to the organizers for World’s to see if I could do Master’s instead of Open’s. With how things were going, I wasn’t progressing well enough I was potentially looking at zeroing 3 of the 7 events at the pace I was at. Dropping training for one or two wasn’t going to realistically give me a shot to move that energy to the one and have it be there 100%. I’ve essentially hit the weights on everything minus a few things for Master’s while I’ve only done part of one event to Open’s standard. I didn’t think I’d be going Master’s route like this but it is the only way I can see this competition being a viable one for me, assuming that training goes well enough that I can compete. I did get approved but the issue is that Master’s compete a day earlier so essentially I’m arriving in Scotland Thursday and compete Friday doing 5 events and then 2 events the next day. It will be rough but plan in place to try and make the best of that. The main one is trying to fall asleep on the first 6hrs of flight time so not being where I’m up for almost 2 days non stop then competing. Another thing is seeing if increasing fish oil intake back to what I was taking before (I had cut in half a few months back) would help with the joint issues and it does seem like it is helping in some regard but not sure if that is just placebo here. The meat of Saturday and Sunday was figuring out training. It was causing me a ton of stress as of late and has not been great in July. I’ve learned a ton working with Ms. Funk but I’ve felt like there are times where things were feeling too much for me to recover. I want to do the work but I was just not holding up. The switch to alternating sessions seemed to get me feeling energized and spry again but then kind of reverted back to heavy everything with contest getting closer and having to kind of take 2 steps back and then a step forward approach with things. So I needed to determine if I could put together something to finish out this prep that wouldn’t cause me to spiral and feel like nothing would work. If I could do that and feel comfortable with that decision, I’d forgo further coaching and do my own thing. The task wasn’t certainly going to be more manageable once it was clear I could go Master’s instead of Open with rotating stuff with overlap and hopefully getting things feeling right for me. If only to find out where I am and stop backsliding and figure out how to progress and go forward from here.

July 20, 2026 – Week 15, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Superman Holds (5 seconds)
PVCx3
PVCx3
PVCx3

Chest Supported Dumbbell I/T’s
12’sx10/10
12’sx10/10

12” Log Clean and Push Presses (1 clean)
90x5
120x4
150x3
180x2
210x1
235x1
255x1
255x0
235x2
235x1 (missed second)

Comments: This month has not been kind to me. Highlight had been hitting 176lbs circus dumbbell on 7/4 and it has kind of been downhill since. Power outage stuff messed things up royally for a few days and then family beach trip that was planned I never felt like I was able to relax despite my best efforts. Mostly I think because my right knee was bothering me coming off that first week of July and with the place we were staying out having a ton of stairs, didn’t really help. I went for a long beach walk and spent time in the pool doing walks and swimming to see if that helped and to burn off nervous energy. I will say that I at least didn’t have a back issue acting up coming into this trip this year like last year. But I think I had a plan at least while I was there to keep me busy and then be back home. But I guess I need to reevaluate how things go if I’m going to continue to aim at doing big competitions at the end of summer and knowing that I’ll have the flow interrupted. The world had other plans as the Thursday through Saturday air quality was real poor from forest fires up north so was kind of left to own devices and also getting ready for shift back to commuting schedule. I was unfortunately feeling anxious and little tired still even after having a week vacation. I would’ve liked to have another day rest to prepare but weather forecast was indicating a lot of storms the following day and I lack the flexibility to move stuff around with commuting schedule vs telework schedule. So training it was after work. Foam rolling was needed but not a crazy amount. Neck rehab stuff was ok and felt about how it should so that was good. Glute activation was ok and lower body stretches followed by a dead hang to decompress. Knee was feeling better with being home and sleeping in own bed. Nothing to really say about the warming up stuff of the PVC superman holds or the raises. These aren’t really an indicator of the session. With taking off a week with vacation, I was expecting this to be a heavier session for the log. This week looked to be heavier with notes indicating pushing it the next few weeks with the show being a month away now. With log, there were two options. One was work up to 255lbs for 1-2 singles and then do 235lbs for 3x2 and this was if I was feeling good. The other option was to not do the singles and just do 235lbs for 4x2 instead. With how I was feeling mentally and just how log has been feeling on me, I’ve not really been thrilled with anything over 210lbs in any capacity. Starting to loathe it like axle now. Trying out my new belt since the other one had the Velcro popping off an inopportune times. I felt an urgency with needing to get 255lbs if I wanted there to be any shot I get the mercy weight at worlds. 235lbs had just felt ok. Log for whatever reason has not been feeling comfortable with getting stable and pressing. Like a wider stance feels weird on my knees and I don’t feel like I got power but I’m stable to press through sticking point whereas a narrower stance it feels lighter and moves but I tend to misgroove and I can’t recover. I had to take allergy meds over the weekend due to the air so I knew there was a risk of me getting lightheaded with a heavy log on my chest. 235lbs went up easy according to the camera but it didn’t feel like something I felt that the second rep would’ve gone up well though with how I was feeling. I decided to be dumb and go with ego and aim to do the harder option on the workout sheet. I somehow got 255lbs up and then immediately had to set it down and collapse to the ground from convulsing. And rather than walk away from that and go on with the session to the next thing with goal achieved. I figured I’d try it again with the hope that it would be smoother as I’d be used to the weight on my chest and hopefully get in again. This did not happen. It felt lighter but it misgrooved and went way too far out in front of me. So attempted to salvage things and tell myself this was fine (it wasn’t) and dropped down to 235lbs for 3x2. That first double was rough and ended up being the only successful double I’d get on the day. I called the session there. My knee was bothering me now and I just felt embarrassed in myself. I ended up talking with my dad about things and trying to figure out where I’m going from here. But not likely I’m training rest of the  week with getting my work caught up from being out and finding time to organize my thoughts.

July 10, 2026 – Week 13, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts (straps, platform, wagon wheels)
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
365x1
405x1
455x1
500x2
507.5x2
515x2

18” Axle Box Squats
46x10
96x6
136x5
186x4
226x3
276x2
316x5
316x5
316x5
316x5
316x5

Sandbag Carries (EMOM)
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’

Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows/Zercher Jefferson Curls
96’sx12 – 115x8
96’sx12 – 115x8
96’sx12 – 115x8

Stretching

Comments: This had become quite the mess. Best laid plans of mice and men. Going from 3 days to 2 days and then consolidating. Also not ideal week to recover with the electric issue for a few days and then it just being damn humid on top of that. I did not feel powerful last workout. The air just was having me feel drained and the number of shirts I had to swap kind of made the point. I’ve not had to really switch that many times even earlier this year. Just each shirt getting drenched. Wednesday became quite a late night and I knew that Thursday I’d have to try and do as much as I could with work and then my free time would be getting caught up on workout videos and write ups as well as soft tissue work. The weather Thursday didn’t really make it that difficult to not go for a walk with it raining most the time. My thinking being I will have plenty of opportunities to walk at the beach coming up and I did want to see if my knees and other joints would settle down. Allergies seemed to act up too and not sure if stress related. A shitty start to week and then the stress of getting ready to take a trip mixed with everything else. The new annoying thing with my allergies/stress is my gums getting sore and having to be careful eating foods. Thankfully that part of things did clear up after just one day. My sleep got all off kilter and I didn’t end up getting to sleep until after 1:30AM. I think partly because I was doing so much that Thursday and I knew I was off Friday. All I had to really do was delegate stuff for the trip and do my training session. But me going to bed so late meant I was going to wake up pretty late too. Thankfully before noon but still not great as less time to do stuff and likely have to pitch more food that won’t keep while I’m away that barely survived the power outage crap. I did eventually get to doing this session as it looked like chance of thunderstorm again and I did have some stuff that required the street. Such is the nature of consolidating things into two sessions. These weren’t going to be ideal sessions and Day 1 had been quite rough and Day 2 was also going to be rough. So kind of counting of not doing anything really for 10 days after this. I had been lazy with putting stuff away Wednesday and didn’t get around to it Thursday so that was something I had to do today. But first soft tissue foam rolling. Odd but expected. Right calf needed a good bit in the lower section while the left upper calf needed a good bit. Hamstrings ok and quads/thighs were kind of how they’ve been with the right needing twice the attention. Nothing really to say with the upper back. Neck rehab stuff followed. Chest felt pretty tight on the stretching related stuff and it felt good. Right side feeling a bit tight in the chest/shoulders/arms. Glute activation and lower body stretching was fine and finished up with a dead hang. Then put away some of the stuff from Day 1. But not all of it as I did need to pace things so not getting rained out. On to the session. Initially I had just three fans but did bring in the fourth. Lights in the garage on the fritz due to the recent heavy rain so had the garage open to try and get some more light on the subject. Heavy deadlift day. Not as heavy as last week as less weight and less volume but still a heavy session. I wasn’t really expecting this but I felt I could tolerate it (hopefully) and then be good having over a week to rest from it. Plan was to work up to 3x2 with weight range of 500-510lbs. I must’ve misread it as I thought it was up to 515lbs. Typical quarter/plate jumps once I got to 2 plates here. Learning about myself that slow start on lift doesn’t mean it won’t go. But ideally not having a lot of grinding lifts as it takes a toll. I had noticed that last session that the humidity and just stress of things had affected me with feeling a lot more “pressure” on my body. It was quite apparent on yoke as it felt like I was being crushed and straining vs the week before where it had felt heavy but I didn’t feel like I was straining in the face to do it. So I was kind of expecting that nonsense today as it seemed to be even more humid today. Plan was just the minimum numbers of 500lbs and that if I felt like I could push it, add a little each set. Things didn’t feel amazing today but I’m back to doing reps from the floor on normal bar of 500lbs or more. I knew regardless of weight that the first set was going to feel rough. And it did. Especially going for a second rep. With this setup being on the wheels, the weight isn’t all nice and stopping and even. It is quite jarring as I go up in weight. So I had to kind of deal with that as well just the pressure on my body. As I had thought that my top range was 515lbs, I figured I’d facilicate things so that I could do half the jump between that on the second set. I felt stronger on the second set but I didn’t do myself any favors as I got out of position at the start as I was fiddling around with my bar placement. I managed to get 515lbs for a double and that was pretty rough going. I do feel like I’d need the next session a good deal lighter if I wasn’t taking a vacation break here or I fear I’d start grinding myself down. A change to things here was putting the axle squats next. I probably have a way to setup the squat to boxes but it would’ve probably been a janky ass setup and dangerous with what I have available so the notes indicated to just do box squats with the axle instead. It has been a bit since I’ve done box squats and I’ve never done them with an axle nor with the neoprene shorts and the thicker knee sleeves. My right knee was not having a fun week at this point from last week but I figured with the lighter weight and time off coming up that I should be able to have things recover by the next time I need to call upon them. The axle squats to box have not been having me go into a full squat or really a squat breaking parallel so notes were to do 5x5 with 315-325lbs. My plan was the lower range like deadlift and see how things were with the hope that it would feel good and easy and like speed work. It did not. I was very surprised how heavy the weight felt on the first working set after the last working up set. It did feel lighter on my back after that first set but these didn’t feel easy or moving fast in anyway. The movement felt awkward and disjointed somehow. This could also be from keeping an eye on my right knee as well as just being beat from heavy yoke two days earlier and heavy deadlifts right before this. But I got through them. I had sweated through two shirts and was on to a third at this point. The thing that I needed to do outside in the street and was hoping to avoid getting caught in a downpour was next. And that was sandbag carries. Plan being 225lbs for 8x50’. Which isn’t too bad. The issue was more that it was EMOM style so short rests and being incredibly sweaty. I could make it easier on myself if I got my grip set before each run as the running with it isn’t the issue. The pick is. Even though I intend to wear a hard belt for the medleys with this at show, I elected just soft belt since this was lighter and I generally have been doing these without. I went with not setting my grip so that it was like I just came up to the sandbag as it will be at the show. As noted, my street is slanted so one way is downhill and the other uphill. I was consistent here for the most part but could tell I was breathing hard on the second half to catch my breath between sets. Only the last set did I have a fumble with getting my grip on the bag secure before picking it up and going. The last thing would be a relaxing end to the session compared to what had come before. I was able to at least slow things down at this point after I safely got the sandbag back in garage before rain happened. I also put away the stuff I had neglected the previous session and put away. So the finished was the superset of chest supported dumbbell rows and zercher Jeffersons. Same weight on the rows but increasing to 12 reps whereas weight increasing on the Jefferson curls and reps decreasing to 8. Only was to be 5lbs more but I just went with 10lbs since reps were almost cut in half here and it was less hassle with loading the weight. I had found I could go right into this after the last thing last week without a real warming up so I did that here. As expected, the rows were a bit tougher with the extra reps. Zercher stuff felt fine but the added weight was noticed here. This was the one exercise I didn’t need to put on a fresh shirt for. Ended up eating an earlier dinner as I had to get stuff ready for leaving tomorrow and getting up earlier so as to finish with what I didn’t get done tonight. Stretched out afterwards.