October 19, 2026 – Week 8, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log High Incline Bench Presses
90x8
120x6
150x4
180x2
200x8
200x8
Add 1 Second Pauses
170x8
170x8

Pause Inverted Rows (1 second)
bwx5
bw+53x8
bw+53x8
bw+53x8
bw+53x11

Lying Chain Triceps Extensions/Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Strap Band Face Pulls
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15

Stretching

Comments: I wasn’t feeling that beat considering things after Saturday. Knees were a bit sore but feeling fine at this time. No biceps soreness like last time. Again, not sure if that was from the sandbag roll ups or just really gripping the handles on the lying leg curls hard. Bodyweight seems to be consistent around 120kgs range. Mentioned I looked leaner Saturday despite adding a little bit of weight. So I guess a good sign with off season prep. I do feel like my upper back is “full”. A lot of work stuff so I kind of had to mentally debrief before starting training. I’ve come to realize this session is going to be my shorter session of the week and that this is more accessory work to the Saturday event press rather than doing the pressing all on one day. More control on things when at the strongman gym and not under a time crunch (not as bad I guess with Day 2 as in garage mostly). Foam rolling starting things off. Calves needed it a good bit and I was expecting that. However, I am almost thrilled that I’ve not had to do sessions of intense foam rolling for the calves like I recall in the last few months before doing my own thing. I think the ankle and knee stuff is helping in that regard. Hamstrings fine and quads needing a decent amount (more so the right one). Upper back apparently needed a lot to be good to go. Neck rehab/mobility stuff followed that and that was fine for the most part. My right biceps/shoulder was feeling tight on some of the movements. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. A little longer stretch on these. Dead hang to finish things up and get a little more decompression before starting training. On to training outside. It now is starting to feel like the start of the “winter training arc” as it is getting darker out quicker and weather is now at least consistent for the past few days. That change does seem to be one that makes it a little harder to be motivated after working. Band superset to starting things off with pec flyes and paused pull-aparts. This the last of these as pivot in the training going from purely off season to transitional phase before doing competition prep. These feel fine but I don’t know if they ever feel like they aren’t prefatiguing me. Eventually that feeling goes away it seems on those leg curls I do for Day 2. They at least feel less taxing than the first session I did them. Then time for pressing. This is the thing that I’m stressing/worried about is making sure I’m building and recovering. I was already reconsidering some things with plans after this week with this session and would see how today goes. These higher inclines have been a bit rough and I’ve not really felt “fresh” for them on any days besides the very first week I did them. For today, the plan was to work up to the top set last week for 2x8 and then take off 30lbs for 2x8 with pauses. This ended up being tough and tougher than I would’ve liked. I had gotten quite “hyped” last week for my top set of 10 reps with essentially getting into a cold sweat after the sweat and had been surprised it went as well as it did. I wasn’t able to tap into that this week even if I wanted to. 200lbs felt a bit like last week as in never “feeling” comfortable but somehow managing to get the reps. These 2 sets of 8 felt like I had less RIR compared to the set of 10 reps last week. I was very worried I was going to be stuck here. But I made it through. The pauses felt more like they should but still challenging to get the last rep of the last set. I think next time around, I need to devise more my own progression here than working off past session model, especially if I deviate from that. No missed reps but my thinking here with the next phase is to go back to the normal incline I’ve used for years since I’m going to be doing log press starting next week instead of barbell push press. I had felt really good with how push presses had gone Saturday. But I think this variation has run its course for this prep. Put stuff away outside to go into the garage to continue with the rest of the session. Inverted ring rows up next. These have been feeling surprisingly strong. Like last week, the plan was to do 4x8 and stick to straight weight sets this time. The one little caveat to that was I could rep out on the last set as long as I left 1-2RIR. I wasn’t feeling as strong here at the start with just bodyweight. Maybe a little down on myself for no reason from how high incline log had felt. Initially doing 50lbs but decided I’d rather use chain weight than plates and dumbbells with how they were shifting last week. And felt pretty good. And didn’t take longer than usual rests here (like I’ve been needing to do for the incline stuff) only for the last set as I wanted to see what I could do. Honestly, with how these have been going, I may need to find an alternative later in prep just because loading these with enough weight later could be bothersome. But they seem to feel good and produce results and gauge where some things are at. Finishing up with a triset. Last week of these. After last week, I felt I had found the weight ranges finally. At least that was the hope as having to change/adjust during the rests made them a lot longer than intended. For the triceps, all my chains plus 10lbs added with plates on each pile. That actually seemed to work out pretty well. I’m sure I could push these further but probably become cumbersome if I were to add more than 35lbs per side in plate weight. The leaning laterals were similar to last week with the slight bump up in weight. Left side elbow feels discomfort but it lessens over the sets. At least it did with no flair up on the last set. Oddly enough, these felt smoother as I went and not like I was fatigued. Like I got more efficient as I went. The band face pulls I got them to be how I wanted the movement. This I didn’t adjust from last time’s top tension as I knew it would be plenty by the end of the trisets with fatigue. Put stuff away as I got dinner ready and stretched afterwards.

October 17, 2026 – Week 7, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

October 14, 2026 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

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

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

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

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

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

Stretching

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

October 12, 2026 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log High Incline Bench Presses
90x8
120x6
150x4
180x2
200x10
180x10
Add 1 Second Pauses
160x10
160x10

Pause Inverted Rows (1 second)
bwx5
bw+30x8
bw+35x8
bw+40x8
bw+45x8

Lying Chain Triceps Extensions/Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Strap Band Face Pulls
55’sx15/22x15—15/lbx15
60’sx15/22x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15
64’sx15/22x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15

Stretching

Comments: I hadn’t felt like I had done so much Saturday that I’d feel the need for 10hrs of sleep Saturday and Sunday evening. Especially since it rained all day Sunday and I didn’t walk and did soft tissue work only. But maybe not going for a walk hampered recovery. So kind of glad I got another day off before back to working Tuesday. My biceps are sore and twitchy and I’m uncertain if from the sandbag roll ups or from having my upper body bracing so hard on those lying leg curls. In either case, I’m glad I went with having the event specific pressing stuff being on Day 3 and then more gym focused stuff on Day 1 for the pressing as I’m sure I’d be leery if I was to be doing some kind of clean and press today. The tons of rain yesterday at least leaves and sunnier day for today’s training (at least at times). Since off work, aim was to do workout early afternoon after settled from morning stuff so as to have more time in the evening to mentally prepare for work again and to hopefully get to bed early so as not to feel drained for work time. Foam rolling starting things off. Calves needed it but not to the extent I was expecting after how they had been Saturday. My right hamstring and quad needed a ton of work today to loosen up. Not so much the left side. Thankfully neither biceps cramped up on me here. Upper back felt fine but did need some buffing out, Neck rehab/mobility stuff followed that and that was fine. Nothing really felt beat. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. Actually was losing count on some things. Dead hang to finish things up and get a little more decompression before starting training. Get a good stretch in upper body too. On to training outside. Band superset to starting things off with pec flyes and paused pull-aparts. No issues here. Feeling the pump and fatigue from these. I got a little distracted afterwards clearing dead foliage from the bushes in the backyard before moving on to the weights. I think because I was nervous with the plan for today. Hard to gauge things with the amount of reps and fatigue from the volume I’ve been doing with the high incline log press lately. My worry of missing a rep or being stapled. Making sure there is recovery for this session and from Day 3 push pressing as that will be important when switching to competition prep. This aspect and making sure that deadlift doesn’t suffer with the events coming in are key. So no restriction imposed with doing a ton of reps working up like that past several weeks of high incline log pressing. Plan was simple but brutal; work up to 10rm or there abouts and then drop off 10% to match and then another 10% for 2x10 reps with pauses. Based off last week, I felt that 200lbs would be workable here and be easy for just taking off 20lbs and then 20lbs for the other sets. But starting things didn’t feel great. My left elbow felt achy on the empty-ish log but did feel better as I went. But just felt like there was a lot of fatigue in my chest, shoulders and triceps. 30lbs jumps and dropping 2 reps as I went. 180lbs for my last working up set didn’t feel like a confidence boost. I was really worried. Heart was racing and not in the eager and excited way. More in the oh shit way. With how the reps felt, I’m actually surprised I got 10 reps here with 200lbs. Been over 2 months since I’ve touched this kind of weight for upper body stuff. I feel like I’m getting better at pushing through my sticking point on incline lately. Perhaps it has moved due to the higher incline angle though? But pleased I did get this done. Maybe 1RIR here. I broke into a cold sweat upon completion of the set. I wasn’t out of the woods here as I had 30 more reps to go. 20lbs off certainly made the next set feel much more manageable. Another 20lbs off and it was pauses. These felt light at the start but in the second half I could tell that these were draining me and if I misgrooved, I’d be in for a not good time. Pressing done and into the garage for the rest of what I had planned. Inverted ring rows up next. My plan was to do about the average across sets last week for 4x8. Try to stick to straight weight sets. I figured this could be a bit more challenging for me with my twitchy biceps. So I did a bodyweight only set to make sure things were feeling good. They were thankfully. So put 30lbs in the back pack and went to work. Felt way too easy. I initially was going to do just 2.5lbs jumps but talked myself into doing 5lbs jumps instead. Certainly got me working by the last set but still probably close to the effort range. Likely going to use set weight next time as option for last set is to do more reps at that point. But good to see that upper back is feeling strong. I started getting my late lunch prep under way at this point as I put away the stuff outside and got things setup for the finishing triset. Same as last week with chain triceps, leaning laterals and strap band face pulls. Of last week, I felt the laterals had been the one I was closest to getting it right effort wise. The face pulls I wasn’t too sure with as they had felt pretty tough. I knew I needed to go heavier on the chain triceps extensions. So initial plan was all the chains for the triceps (I hadn’t expected to be a this point already) and bump the lateral raises to 10kgs/22lbs and keep the face pull band tension the same just in case everything was fatigued from the previous stuff being heavier (including the rows). Well, the triceps still felt not quite at the right effort here. The laterals were and my left elbow was not a fan of the torque that first set. The face pulls were easy unfortunately. If I kept the extensions and face pulls the same for the remaining sets, it wasn’t going to be worth my time. I had a thought during one of my walks on how to continue with loading the chain triceps exercise so I guess I was putting that into practice today. That worked and it was definitely closer to what I wanted but still needed a little more. No discomfort in the left elbow on the second set of the laterals so that was good. I added some bands to the face pulls and that little bit was enough to make them challenging again. So for the last set, I tried to add a little bit more to the chains and that was where I wanted these. Some discomfort came back on the third set for the raises but minimal. Face pulls were fine at this point. I got another session with these three next week to get it ironed out finally. Took a moment to eat my late lunch meals before finally putting stuff away and then decompress before stretching.

October 10, 2026 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Paused Push Presses (beltless, 3 seconds in dip)
45x5
71.5x4
93.5x3
115.5x2
137.5x2
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4

Front Squats (beltless, 3-1-0-0 tempo)
45x3
89x3
133x3
177x3
210x8
210x8
210x8

Reverse Band Hack Squats (lb’s)
+90x5
+180x5
+270x10
+290x10
+310x10

RNT Sandbag Roll-ups off Box (lb, 20”)
175x4
200x3
225x3
255x8
255x8
255x8

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
60x6(3/3)
75x6(3/3)
90x6(3/3)
110x10(5/5)
110x10(5/5)
110x10(5/5)

Belt Squat Donkey Calf Raises/Paused Tibia Dorsi Calf Machine (3 seconds)
bw+90x15/+70x25
bw+90x15/+70x25

Stretching

Comments: Being home for work allows me to get in walks during the week with sunlight out and not eat into my time after I’m done work to get a full night’s sleep. Felt so busy this week I needed those breaks (the one’s I tend to skip) to clear my head of some junk. Also forgot that Monday is a holiday. Ended up sleeping in but not so much that I was worried about getting out to train as late or later than last weekend. I did have to be back at some point today though for family stuff in the early evening. I had gotten stuff ready so I could just eat breakfast and then pack up to go. Unfortunately, there were a ton of bad drivers out today. An accident on one of the busy sections of highway near where I live added about 30 minutes to my drive so not really saving any time. Some people at the gym but like usual, the people I actually know are gone before I get too far into training. Started things off with the usual foam rolling. My upper calves really needed it a ton on both sides. Probably because been hitting calves harder as of late (and getting in more walks). Hamstrings were also a tad tight. Big shocker was quads barely needed anything. Upper back was tight but in spots that were just sore and not really able to get any tension to release. Lats are feeling the inverted rows and rdls. Neck rehab stuff was fine and no issues with glute activation and lower body mobility. Dead hang was fine. On to training. It was thankfully cooler in the gym but more so because not as many bodies as opposed to it actually being cooler. Starting the lifting with the triset of the back breaker paloff presses, step ups with band TKEs and dead bugs. I almost forgot to do these as I was ready to start moving weights I guess. Same as last week and might have actually felt better overall. From there, on to push pressing again. But switch in focus as now paused reps. Still no belt, only wrist wraps. Decrease in weight form last week of 5% and going with 5x4. Rack position feeling good and seem to get right to the spot in the dip drive immediately, which is a good sign. One of things I try to focus on with the pauses is not going down any further after the pause is done as defeats the purpose of what I’m going for here with the isometric focus. I do wish I was moving heavier weights on overhead just knowing what I need to be hitting to be competitive and to hit numbers I expect but I know that I need to take the time here to build back up and fix this event and movement pattern. Trust in what I’m putting in the work with here. From there, onto front squats. Same as last week with the 3x8 and tempo. Aim being to add more weight to last week. I didn’t feel quite so confident to go up 10kgs on this one as already been pushing the RPE more than listed and suggested on some of these lower body efforts so went with 5kgs. This didn’t feel that “heavy” on my body like last week comparatively. I made sure I had my own straps this time as well. Just trust the process that building to something good here. Reverse band hack squats up next. This one does take time as mentioned last week with having to move the entire machine around to a different spot and orientation to use the bands. There is a lady at the gym the past few weeks that does a ton of leg/lower body exercises and I had moved the hack squat machine to the smith machine since she was using the hip thrusts machine right in the area. But she was using the smith machine today so initially I was waiting until done to move but then I realized I could just use my old setup of the rack right there since not in the way of someone using the hip thrust machine. But that also would alter the band tension. So I’d have to adjust the weights used this time around as I could tell it was more assistance vs last time. But one good thing with the delay is that I found a more comfortable setup so stuff isn’t digging into my traps and this doesn’t take as long to move. So initial plan was to warm up in 5’s and then do 10lbs less than top set last week for 3x10. But this setup felt like more assistance so that felt way too easy and I decided I’d add weight to hopefully get closer to the range I felt would be good. Which ended up being about 40lbs more. Assuming I get to do the same setup next time and the time after that, I think I got a good system figured out. I know these are doing my lower body a great service. Sandbag time. This had a bit of changes to it just based on how I felt recovery was from last week to this week. With the regionals having 2 sandbag events (max distance and carry and loads) trying to work something in for both aspects while building with gym lifts to hopefully get stuff sturdy and strong. The initial plan was to do sandbag bent over rows and then lap and extend as part of a complex. Work on picking up the sandbag and then extensions. However, with how my lower back was feeling on the rdls this week after doing the paused back extensions, I could tell that there would be some recovery issues. So the change was to have these just be roll ups off a box. The additional thing was to see how adding band tension as a reactive neuromuscular training tool. I’ve done the light on rdls on deload sessions and I’ve done roll-ups with and without a box so this would be a first together. Light band was enough to do what I needed here. Plan was 200-255x3x8. Initially, was rough but I felt better and ended up with doing 255lbs for the working weight. The pick up felt strong the first set but definitely was harder after that. Also some changes to the end of the workout. Last week, smooshed three exercises together as part of triset and to try and get the session done sooner. With the exercise at the end here, this wasn’t viable as one of those exercises would require substantial warming up. The being a lying leg curl variation. Up with two legs and down with one leg and accentuated eccentrics. This was going to be a rough one on the hamstrings. Not a lot of weight needed as 50lbs of work becomes 100lbs of work. Aim 3x10 reps (5 reps each leg). 3-5 seconds and I went with 5 seconds. Right side struggled a lot more than the left side on these. Which was expected. Took about 60 seconds rest between right and left and then normal rest after a set was done. Managed to get through these but man was the contraction hard at the start of these. Quite the wake up. Downed my shake at this point in the session. The last bit was initially going to be a superset of quad fall backs and the tib raises on the machine. However, I felt that I was mostly doing the quad fall backs as a mobility thing and not a strength thing. If I was able to keep my hips locked, then sure but I was falling back and bending hips coming up. I have the mobility once warmed up to get head to floor and a stretch is more for after the session. What needs the work at the moment is my calves as I’ve lost a good bit of strength in the right one at some point. So superset here of belt squat donkey calf raises with the tib machine lifts. This seemed to work out well and will keep this pairing I think for the rest of this 8 weeks block for sure. Put stuff away and had a slightly less dangerous ride home. Stretched out much later after done with family stuff.

October 7, 2026 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

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

Wide Grip 1” Platform Romanian Deadlifts (beltless, straps, 5 seconds eccentrics)
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x8
315x8
315x8
252x13

Dumbbell Walking Lunges
26’sx16/16
26’sx16/16

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

Standing Band Hip Adductions/Hanging L-Sits
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds
(2)µbx15/15 – bwx30 seconds

Safety Squat Bar Single Leg Seated Calf Raises (0-3-0-3 tempo)
70x20/20
70x20/20

Stretching

Comments: Fall weather is up and down. It was near perfect weather Monday and then it got cold enough that night I needed to switch to having heating on. But it was still nice enough out for pleasant walk during lunch. I prefer having that break in the sunlight to clear my head a bit and reattack work. I was a little worried for this upcoming session. Only the rdls because I had pushed things last week so having to adjust plans to compensate for that and hoping I was recovered enough. Adding back extensions on Saturday was going to take something out of them I fear. Right hip was been a feeling a bit tight since last week. Not sure if a lower back thing or a hip thing. Also not sure if from Day 2 or Day 3 training session that started it. But it isn’t painful, just noticeable. Soft tissue work on trouble spots as well. Digestion still playing catch up. Starting things off with foam roller stuff. Not as much as I needed on Monday. Calves have thankfully not been at the levels they were leading up to Worlds but still needing a bit. Hamstrings were fine. Right quad needed it a good bit today and mostly trying to get the hip thing in the front of the leg to calm down with this too. Left barely needed it today. Upper back didn’t need so much today compared to past two sessions or so. Neck rehabbing exercises felt good. It was ok feeling, like not massive tightness or DOMs from Day 1 but still needed to loosen up things. Lower body stuff with glute activation and mobility felt fine. I held my stretches a bit longer this time just as some stuff was feeling tighter. Dead hang was ok. On to training. Tempo band leg curls with 2 sets of 15-20 like last week. Of course doing 20 reps with the tempo. Keeping same band tension as this is plenty by the end. First set felt easy and second set I was tough by the end. I knew it was better to take a normal rest rather than go right into the second set despite how good that first set felt. Right hamstring still feels tension as fatigue sets in but nothing like it was 2 weeks ago. Right hip is feeling some tension on these and trying to adjust my hip as needed to see if anything feels better/worse. Beltless work on the rdls continues. 5 second eccentrics with these on the wide grip style on 1” platform. Plan was again to work up in sets of 5 reps and then do working weight. I skipped 95lbs as I felt like 135lbs was fine to start with for deadlifting stuff now and I didn’t really want the extra set working up of fatigue as sets of 5 were going to get exhausting since plan was 15lbs more than top set last week for 3x8. Which was a big ask I think It was a bigger jump but that was with having 2-3RIR on the last set which I did not do. These were feeling heavier this week and I blame the back extensions for that. 40-50lbs jumps. Somehow, I managed to get these done and not have them be RPE 10 each set. Last bit on these was a down set with 80% of the working weight. Aim being max reps with 2-3RIR. I was ok on the max reps part but not the RIR part. I got greedy even though 10 reps would’ve been fine leaving 2-3RIR. I kept going and got 12 reps which had likely 1-2RIR and then I decided YOLO and did a 13th rep which was my limit as like last week on the last rep my brace became compromised on the concentric. I think I’m ok with that for this week and last with being when I call it as likely I could do more with support gear. But that wrecked me a good bit and I had the rest of the session to go. The lighter stuff that makes me look silly was on deck. Walking lunges next. Tentatively this is the last week of these. I don’t like how tough these end up being but I like the end result with what they seem to be hitting. Initially 2x15 for this potentially last session of these but since I’m not doing a straight shot or in the street like I had been doing previously, doing turns every 2 reps each side. So 16 reps felt like a better number. I went up in weight just so I could do the 6lbs handles with 10’s on each side rather than deal with microplates and the like. One good thing was that my knees weren’t so achy that I had to do stuff to get them feeling ok and was able to go right into it. As has been the case, slower first set versus following sets as I get used to it. I was still feeling the rdls and I was contemplating stopping at 14 reps but went for the 16. I had to take a bit of rest to recover before the second set but that one felt better than the first. Glutes were feeling sore and twitching. I’m considering adjustments to following sessions just being mindful of how I’m feeling. Copenhagen plank lift holds after that. 3x12 with bodyweight and only 1ct holds. Felt easy enough at the start and I think I tried to get these done quicker but found I did still need some rest. And rushing had the liquids in me wanting to come back up. Possibly these may get the hip to feel a little better. From there the superset of band hip adductions combined with hanging l-sits. No changes here as just trying to have the adductions smooth after the more intense Copenhagen stuff and more focus on the l-sit hangs and getting those to be easier/tolerable. Noticing need to engage upper body more on the hangs to keep position better. Then the last thing being single leg seated calf work again. Same as last week with 2 sets of 15-20 reps using 3 seconds on the holds at max contraction and max stretch. Aim was to get 20 reps this time around. Figured adding 5lbs would a little but a lot. Right side was challenging to get but left side didn’t feel like so far above it compared to last time. I did take a slight break between sets this time as the added reps did seem to be a bit harder to recover from this time around. Put away the equipment and ate dinner before stretching.

October 5, 2026 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log High Incline Bench Presses
90x10
105x8
120x6
135x5
150x4
165x3
180x14
Add 1 Second Pauses
153x14
153x14
Cluster Reps (30 seconds)
153x4+4+3+3

Pause Inverted Rows (1 second)
bw+20x8
bw+25x8
bw+31x8
bw+36x8

Lying Chain Triceps Extensions/Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Strap Band Face Pulls
11’sx5
22’sx4
33’sx3/12x3—3/lbx5
44’sx15/16x15—15/lbx15
44’sx15/16x15—15/lbx15
44’sx15/16x15—15/lbx15

Stretching

Comments: At about the point in training where I’m far enough from the past competition and far out from the next but have had consistent, progressive workouts and feel like I should be doing something. However, I’m still using light weights relatively speaking as not yet over 200lbs on any pressing or free squat and just did 300lbs on a set of deadlifts. But picking up sandbags didn’t feel terrible. Keep trusting what I’m doing. Weight up about 1lbs from last week (which was down 3lbs after being up 7lbs) so I may be stabilizing at the higher weight range closer to 120kgs bodyweight than 115kgs bodyweight. I did not feel like working as I went to bed Sunday evening. But here we are. There are mostly positives with the switch up to telework from commuting but it still requires some changes and my body likes to be adverse to those changes. But the better sleep schedule does wonders. A lot less stress. I had gotten in a walk Sunday and soft tissue work despite it being wet out. Quite a lovely fall day today. On to training right after work. Foam rolling starting things off. Calves needed it, especially in the lower part of the muscles near the ankles. Definitely more than the previous weeks as of late but not quite the level it had been before World’s. Hamstrings were fine, just a little tight/sore from Saturday. Quads needed a good bit on both sides. Much closer to even than usual. Upper back also needed a good bit of moving to feel good to go. Neck rehab/mobility stuff followed that and that was fine. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. Dead hang to finish things up and get a little more decompression before starting training. The start of session is roughly the same as it has been. The second half though is where the changes are happening. Band superset to starting things off with pec flyes and paused pull-aparts. I might have lost count on the first set of pec flyes as that felt more exhausting than the second set. Good to get a pump in the chest so as not just there for decoration. It might be why sandbag picks didn’t feel that bad Saturday. The pull aparts for the most part are fine with working the back contraction and stretching chest. But the thin band with the tension on it can dig into the palm of my hands. Part of this is getting stuff prefatigued for the pressing that follows as well as having that also be a lot of volume. High incline log following up. This particular session on the log incline was kind of a pivot and amalgam of sessions. Ideally, I’d have done another of the eccentric emphasis stuff and then go to no tempo modifications. But the weeks wouldn’t really work out and have stuff on different days and what not. Also knew that takes a beating doing the eccentric accentuated stuff and upper body takes longer to recover than my lower body from it. So the plan for the day was to work up in the pyramid fashion to my 10 rep set weight I did two weeks prior but with regular rep tempo. Leave 1-2RIR for the start of things. I wasn’t feeling great about it as I felt like my upper body was already fatigued from the reps leading up to that set as well as the push presses Saturday. But somehow what felt off at 5 reps ended up being closer to 15 reps. This was definitely in 1-2RIR range. So that was a bit of surprise there. Which then made the rest of the pressing tougher on me. The initial plan was to do 85% of that for three matching rep sets, which would be the same “down” weight as last week of 153lbs. So looking at 3x14. But I had the wise idea to add pauses on those down sets just because the plan going forward is going to be regular reps and then pause reps for this next block. I’m about 10% off what I was doing back in 2021 with the lower incline grade but this did manage to be 1 rep more than that time. The pauses killed me and I go through the one set before I knew this might be something too big to chew. Second set confirmed it and I had to decide on whether I called it earlier or I try to get 14 more reps out of this weight. I elected that the only way I’d get through them is breaking up into bits. So elected to do cluster reps with 30 seconds rest on the last set. My pressing muscles were definitely tired as I felt like I was going to miss some of these reps. But got it done. Obviously won’t be this aggressive once switch to contest prep and focus on log. But getting swole in the upper body and feeling good. Into the garage for the rest of the session. Dropping the dumbbell rows and going with my preferred inverted ring rows. These just feel good for me. But I had wanted to do the dumbbell ones beforehand to get in some work. Plan was to do just 4x8 at RPE 7.5. Which could’ve been bodyweight. But I figured that would probably be too easy and did 20lbs added and did more than just a slight pause here. I did feel some fatigue as I did more of these but felt pretty darn good so went up each set by a little. Next week is to be the same and I’m not sure if I will try to push weights up each set again or find something decent for straight sets. The last thing was the conditioning aspect of the session. Not in the same sense as those chaos bradford presses but would make good use of the conditioning gains from there. Essentially a triset of triceps, shoulders and upper back and likely will be used going forward. Extension based triceps I tend to have a history with and I wanted to see how a chain version would go and feel. Took a bit to figure out and I wasn’t expecting to need so much chain weight to find something that fit the bill of RPE 7 for 3x15. I just recall from past experience that triceps endurance peters out. I can likely do more but these felt pretty gentle on the elbows. The other two things I was more familiar with. Leaning dumbbell lateral raises and variations of face pulls. I feel I got those more at the right effort level. Left side my elbow didn’t care for the movement with the laterals but that is more just the strain from the torque. It is tolerable. But seems things worked out here. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.