January 12, 2025 - January 18, 2025 - Week 6

 January 13, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (beltless)
Pause 1st rep 2 seconds
51x2
81x2
111x2
141x2
171x2
No Pauses
201x2
231x3
231x3
231x3
231x3

Axle Push Presses (beltless, 5 seconds negatives)
182x3
182x3
182x3

Chaos Band Push-ups (5 seconds negatives, feet elevated 6”)
bwx15
bwx13
bwx11

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
10’sx10/lbx20
10’sx10/lbx20
10’sx10/lbx20

Stretching
 
Comments: Feeling pretty good I think for the most part after this past week of training. Almost feeling “rested” coming into this session. This week is the change up week for things as written. The upper body stuff not so much but the lower body stuff as being an actual template is bigger changes. Everything else kind of revolving around it. Work continues to be dumb and I’ve just come to accept that it will be bafflingly so and in new ways every day. Another Sunday training my younger sister with the strongman stuff. I feel things are on point for competition end of March assuming things keep progressing and motivation/confidence remains stable. Weight down a bit. Like all the weight I gained in the past four weeks disappeared lol. It’s just another metric to track at this point each week. I’ve only been doing it after essentially lost like 20lbs over the course of 9 months in 2023 and I don’t want to miss something like that again. Cold today again. But at least it wasn’t snowing. I stuck to the usual warming up I’ve been doing but like I mentioned, I’ve thought about tailoring it to what I’m actually doing for the day. Feeling mostly good. Knees will continue to be achy on things it seems. Especially at the volume and frequency. For training today, starting off with axle. I did adjust the training max for the currently plan down by 20lbs so hopefully this would feel better. The lighter session last week had felt like a good sign to me. Warming up in doubles with the paused first reps and then just doing a double. Plan being about 20lbs more than last time for 4x3. I was feeling pretty good warming up. Feeling less issues in how the weight was feeling on my wrists and shoulders and knees. But it seems that once I get low 200’s that I start having some issues. I had hoped this would feel better than it ended up feeling. Now I didn’t have any missed reps here like two weeks ago but there were reps that I wasn’t too pleased with. There were reps where the weight flew up and others where it was a struggle to lock out. I didn’t feel like I had a lot of triceps power on some lifts compared to others. This conundrum continues to frustrate me. The parts seem to be doing ok but the whole not so much. Could still be too much to recover from or maybe my technique is not good or my mobility is making this harder. I wish I had more time to think on that but my day during the week are booked with work, training and just general housekeep/maintenance. There weren’t reps were I felt my balance was off. I just didn’t feel as strong and powerful as I felt I should. Next was some more push pressing with the axle. The last block was the paused push pressing without a belt. This was to be eccentric emphasis push pressing. These are considerably tougher in that it is more of a strict press eccentric but a push press concentric. So these get taxing real quick. And need to be focused as I had one rep be a little lax and the bar a little out in front on the eccentric making it a lot more strain on the body. But the push press portion of these felt good. I noticed that the paused ones I also felt better about the form and drive. Something to think on. My shoulders got cooked pretty darn good here. Has me a little worried for the next pressing session this week. When I have a moment to breath and think on it, I will to see if maybe there is something there. Enough of the overhead stuff, it was time to do the repping stuff. I put stuff away but I ended up being outside as it made more sense to do so. Push ups but the exercise changing. So instead of the ring ones, it was chaos band stuff. So more stuff with bodyweight and instability component. When this workout was first done, I just did bodyweight and no tempo stuff on the floor. But I know that that would be too easy and that the next session was going to ramp up the stuff because of how easy things were when I did these last time. So I added the tempo and raising my feet up to make these where I feel they should be challenge wise. These felt a little awkward at first. I’ve been doing push ups but the rings allow for ergonomic adjustments whereas forced position for the bands. But I got used to it. I know these are odd in how it feels like I can’t do more but then I keep repping them out. I was to leave 3-4RIR on these and I probably flirting closer to 3RIR and knowing the fatigue I already had in the shoulders/triceps from the eccentric overhead stuff. I feel these went ok. I think I like the rings more but just changing up the stimulus here. I’ll have to think on what I want to do for the next block as I’m not really a fan of the banded push ups (against bands). Last thing lighter stuff. Not all bands but essentially the same stuff as last time. The superset of y raises and triceps extensions. This time the y raises being with dumbbells on an incline bench and pauses. When I first did these, I was using my empty dumbbell handles (6lbs) and I was planning on doing that but I guess I felt I could do the 10lbs and make it work. Good to see that those structures and such have remained strong despite not doing stuff like this. This was the more challenging aspect of the superset. Triceps were bands but the angle and setup different. Anchor behind my head and extending out. I’ve had issues with these feeling good in the past whether it be the joints or feeling like not enough tension. But I think I’ve figured out how to have things work for these as I ended up using more band tension then I did when first doing these. I was kind of surprised about that. I’ve got some ideas but I need to research and perhaps get some sleep to focus on it and not be dreaming about work. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

January 15, 2025 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x5
115x3
155x2
205x1
255x5
255x5
255x5

2” Platform Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x2
265x1
302x3
302x3
302x3
302x3
302x3

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
15’sx12/12
15’sx12/12
15’sx12/12
15’sx12/12

Paused Band Lying Leg Curls (2 seconds)
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)x15

Romain Chair SItups
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Paused Snatch Grip Back Extensions (2 seconds)
65x10
65x10
65x10

Stretching

Comments: Good and bad. Bad with work still being a constant source of stress. Like my supervisor being out for a few days (stated they came in today because they were worried no one was helping me) as they have some issues going on outside of work. But I also got issued notice I was no longer required to report for jury duty next month. The particular case could’ve had me in court for 3 weeks. So don’t have to stress about that (family and work stuff). I barely get assistance to cover minor things when I lay everything out (I rarely take leave) let alone my entire caseload for most of a month. I shudder to think. I also may have an idea about what I need to do with the overhead. I’m thinking it is a form issue and I need to correct some things in the lower body drive. I plan on switching things up for next week (assuming I get it planned out over the weekend) rather than stick to dogmatic thinking of waiting until the next block. This is also assuming that today goes well with training. I was feeling a little down from work stress and things not going to plan on the overhead that I was worrying that I’d not do well this next block of training and have to toss it all out. I’m trying my best to not let myself be dictated by those moods and wait to think on it and come up with a plan. So part of it was how I was thinking about the warming up. I decided to change that up here and do a few different things to see if that worked with getting things warmed up and feeling good. Some were hits and others misses. I will keep at it and try to get things to click. Anyways, after warming up, it was time for squatting. The last block was box squats and I had done the cambered squat bar. This block was paused squats. I had initially thought about doing this with the cambered squat bar but I figured I didn’t really have experience with this bar to really have a solid base of numbers and this bar does seem to slow me down already with the rocking. I have numbers to work with for the safety squat bar. It has been over a year since I’ve squatted with this bar. Like a year and a half I think. Maybe more. Plan here was lower percentage than the box squats for 3x5 doing 2-3ct pauses. Having adjusted the numbers for the training max, I was using a bit less than the box squats. Which is good as the deadlift numbers will be going up each block. Things felt a little awkward at the start. The weight range I gave myself was 248-258lbs and I ended up going with 255lbs instead of my planned 250lbs. These weren’t too bad. There was definitely fatigue building each set but I feel my pauses were more solid as I went and got comfortable. I’m trying to be mindful of the triphasic intent with the eccentrics, isometrics and concentrics (which is impetus of change on the overhead plan). I was worried these would be terrible and my knees would ache a ton. They only ached a little and these felt decent. Potentially the warming up changes might have helped. From there it was the deadlift secondary variation. Instead of the pause pulls, I was to be pulling from deficit. Indication was to pull from 1-2”. I don’t have 2” that is safe to do. The 1” wood sections I have are really slick and could slide if not covered with something else. So I figured I’d just be weird and use my 6” plyo box to stand on while using the 13” wagon wheels. Get to 2”. I knew these weren’t going to be a pleasant as the paused pulls with the pull angle. The increased ROM and the changed starting point where noticed immediately. Aiming to keep myself without hard belt on these secondary pulls. I feel like these were fairly consistent and the working weight felt better than the warming up weight. Second and last set I feel were the best here. This was inverted set and reps of the squats. The rest of the workout was the other things. The exercises to work the things that are unpleasant to work but need to be worked. These were similar but different from the last block. Bulgarian split squats 3 second eccentrics to start. This time I was to either load with both hands, hold in zercher style or bar on back. I felt it made more sense to do holding weights in my hands to ease the transition and maybe save the bar for the last block. I wanted to use a lighter weight to start things off and ideally do 4x12 to build up volume here and hopefully keep that going for next time with more weight. So this was with 15lbs kettlebells. I switched to my right leg to start after seeing it have a harder time last week with the pushing week. I was leery of any knee aches or hip aches. Things during the actual lifting did get a bit more challenging by the last set but it was more the recovery of my air between sets that was getting a little tough. It was no nap coma situation like last week. I should be good for 25lbs next week and then hopefully doing 40lbs after that. Banded lying leg curls up next. No eccentrics but hold contraction for 2ct each rep. 3-4x12-15. My aim with these was hopefully 4 sets. I dropped the band tension down from last week. The holds on each rep were a lot harder than I was expecting. So I ended up just doing 3x15 here. Really fatiguing the hamstrings. Aim will be to stick to same bands and get 4 sets if possible. Abdominal/hip flexor work changed to roman chair situps. These can be a bit tricky with confidence and anchoring. And they can become difficult quickly if you don’t do them for a long while. No set rep range here like there was with the banded abs. Just reps. I decided I’d see what I felt comfortable doing the first set and go from there. These are also odd in that I feel better with the movement as I do reps in the set. Like, my lower back and such can be annoyed at first but then I’m having no issues a few reps in. I stopped at 15 reps and felt I would just do that for the other two sets. Which was a tall order and became a lot harder to match each set. But I got it done. Really hope I don’t get really sore lower abdominals for the next few days. Last thing to be a glute/lower back exercise of my choice. Last block had been paused single leg hip thrusts and those had served me well. I had to potential exercises for this block; either single leg back extensions or hip thrusts with just band tension. I didn’t like how the hip thrusts with band tension felt and felt it would lead to frustration sooner rather than later. But also didn’t want to bring the single leg back extension into the picture yet. Then I recalled an exercise I had done in 2023 as part of some contest prep that I was reminded of again; paused snatch grip back extensions. I was going to use less weight than I had done and do more reps. Well this worked nicely. Glutes were lit up almost immediately. I think I was worried of doing direct back stuff like this with the increased lower body volume of pulls (and how my squats tend to be a back workout too). This went better than expected. Not sure if I’ll add reps or weight for next time. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. This was a good session. Hopefully tomorrow is also satisfactory and indicates on the right path.

January 16, 2025 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
210x10
190x10

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
170x10
170x10

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx12
bwx12
bwx12
bwx20

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
16’sx15/abx15--15
17’sx15/abx15--15
18’sx15/abx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: Yesterday was a tough workout and I kind of hoped I’d get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Not to be. Had another odd stress dream and really was hoping I could sleep for another hour before waking to deal with work. Supervisor out again. But I didn’t get as many stupid things today so it was almost like I wasn’t getting slammed. Cold right now and it will be even colder next week. There is some winter weather happening but only getting a little bit of flurries compared to the inches the northwestern part of the state is getting. Similar to yesterday, I did my warming up stuff more in focus on what I was going to be doing rather than whole body like I’ve been doing. While helpful to gauge things, it could also be stressing things. I noticed when I swapped from regular push ups to modified with warming up that my shoulders weren’t feeling so achy. This will need some fine tuning but I think this is pretty close to what I should be doing for this day as it is. This also may be what I needed to see that I should probably do foam rolling for my t-spine as left scapulae was not moving as well. Anyways, I had log pressing to do. I was a little anxious with this seeing as how axle push press had felt a little underwhelming and I was hoping that it is just that one thing I’m stuck on and not other pressing stuff. The plan for today was to work up to a 10rm and then do some drops from there for the rest of the pressing. Last time I did this was for 8rm but leaving 2RIR. I had done 200lbs which was 20lbs under where I had started when I did these sessions in 2021 and then on this following test did that same weight for the added reps. The hope this second time was to keep the 20lbs difference going or try to improve on it and close the gap. Hips were feeling yesterday. Lower abs thankfully not but the rest of them became noticeable when I got up off the bench any time haha. So 30lbs jumps setup for possibly doing 210lbs if I was feeling good. It started to snow again while I was setting up but did stop a little bit later. Things were feeling pretty good. With how 180lbs felt, I was confident I could do 210lbs here. I did get a little squirrely with things midway as I hit myself in the chin and hit the rack arms. That was unpleasant. It felt like it was slower than it looked for the last two reps on video. I’m glad to see that I was able to get a step closer to my previous pressing. Took off 20lbs for another set of 10 reps and that moved quicker obviously. Took a little longer to adjust the weight for the paused pressing as it was another 20lbs drop. I had to take the bumper plates off and go back the smaller metal plates. It felt distractingly light on the unrack but definitely got challenging by the end. It has been a while but I recall the feeling of doing these paused incline log for higher reps and just feeling the fatigue building in the chest and triceps. So this was good to see. This does alleviate some concerns I had about adjusting the Day 1 sessions. Enough of being out in the cold and inside garage for a slightly warmer cold. I’d eventually work enough in there to get it feeling warm. Inverted ring rows were up next. Same as last week with it being 4x12 with bodyweight. But I could do a max rep set on that last set if I felt like it as long as I left 1-2RIR. I had been surprised with how challenging these had felt last time. And I wasn’t too sure how these would feel after doing more rowing and doing the holds with the back extensions just the night before. Well things seemed to be pretty good this time around. Moving nice and crisp and not feeling any tension in either biceps. Last time I did these I did 19 reps on the rep set. So aim was to do that or beat it. 20 was the right place to call it for now. Triceps extensions up again. Its own thing and not paired with anything. Last time had been 3x15 with tempo. This was thankfully just accentuated eccentrics but another set. I felt it was best to stick to the same weight. I work on intent and not letting other muscles take over (which can happen with my right side). Oof was laying down with the weights letting me know how sore my abdominals were. And how much that helps with my stability and balance. I’ve been for the most part using less weight on these than I was when I did these workouts in 2021 but there were times I did momentum movements and angle of arms to floor can make things drastically easier or tougher. I’m trying to make the most out of the least amount of weights on these I think. So almost constant tension compared to my previous style of doing these. But it can make me feel like I’m not as strong now vs then. But seeing the movement from then and comparing to now, it is obvious one is better control. Which explains why I’m doing other accessory stuff with more weight from then without touching them for years. Things were getting tough by the end here. And really, only 4lbs less than what I was previously using. The superset after this was a change up. Still dumbbell laterals but now doing band rows instead of face pulls. Single arm half kneeling ones. No tempo stuff here. I know I’ve gone with quite a bit of tension on rows and pulldowns using bands in the past. But it has been a while. Plan was 3x15 for both. These I knew wouldn’t be as taxing and hamper what I could do on the laterals so I could probably keep weight up here. Rows not sure what I should do. But lighter than I can just to get used to things again. Things felt a little too easy the first set but I know things can get a lot harder on stuff as the supersets accumulate. So I did small adjustments each set. For the laterals, I added 1lbs each set. The rows I moved where I was back a few inches each set so it was more tension with the same band. The laterals were closer to the intended effort range whereas the rows can go up more. So I guess I’ll do strong band next time. Put stuff away while my dinner was cooking. Stretched after eating.

January 18, 2025 – Week 6, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Box Jumps (22”)
12”x1
18”x1
24”x3
26”x3
26”x3
27”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
295x2
345x1
395x3
420x3
445x3
445x3

12” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
275x1
325x1
365x1
415x1
Added Straps
460x4
460x4
460x4

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raises (4 showing)
+80x8/bwx12
+80x8/bwx12
+80x8/bwx12
+80x8/bwx12

Seated Single Band Leg Curls/Hollow Body Holds w/ Med Ball Between Ankles
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds
sbx25--25/bw+10x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Friday I woke up with my left side of my neck feeling a little off. I think it had to do with the band rows. It will go away. Man are my abdominals feeling sore at this point. I feel I need the holiday off work Monday. I wasn’t in a rush to go train. I wanted to get some z’s and my one friend was competing in Mississippi at the show I was supposed to do so not much incentive to cut sleep and go out to train. Some wintry mix with the weather but thankfully the worst of it will be Sunday. I don’t have to worry about training my sister then as she trained at home. This is going to be the start of the new block of the deadlift training. I mean, I already started it with the Day 2 session but this is the more deadlift focused day. I had felt good after the last two sessions. I did my own warming up with what I felt was needed and I was feeling pretty darn good getting ready for the day. Starting things off with the CNS priming with more box jumps. But different. This block variation is seated box jumps. I’ve never done these before. I’ve actually never done any variation of box jumps besides the standard I guess. So I had no idea what to expect here. Sitting on a box about 2” above parallel. This ended up being 2” higher than I was expecting to use. I guess I can squat to a higher box and consider it parallel. I’m learning about the how and why with some of these exercises doing my own research and understanding on why potentially doing things like the jumps and bounds where there is risk. Whereas the regular style box jumps are cutting the eccentric short on the landing portion, these seated ones are that plus cutting the eccentric build up of the initial leap. I had no idea how these would go. My warming up that I’ve been doing with the bounds and such has seemed to feel better each time. The first two expected jumps felt pretty effortless and went with 24” for my planned 4x3. That first set felt too easy for me and decided I’d keep adding 1” if it was feeling good each set. I was thrilled these were going as smoothly as they were. I definitely noticed that there were times where I wasn’t synching things up and it wasn’t as comfortable or easy a leap. I was feeling quite pumped about this development. Then time to do the deadlifts. Stuff had felt pretty smooth last week with the EMOM singles. But that was a bit of a deload session with only deadlifting once that week. Plan was work up to the weights here and doing triples. No excitation on these reps and sets. Honestly, with how I was feeling, it would’ve been a massive effort to get psyched up for this. When I got to the working weight, swapped out the lb plates to kg plates so that it felt stiffer/denser. Stuff was feeling slow but I know that this is the fatigue talking. Pause squats and the platform deadlifts where a good bit of fatigue (and my choice of back/glute exercise). But trying my best to not get worried if stuff was feeling heavy. The deadlifts felt heaviest that first week of the last block as well. Also having sore abs really lets you know when you are using them to brace. No reps were ever in doubt today. Then moving on to block pulls. Dropping down to 12” pull height from the 14” pull height the last block. I’ve not really done much 12” height pulls as of late. In the past, it had been pretty much 1:1 with my floor pull. Usually those were rack or block pulls or the jack stands. Well now I got a ton of wagon wheels to pull off of. I did go lighter than I initially planned with warming up but I felt it was probably for the best as I tend to need to brace a lot harder on the elevated pulls since legs aren’t able to engage as much. Like last block, the weight is slightly more than what I was doing for the top set of the deadlifts. But I think I had a better idea of how things would play out here with body awareness. Stuff was going to feel heavy and slow but I could probably do a good number of reps if needed. Got through the deadlifts and had worked up a good sweat. The remainder of the session being the supersets. Some stuff changing a lot and other stuff not so much. The first pairing still paused chest supported rows on the one side. I had thought about changing up the machine but decided to stick with what I’m using as it requires the least amount of weight to get a good workout in. I think my issue the last few times has been not warming up to this and going right at the weight. It becomes tricky when supersetting with a exercise that can be quite difficult and has to be scaled like ghrs. But I found a way lol. So instead of just negatives, I was to do reps with actual ghrs. I wasn’t sure what the transference would be here. I used less weight than last two weeks on the rows to 1) make sure I wasn’t overdoing it at the start of the block and 2) make sure that the addition of more rowing on Day 3 didn’t hamper things. This was probably the best the rowing has felt and I probably could’ve gone heavier there today. I was surprised I was able to get double digits on the ghrs with bodyweight. I didn’t try to push these too hard just yet. Stop when I felt like it was going to become more lower back extension to finish. Then attempting to match that the remaining sets. The final superset for the day was essentially more hamstrings and then abdominals. Single leg band leg curls as the first exercise. Same but different. Able to potentially do more band tension being able to brace the one side. It does get a little tricky with it being a unilateral exercise with rest. I will need to remember to start with the right side next time as that appears to be my lagging side. The abdominal exercise was to be a hollow body hold variation. I’ve done these and I don’t really feel them. Maybe I’m built different. At least I notice nothing with upper body loading. I was going to initially just do a standard one with no weight but I had an idea to load the lower body with a medicine ball and require myself to isometrically squeeze between my ankles while also holding the position. Just 10lbs was a enough considering my sore abs from Day 2. I didn’t intend to stay to stretch but I did before getting in the car and home to decompress. Looking over the results for the contest I didn’t do, it was a good thing I think that I didn’t. With how I was feeling 6 weeks ago, I’d done 4th place at best and I wouldn’t have been happy with my performance. Assuming I get things with training going in a direct of my liking, May might be in the cards for competing.