February 2, 2025 - February 8, 2025 - Week 9

 February 3, 2025 – Week 9, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Axle Strict Presses (2 seconds at forehead)/Dumbbell Push Presses/Prone IYT’s
26x2
56x2
86x2
116x2
146x2/10’sx2/2-2-2
172x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
174x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
176x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
178x4

Paused Axle Push Presses (5 seconds in dip)
46x2
76x2
106x2
136x2
166x2
196x2
226x2
231x2
236x2

Chaos Band Push-ups (5 seconds negatives, feet elevated 6”,pin 24)
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Paused Dumbbell Y Raises (2 second hold)/Band Triceps Extensions (facing away)
10’sx12/lbx25
10’sx12/lbx25
10’sx12/lbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: While everything else in the country seems to be on fire some way or another, I’m doing pretty good. I was for sure thinking I was going to be bedridden with illness with how I had felt during and after training Saturday but I guess I just had a lot of stuff I needed to get out by lifting heavy. Because I didn’t even feel that bad beyond being stiff and sore (as expected from heavy deadlifting) and seemed to be for the most part ok. I am glad I didn’t have any obligations for this Sunday as I needed the day to deload. Weight up a little bit but again, not an issue. Still around 272lbs at this point. This had been my baseline for a while anyways so this is maintaining I guess. It was weird when it went do so much in that one year. Walking and soft tissue work were needed. I’m getting closer to getting the main body of training setup for the possible contest in May in Washington state. Some updates with events and seeing some of the implements. This is going to be an odd one. Twists on everything just about so having to invest a little more to be prepared. Workload has thankfully not be that stressful for me, which I think is helping me stay sane here. Warming up with stuff for the session. Foam rolling needed for the soreness/stiffness in the upper back from the pulls Saturday. Right knee a bit achier than I’d like but a load better than last week coming into this session. This session is the one that will change the most since I’m trying out a short stint of triphasic stuff here. Be interesting to see if the good times continue to roll here. Last two weeks focused on the eccentric. This is focusing on the static. IE moving, pausing (hard) and then resuming with speed. No easing into the hold. This is to be violent. Stopping and starting power. So the first thing was again a pairing of three different exercises with one being the main exercise, the second being explosive movement and the third being a mobility exercise. The explosive movement for this whole experiment is going to be the dumbbell push presses with 40lbs dumbbells. The mobility thing changed from PVC pipe stuff to doing a bit more reps with different prone raise variations. I kind of wanted to do these with a band setup instead but figured there was a reason prone was mentioned. The meat for this was a paused strict press variation. Pauses at forehead height. Not something new to me but it has been a good bit since I’ve done them. Also a good bit (but not as long) since I’ve really done strict pressing with axle consistently. I did do a few sets without a belt a few weeks back and I was hoping the eccentrics from last two weeks got me a little primed here. Warm up to a weight to do 4x4 with. Now something a little different from the previous block is that I was going to actually be doing more sets of the main exercise than the other stuff. Four vs three. So ending and starting on the press. I was initially looking at 30lbs jumps like I’ve been doing but I felt maybe I should adjust that in the event that I’m not really up for the higher end I’m hoping I would be. So did alternating 20-30lbs jumps. I ended up at the same place essentially but just more sets. Like with the first week of the new stimulus, I found myself wanting to add a little weight. I knew that doing 5lbs jumps like I did would be too much to keep over the course of the sets so elected for 2lbs jumps. Shoulders felt a little restricted at the start with the mobility exercises and perhaps not doing a bunch of warming up push presses had the dumbbell feel a little slow at the start. But things felt good as I went. The last set of the pressing maybe a little close there on the effort for that last rep. But got things done. Then I was to do push presses with pauses. A little different from how I’ve done them. Before, I kind of just thought of this variation as something that slowed me down to make it harder and use less weight. Not entirely correct. There is purpose in the isometric at spots in lifts as well as body awareness and adjustment. I’ve learned that with paused deadlifts that have helped my deadlift a good bit for something I initially thought was silly. The intent with violent stoppage and then going again is what needs to be focused on. So that is what this was to be. Doubles with 5 second pauses in the dip portion of the lift. Again, emphasizing on the lower body drive. Doing stuff for the pressing (strict style) and the drive. I had an idea in my head where I should be with these after how I’ve been feeling with the change in footwear. I’ve been feeling much more like how I used to be able to press overhead. I was kind of hoping I’d hit the weight and then add like I did with strict pressing and I guess like the eccentric loading jerk dip squats. These certainly felt much easier than those did on the body by comparison but made it so this didn’t feel so bad. It does get exhausting with the pauses even just doing doubles working up in weight. I did end up doing the weights I wanted to get to here but I will need to work on these next time. Balance on second reps the first two sets weren’t the best but I feel that had to do with me being too focused on my breathing and rushing or holding my breath. I don’t feel like I got that issue on the last set with the most weight of the three. I feel like I may be doing better on the overhead stuff. From there moving on to the usual suspects. Chaos band push ups again. Last week of these and still the 3x15 and the 5 second eccentrics. My hope I guess is that these at least get a little easier. Definitely feeling them in my chest this time around. I guess I got my wish in that these did feel a little easier. I didn’t have to take a breather on any of the three sets this time around. From there the superset of dumbbell y raises and band triceps extensions. Reps had increased last time and sticking to that. Upper back and neck had been a little tense most of last week so hoping these didn’t start that up again. These seemed to be mostly ok. Band triceps stuff I was feeling fatigue from the strict pauses and the chaos band stuff. This felt a little more challenging than I was expecting. There could be a difference in the tension between the two light bands I have as well. But it is all good. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

February 5, 2025 – Week 9, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x5
115x5
155x3
205x3
245x1
295x1
335x4
293x4
293x4

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
15’sx3/3
40’sx12/12
40’sx12/12
40’sx12/12

Paused Band Lying Leg Curls (2 seconds)
2(mmb)+mbx15
2(mmb)+mbx15
2(mmb)+mbx15

Romain Chair SItups
bwx30
bwx25
bwx25

Paused Snatch Grip Back Extensions (2 seconds)
65x12
70x12
75x12

Stretching

Comments: Considering how I felt going into this workout last week, I’d say I was better prepared. Winter weather threatening again but seems will not be at a time where it will be an inconvenience for me at this point. Warming up for the session felt pretty good. Starting off the day with the paused ssb squats. The heavy week for the squats. So no secondary deadlift and only light pulls for EMOM on Day 4 session. Last time had been box squat with csb and I had undershot a bit there. I had an idea of what I should be doing here. Now a little different in that the pause time was lowered for the heavy week. I was doing 2-3 for the previous weeks and this was to be 1-2 for the pauses. I figured I might need some more reps warming up considering I’d probably need to go heavier by a good bit from what I was doing for the sets the past few weeks. Things felt a little (a lot) rough. Maybe from using my big wagon wheels but I don’t think that really mattered. I just noticed stuff was feeling darn heavy and stuff was a little achy. Which didn’t bode well for me. My last warm up single felt heavier than I had wanted my top set to even feel. I was even wondering if maybe I had the bar flipped upside down. So I went for the lower end of plans. Goal was to do top set of 4 at RPE 8-8.5 (so 2RIR to 1-2RIR) and then drop down 12.5% for 2x4. I kind of had to treat that top set like I was doing singles with how heavy and rough that felt. But I know what I’m about and I got it done. I will be very happy when I’m finished with this block of training as this has really kicked my rear. The down sets felt heavy too but I seemed to feel better as I went with the second set feeling better than the first. Both felt loads better than the top set. It has been like 2.5yrs since I really did any ssb squats and I’ve not gone above my own bodyweight on them until this week so it could just be not being used to the weight with how it wants to pitch forward as you add weight. No deadlift afterwards (I’d have been in trouble lol) but I was to do the toughest week of the block for the assistance work. First up the dumbbell Bulgarian split squats 3 second eccentrics. Plan was to do 3x12 with the 40’s. The weight had felt easier than I was expecting last week even with everything going on and I had kind of wanted to do another set with that weight. I was initially thinking of trying to push more weight but felt it was best to aim for volume with that weight considering last time at the end of the block that I had to take a brief nap after I was done to recover. I do feel my recovery is a little better this time around with making sure I got in more volume with the lighter weights at the start. Did a warm up set and that seemed to be enough to get the aches out of my knees. I was surprised that my right side was feeling stronger. It oddly enough does feel the stronger side but it hadn’t been last training block and only felt like that about halfway into this one. This was tough but it wasn’t hellacious like last time. I honestly wasn’t too sure with how rough the main squats were and how slow those felt. Those were slow but like a piston I guess. Moving on to banded lying leg curls. I hadn’t expected things to be as tough as they were at the end of last time. Ideally, this was the level I wanted for this day. But sometimes the bands can be weird with how they are arranged. Like two lighter bands can feel tougher than a single bigger band that should be more tension. Just got to be consistent and judge based on the effort put in. All I can really do with band based stuff rather than straight weight with it. So I picked something that would probably be tough but would probably be not as tough as last time even if on paper it should. This was challenging but within what I expected and good effort for the hamstrings. Roman chair situps were next. Not really looking forward to these as I already set a benchmark with two sets and now I got another set back in the mix. And already I was feeling like these were going to be tougher. It was much harder to match the reps I did on the first set with this week. Even though I was feeling that effort, the second set felt a little bit more tolerable with the expected drop off in reps. Last set was when the hip flexors started to get sore besides just the abdominals. Got a little bit of a second wind here. I have to admit the previous block of training abdominal/hip flexor exercise was the “easiest” of the variations I’ve been doing and am going to be doing. The paused snatch grip hyper extensions were the last thing for the evening. These have been quite taxing and even just doing 2 sets of them last week was tough. Well probably because I added weight. Do not need a lot for these to be tough. And I had the wise idea to try and add weight to that this time, working up over three sets to do so. Guess see how that goes haha. First two sets weren’t so bad. But I knew the last one was going to be an ask. Started out ok but was getting quad twitches holding the contraction on the last two. But I was able to finish these. I plan on using these in the future but looking forward to some break on these for the next and final block. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Hopefully the winter mix stuff isn’t too bad.

February 6, 2025 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
205x3
230x6
230x6
230x6

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
190x12

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+33x12
bw+33x12
bw+33x12
bw+33x12

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
34’sx12
34’sx12
34’sx12
34’sx12

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
30’sx15/sb+mbx15--15
30’sx15/sb+mbx15--15
30’sx15/sb+mbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: Wintry mix came and I feel like the precautions taken might have been a bit drastic with having schools and offices close. Icy for sure but not a lot of it and it was melting by middle of the day already. Still felt it was best to clean off the surfaces as likely would be lifting outside for the start of training. Could always do inside if necessary. Ice a bit harder to move compared to the light snow that has been the case the past two times got winter weather. Was hoping that it didn’t fatigue the shoulders too much for training today. This day with warming up is a bit on the easier side. I didn’t feel like I was struggling today to get warm. Log incline pressing again. The go to for right now of secondary pressing. Consistent and a good gauge of how things are going. Plan today was to do my 8rm established last week for 3x6. I feel kind of a big ask but I’ve done these training sessions before. Warming up was feeling ok. Little achy in the joints of my upper body, like shoulder, elbows and wrists. But not in a way where the weight felt heavy and I worried I had overtrained something. Did same warm ups as last week. Time to see if I could do the thing again. Unrack for some reason felt a little off working up today and was noticeable on these working sets. But I felt pretty good despite that on the first set. I felt like I could match last week and maybe feel like another rep was there. I kind of forgot I had to take allergy and cold meds last time and was worried I couldn’t get hyped up to train. I didn’t really need to dig that deep this time around. The other two sets were definitely a little closer to the point of being near the limit for the day but no grinding reps like the 8th rep last week. Felt good and continuing to improve. I’m probably not going to see a chance to really close the gap but it will come in time I feel as I keep working at this. Pause reps after that with 40lbs taken off. Like a few weeks ago, this was a max rep set leaving 1-2RIR with the 1 second pauses. I’m trying to be consistent with the form on these as I know in the past that I relaxed at the chest to save from fatigue. I wasn’t really thinking about the intent at that time or until recently. Just thinking it was more of a dead stop with some of the stretch reflex there so it was tougher. But I’m trying to keep it so that I’m stopping it violently and keeping tension and then pressing back up. So a bit more exhausting. I know that I’m not always getting that right with the pause reps but this is new to me. I got 12 reps which is 1 off from the 2021 sessions with 10lbs more. Like I said, I’ve changed the intent/form a little (like the triceps extensions) so not miffed about this. Inside the garage for the rest of the training. Inverted ring rows were up next. As last time was 3x12 and then rep set, this was going back to 4x12 but with more weight. I was initially going to do 10lbs more but figured since I meant to have it be 22lbs last time that I’d do 33lbs to keep the numbers like kilogram jumps for 5. Sometimes I like to get taken away by the little quirks/obsessions like certain lifting numbers or plate combos with colors and what not. Let me have my fun haha. These have felt good for the most part since being brought back into my training. I may benefit from doing a no weight warming up set but it isn’t that drastic a thing at this point. The other sets do seem to feel better as I go. Not always the case but it was this session. Glad no issues with forearms or biceps here. Right biceps had felt a little tight last week after this session and going into Day 4. Keeping an eye on joint aches and where muscles feel sore. Triceps dumbbell extensions after that. The reduction in reps per set had me feeling like adding weight to these for the first time in a while. This week again was 4x12. I didn’t want to get crazy and go 40lbs here and probably not 36lbs. Something in between that depending on what I could conveniently get my dumbbells to weigh. A little off balanced but 34lbs seemed to work out fine. I was to increase the RPE on these to 8 and that little bit of weight did the trick here by the end. Assuming the reps or sets drop on these, I may be looking at getting back up to the 40’s on this movement once again. In due time. Superset to end things. Dumbbell lateral raises and half kneeling single arm band rows. Aiming to increase the weight on the laterals again but staying put on the band rows. Honestly, I was a little nervous about the right biceps with the rows as that was the one that felt a bit tight and was more sore compared to the left one after last week. But hard to really know what is the case when taking anti-inflammatories a few days during the week to get through said week in one piece. Anyways, increased the dumbbell weight was fine since the RPE was to be increased 8 from 7 while rows to stay the same. The added weight was noticed here but I managed to get through these. Certainly tougher than last week. The rows are odd in that the tension is a lot in the contracted state but I feel like I can do more than 3RIR here. I was a little concerned with what felt like the motion in the right biceps elbow insert area but it could be nothing. No pain or anything really other than just felt something was moving that didn’t feel like it was on the left side. Put stuff away and loaded some equipment into my car for Saturday before eating dinner. Stretched out afterwards.

February 8, 2025 – Week 9, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Box Jumps (22”)
18”x2
24”x2
30”x2
36”x1 (2 misses)
33”x1
33”x2

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
315x1
EMOM
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1
355x1

Smith Machine Romanian Deadlifts
120x3
210x3
300x10
310x10
320x10

Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows/Glute Ham Raises (4 showing)
+100x12/bwx23
+100x12/bwx21
+100x12/bwx20

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

Stretching
 
Comments: Essentially the end of the this last block and moving on to the last 4 weeks block of training. I kind of feel like the block is done after the deadlift testing session but that isn’t truly the case as I end up having to test the squat on the secondary day and push the assistance stuff too. This workout is the deload of sorts for the deadlift (with also not doing the secondary pull during the week). So no pressure really other than what I desire to put on myself. Plan was to get out to train earlier due to impending ice storm. I had been getting to bed earlier to recover and sleep more and got just about everything ready for getting up and going. But stuff came up and I ended up leaving about the same time as last week. The weather models indicated the ice storm was not coming until late afternoon so not too concerned with the planned workload and drive out was nice. I did forget though that potentially some people training for the Arnold were coming from out of town so there were a good bit of people there. I was also going to be training my sister again (next week she’s off doing her own thing) and this would be an important session to try out new stuff for the competition that she had better sign up for with how well things are going lol. The plan was to alternate between her doing something and then me doing something so that she got rest and I wasn’t stuck coming home in the ice. I did my warming up and felt decent enough. She was to do her first session with an actual log and not the one my dad made out of my swiss bar and some dowel rods. I had made it so that her lighter weeks she does at home with the makeshift log and then the heavier sessions at the gym with the real equipment and me as the coach’s eye. I already knew she could do the lightest log option just from seeing her training and numbers but not sure on the middle weight or heavy weight. She managed to triple the middle weight log first time on a real log so she is likely wanting to try for the heavy log. Have to see how things go but this is a good sign. She is progressing well and some of the technique and confidence work is resulting in big improvements. With the log work done for her, I went on to do seated box jumps. Did the bounding warm ups and such. This was the testing day for this box jump variation, aiming for a top double. I did things a little differently here as I felt like maybe singles wasn’t the best way to prep necessarily as I felt like last two times that my jumps got better after I did a few reps. So I did doubles working up. 30” is now an any day jump for me. I had indicated to try 34-36” for my top double. The highest I’ve ever attempted to test with a box jump was for singles to 33”. So any of those would be a PR for me. I went with 36” as I felt that that setup would be more stable than trying to do an in-between with the plyo mats. It felt daunting looking at it. I went for it and I got that first rep. It was good but not in the sense that accomplishing what I wanted. I definitely caught that below parallel rather than the above parallel I’ve been aiming for with the jumps. I gave it two more tries at the double but was like an inch short each time with one foot and then the other. So this was annoying. I had to figure out how to get a setup that was in between 30” and 36” to retry the double again. 33” ended up what I could setup with what was available and was somewhat sturdy. Time to do it again. I got it for a single at first but I didn’t like how it felt and initially was feeling like it was a missed jump (video says otherwise). I was successful with the next two attempts to satisfaction with the last one feeling the best. Another break in the action for myself as working on the next thing for my sister. As we were doing this, I did find out the ice wouldn’t hit for 3hrs later than expected so I could adjust things. Also, she was having some soreness in upper back and neck so plan was to finish up her stuff and then I do my workout. Again, it was mostly deload after the jumps for me. She hit everything planned and I was then free to go on to deadlifts. With deadlifts, this was the light session for the deload. So work up to a weight in 40-50lbs jumps to 10x1 EMOM. So 15lbs more than last time I got to this point in the cycle. These were comfortable and no doubt they’d be done. Unlike last time, I didn’t feel like the weight I did the week before for the testing rep set was something I’d make feel just as easy if done EMOM singles with it. This was thankfully easy to do and get through and be able to move on to the next thing as while I had time, I didn’t want to chance it with an ice storm. No block pulls on this session and was to do an rdl or gm variation for 3x8-10. Last time I had done an rdl using the belt squat setup. I’d probably have done it again but it required more setup than I had expected last time so it wasn’t a quick thing. So I had figured I try doing something different each time I did this session for the 12 week programming. Do it in a way that was different from what I’ve done and not wear any support gear of any kind. I was curisous about how the smith machine would feel. I figured it would be tougher. It was in a way. The grip was the most taxed thing here with double over hand. It hadn’t felt like that being as much the issue with the belt squat handle setup but here it was. The initial rotating of the bar to unrack/unlock was an issue. I eventually decided I’d just start from the dead stop at the bottom for the heavier sets so I didn’t have to deal with the rotation issue. That did seem to fix that issue for me. This felt interesting and I’ll have to keep this in mind if I end up doing some kind of lever deadlift with a front bar setup in the future as a good accessory/supplemental lift. The supersets to end the day. Reducing by one set and some adjustments to the actual exercises. The first pairing of chest supported rows and glute ham raises. Like last time I did the training cycle here, this week the pauses were lifted on the rows. I was to still attempt to rep out the ghr stuff. Warming up seemed to be good but again, it seems that going from that to the actual weight I wanted to use for the rows was a bit rough. So much so that I ended up only doing 12 reps instead of the hopefully 15 reps like I did last time (with 10lbs less). My right biceps is a little tight and I was focused on that but thankfully this didn’t aggravate things at all like I was expecting. I do wonder if the smith match rdls made things tougher for these with how I did them. My right hamstring got a little tense near the end of the first set of the ghrs so I was a little concerned there too. But it didn’t pop up any more during the set of the workout so just might be that I’ve been working them hard. I was not expecting to get over 20 reps on these each set to be sure. But it is nice that I’m feeling like bodyweight movements are feeling comfortable for me again. I spent a little bit of time putting stuff away that was leftover from when I was helping others and my own stuff before moving on to the last superset pairing of single leg seated band leg curls and the hollow hold thing I’m doing with the medicine ball. Only two sets of each here. The holds being the harder of the two. No issues with the leg curls as expected. Holds were fatiguing but this is the last of them. Put what remained away and downed a protein shake before heading out to beat the ice storm (which I did). I ended up signing up for the competition in Washington state in May and booking the travel for that. Another 4 weeks of this off season training and then into competition prep.