February 9, 2025 - February 15, 2025 - Week 10

 February 10, 2025 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Axle Strict Presses (2 seconds at forehead)/Dumbbell Push Presses/Prone IYT’s
32x2
62x2
92x2
122x2
152x2/10’sx2/1-1-1
182x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
182x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
182x4/40’sx3/3-3-3
182x4

Paused Axle Push Presses (5 seconds in dip)
32x2
62x2
92x2
122x2
152x2
182x2
212x2
242x2
242x2
242x2

Paused Push-ups on Kettlebells (2 seconds, feet elevated 6”)
bwx20
bwx20

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

Stretching
 
Comments: Didn’t quite get to rest as much as I wanted to for the weekend. I made plans for two social things Sunday so meant I couldn’t just be on my own time and had to actually get up and do stuff. Not be able to eat the usual meals kind of thing. It is fine once in a while. Weight down a little. Work was surprisingly quiet today. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop with how things have been the past few months. I’m still not where I want to be with work but I’m not as bad I guess and not as stressed out about it. I was a little delayed in starting training after work. I did foam rolling for upper back and hamstrings. My right knee was feeling stiff the day before and while I was initially warming up but seemed to go away pretty quickly. So that was good. Not really feeling any soreness as far as muscle wise, just noticing some joint aches. Then to the session. Triphasic stuff again. Last week was the first of two isometric focus sessions for the overhead axle pressing. So plan being to increase the weight on the main exercises (the strict press and push press) by 2.5-5% from last. Last time being getting used to a new movement and this session doing more than that consistently. Like with how the last mini cycle was, aim was to do same weight each set for both exercises as that seemed to work out well. First thing being the strict presses with pauses at forehead height. Four sets of those with three sets of the other stuff. I did 30lbs jumps this time around as I felt like I knew where I was going to end up and was using enough weight that it made sense. I went with 2.5% increase here just because the last set last time was a bit iffy on me. And by that, I mean on the weight I did for the last set. Average from last workout this is 4% more. This actually felt pretty good. I felt more comfortable/confident with the strict pressing and the isometric. There hadn’t really been concentric portion to the strict style the previous mini cycle. The dumbbell push pressing felt much crisper and I felt like the IYT’s felt less restricted. I actually didn’t wear my knee sleeves for these. This was nice to see this come together so well. Of course always want to lift more and have it be easier but I need to be smart with progress here. Stuff changes up next week anyways. Then I was to do push presses with pauses. Same as last time with it being 3x2. I did doubles all the way up with 30lbs jumps. Didn’t feel as fatiguing as it did last week. Like the strict press, I went with 2.5% increase but again on the top weight I hit. Which again about 4% on the average from last time. I knew that I needed to take a breath on these with the heavier stuff as rushing out of the rack and trying to keep that brace going the whole time is not good. I also tried consciously make the effort to not have myself descend even a little bit after the catch and the bottom of the tip with the hold when going for the lower body drive on the press. I feel like I did better here compared to last time on that aspect. First rep of the first set, I was a little forward so lockout was tougher than I’d like. Corrected for the second rep and that went up as it should. Second set was near perfect, which made the last set kind of a bummer in that I got it out in front of me a little too much on both reps so lockout was tougher than it should be. I will say that this weight was feeling lighter on the shoulders comparatively to the first few weeks of training under my own mishmash of programming. So this has been beneficial I feel in getting my groove/confidence in overhead back on track. I still have another two weeks of triphasic stuff but it is less “complicated” for the next mini cycle. From there it was push ups. A break from the chaos band ones. I only like them so-so but I feel it is important they are in the rotation time to time. Now initially the plan was to do regular push ups against band tension. Always a hassle and having issues with getting into position safely and keeping the bands in the right spot for tension. I’m sure I could try and rig up something to fix that but I didn’t want to bother with that hassle for what is kind of just some work to get chest and shoulders feeling good and healthy. So I deviated from that and swapped in a variation I like to do that seems to get shoulders feeling good and “opens up” the chest. Paused block push ups. I actually prefer using my kettlebells to press from and get a deep stretch in the chest. Plan was to do 2 sets of max reps leaving 2-3RIR. I was going to try to leave at least 3RIR because it has been some time since I’ve done these. I still figured I’d get decent reps even with the hold in the stretch position from doing all these eccentric and stability focused push ups for 8 weeks now. I was somewhat worried these would be too easy doing them from the floor and took a page from the chaos band push ups and raised my feet up on the 6” plyo box so that it less mechanical advantage on the movement. I initially thought maybe too much but I just kept pumping out the reps. Honestly, I might have been closer to 5RIR that first set. I was feeling soreness in the chest already. I wasn’t sure what my recovery would be like as usually when I go hard on a set of push ups, I don’t recovery so good and it is hard to get more reps. Perhaps this has improved for me with these past few weeks as I was able to match reps on the second set and about the same level of effort (just slightly less in the tank I think). So these had felt good. From there the superset of dumbbell y raises and band triceps extensions. These had felt more challenging than I had expected last week. Which was possibly from the change in the exercises of the beginning of the workout. Or who knows. Anyways, this was the same as it had been the previous two weeks. Not really one to progress on so just trying to make things feel less difficult. I was successful in that part of things as these definitely felt easier compared to last week. Rep quality felt better too. Seeing as how this workout and Day 3 tend to get my upper body pump up with the reps, I measured my arms and they are back up to 19” again. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

February 12, 2025 – Week 10, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x10
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x1
255x3
255x3
255x3
255x3
255x3

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps)
No Bands
135x5
Add Bands (+12/+71)
135x2
185x2
235x2
289x2
289x2
289x2
289x2
289x2
289x2

FFE Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (6”)
15’sx12/12
21’sx12/12
25’sx12/12
31’sx12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls w/ Ankle Weights (10lbs each)
2(mmb)x16
2(mmb)x16
2(mmb)x16
2(mmb)x16

Paused Ab Wheel (2 seconds)
bwx20
bwx20
bwx20

Paused Banded Lying Clam Shells (2 seconds)
mbx15/15
mbx15/15
mbx15/15

Stretching

Comments: I wasn’t 100% certain on what I was doing for this session. Which is to say that was the case for the assistance lifts and not the main lifts. Just kind of came down to what I had available and what made sense. The winter weather continues to be inconvenient at times. There had been expected snow Tuesday but ended up not coming until today. Folks out of town so I had to do some shoveling at their house and my house during my lunch break so that the sun light could get at it and don’t end up with ice with the refreeze. It was really light and so not much of anything really. Joints and such were feeling ok warming up for the session. I was slightly concerned about my right hamstring feeling a little sore. But not in the spot where I had felt it cramping slightly on Saturday. I just kind of get stressed and paranoid about that kind of stuff as I get older with training and trying to keep going. Start of new training block and the last one of this 12 week plan (not including the first week break-in). Which means the exercises changing. My hope being that these won’t be as rough recovery wise compared to last training block. So for the squat variation, we got front squats. The thinking here is still a squat but not as taxing on lower back to hopefully allow for more recovery with the heaviest weeks of pulls to come. I had been doing those for probably a year or more every other week and now I’ve not done them for like 2 months now. Plan here was doing a little higher percentage wise of the training max for 5x3. Lower reps and more sets compared to how the other two squat variations were. I’ve generally done these with my lifters so I didn’t really want to mess with that. The unracking of weights felt fine as sometimes my knees ache doing that on these and with push press wearing lifters. These didn’t feel as good as I was hoping these would feel. Knees feeling a little achy and I felt like I was pitching forward. Wasn’t feeling like I was powerful on these out of the hole. I also was having issues with my breathing as I felt lightheaded on the last single working up and then had to stop midset on the first set to regain my composure before going for the last rep. I didn’t like that. I thankfully didn’t have any further issues like that after those two incidents but that wasn’t something I wanted. I never felt super great here but I did feel like these felt better as I went if that makes sense. Plan next time is to do more weight but same reps. I may see if I can tolerate or do better with my regular shoes like I did with the pause squats after the first week and what I’ve been doing for axle push pressing. The rest of the workout was potentially going to become a time vampire in that requiring setups and possibly having to alter exercises. Secondary deadlift variation being regular deadlifts against bands. Lower percentage in weight compared to the platform pulls last block but making up for it with the added band tension (10-15% of 1rm added). It has been a bit since I’ve had the deadlift with bands setup. I had kind of wanted to setup this up before training because I needed to figure out the right band tension for these and moving around but I couldn’t with the work I had to do during the day. At least not in good conscience. 6x2 so more sets vs reps per set. These felt a lot more comfortable compared to the platform pulls. I was initially going to go lower in weight because of how platform pulls had been feeling so to have these feel good was a nice sign. I was keeping an eye on the hamstring but no issues and these felt strong. Time to put the setup away and see what was next. The change in the Bulgarian split squat exercise was a bit drastic. No modification to tempo so these were just go as you please. But the other change was to do these with front foot elevated. Now I’ve done that with just single leg split squats but never on a Bulgarian split squat. So I wasn’t sure how the setup would be and how I’d handle the increased ROM. I felt I was probably going to have easier time bailing if it was dumbbells like the past two cycles rather than loading with a weight in my arms or on my back. Used my 6” plyo box because anything less than that was not really worth the effort of doing an increased ROM. Balance was tricky here but knees seemed to tolerate it. I ended up doing about 5lbs jumps per hand on these going up in weight each set. I’ll probably feel the effects of these a few days later with the increased ROM. My right hamstring where it ties into the calf behind the knee was feeling a little sore on the last set. Will have to keep an eye on that like I’m doing. Hopefully I can do more next time. I feel like I need to get more comfortable with these movements and add weight to get my lower body up to par. Next was banded lying leg curls. The original program had this just being regular leg curls and using a lying leg curl machine likely for all these weeks. But I didn’t want to put down the money for one that was going to be likely just used for one thing and not be good quality if I went cheap and fast. And using bands has worked for the previous two blocks because of the tempo. Especially since I was doing a different band leg curl style on the primary deadlift day. This block though has both variations being lying leg curls. I have access to a machine on Saturday so that one will be a machine leg curl. The reps increased on the no tempo variation but I knew I’d have issues with bands for that. So I figured I’d try to make things interesting and add ankle weights so there was more resistance at the bottom compared to with bands. I wasn’t sure it would even work as I had issues trying to do that during my testing/break-in week. But this ended up working. This was challenging and I was a little shy of 20 reps the first set so I stuck to that as I felt I could repeat the effort. The ankle weights do make the rest period a little tricky as I don’t really want to be walking around much with 20lbs of ankle weights haha. No issues with the hamstring thankfully. For core work, ab wheel with pauses. Same deal as the roman chair situps with 3 sets of reps to what feels comfortable but not to failure. It has been a while since I’ve done these and I didn’t usually get too many reps compared to doing them normally when doing pauses. And these have been hellacious in the past on my lower abdominals, especially when I’ve not done them in while. But I guess doing the hollow body holds with the medicine ball coupled with doing the roman chair situps helped me maintain and improve on these without doing them. I was also not expecting to be able to recover well enough to match reps the second set. The third set it was bit tougher but I was so close to 20 reps I just finished up with that. Will remain to be seen if this was not a good move lol. Last thing was my choice for lower back/glute exercise. First block had been one I knew had helped with waking up my glutes with the single leg hip thrust with pauses and that had been good. The second block I kind of wanted to do something like that but the banded variation I found wanting and not worth the hassle and went with a very taxing back extension (which wasn’t the best thing with the platform pulls and pause squats and lower heigh block pulls) so I was feeling every time I pulled. The initial plan had been to do one legged variation of back extension but I felt that wasn’t wise with the right hamstring feeling a certain way and I knew this would be really hard on the hamstrings. I then tried out b-stance good mornings with the ssb but I felt that the other exercises I’ve done up to this point already had fatigued a lot of things and it wouldn’t be productive as the last exercise. So I eventually landed on doing something I had used to for dynamic warming up for glute activation: banded clam shells. Mini band doubled up around the knees and lying on my side. Ended up doing 2 second holds with these. This was getting challenging by the end. I’m not sure how I want to proceed with progression, whether it be increase hold time or band tension. Might end up little of both. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. I kind of figured that with the new exercises and such that this was going to be a later session and I’d probably not get to sleep as earlier as I was the previous week.

February 13, 2025 – Week 10, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
87x3
127x3
157x3
187x3
217x3
250x5
227x6

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
207x6
207x6

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+33x12
bw+33x12
bw+33x12
bw+33x19

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
36’sx10
36’sx10
36’sx10
36’sx10

Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Rows
31’sx20/sb+mbx15--15
31’sx20/sb+mbx15--15

Stretching
 
Comments: Windy as a bastard today. It at least seemed to be not so darn windy by the time I started training after work. I wasn’t in a terrible rush as my dinner needed to cook a bit longer before I could eat it and this is often the shortest workout of the week. Because I took a bit to get going, I did try to set things up so that I could move things along smoothly once I started. Warming up felt decent. I didn’t feel like I was having issues with staying warm. It was a bit warmer than it was the day before but the wind was making it feel cold at times. Again, the good ole log incline press to start things off. Plan this time was to work up to a 6rm and then drop down sets accordingly. My notes had indicated to aim for 10-15lbs more than what I did for my 8rm set two weeks prior. Which would be 240-245lbs. I was intending to do that with how I felt when I did that session where I did 8rm. But I had felt a little better last week where I felt that I could do more reps with that weight. Also with feeling like I need to keep working to close the gap between my pressing in 2021 vs now from these repeated sessions. So I made the aim for 247-250lbs then depending on how warming up feels. I wasn’t feeling too bad warming up. The initial 40lbs jump was noticed but after that not so bad. I’ve not really done much in the ways of reps above 200lbs warming up for these this training cycle. I was iffy on going for 250lbs here but it would have me just 5lbs off track from the 2021 pressing. I should’ve stuck to the plan not tried to be greedy with pushing things here. I got hyped up (not quite to 11) which I guess good I didn’t feel training and couldn’t tap into something. I felt heavy but good initially and I figured it would be hard fought effort. At least it felt doable for the first two reps. Then not so much the third rep. Fourth rep I felt like I was really screwed here. I felt I had just one rep left and I was going to go for it. This was a close one, barely got this past the sticking point and came up uneven. Blast. Not happy about this with overestimating what I could do. I know that even though I didn’t miss a lift but that I didn’t meet my expectations and there is still a gap in my upper body pressing from before that I will ruminate on it and think about what to do and if I can still be competitive for open strongman. I also need to remember to not be so hard on myself as the last time I tried this weight was a little over a year ago and I couldn’t manage 1 rep because of how shot my shoulders were at the time. But I’ll save that for when I have time. The planned down set had been to drop 20lbs but since I didn’t get 6 reps, I dropped it by 23lbs instead. That didn’t feel too bad. Another 20lbs off and it was for the paused reps for 2x6. This was a bit surprising in how difficult and heavy it had felt unracking. Usually the paused reps the weight difference has it feeling light. But I guess a 17lbs increase from last week is quite noticeable. These were tough. I took longer rest than I usually do after that first set with how close it felt like I was to my limit on the last rep and I seemed to do better that second set. Possibly from getting a little more rest and also knowing what to expect. A little miffed with how things went with the top set. Looking at the upcoming planned sessions, I know I’m going to have to modify things as I went too heavy here and I know I won’t be able to go much more than this next time. So going to treat this week as the heaviest session I had planned and do the remaining as planned to get used to the next training phase for the competition. I’ll also need to see if I need to make adjustments to some stuff for that next training cycle for working on stuff that needs to improve here. Again, save it for when I have the time to unpack fully. Inside the garage for the rest of the training. Inverted ring rows were up next. Seems to be the case where one week I do straight sets of 4x12 and then the following week 3x12 and a max rep set with the same weight (leaving 1-2RIR). So this is the week where I rep it out. This was shaping up to be one of those sessions where these weren’t going to feel good. At least for the first two sets it was the case. Just felt awkward and stuff wasn’t feeling as smooth as it usually did. But then something clicked on the third set and they felt a lot better. Slight change in my technique made a world of difference in how these felt here so made sure I repeated that for the rep set. I was tempted to push for 20 reps on these for that top set (19 matching reps from 2021 but 13lbs heavier) but I felt like that last rep was going to push close to actually being a max so called it there. I got like three more row exercises to do this week as well. I’m very close to my all-time best for a set of 20 reps on these and potentially I will surpass that by the end of this block. Up next was triceps dumbbell extensions. Again a reduction in reps per set so 4x10. I had felt a lot better with how these were when it went from 15-12 reps so I was hoping for something similar with 12-10 reps. I only went with 2lbs to get to 36lbs rather than go right to 40lbs. I wasn’t feeling like doing that before I went too heavy on the log stuff. Initially these felt fine but the added weight with the 3 second eccentrics does build up. Even dropping reps didn’t really put a dent in the difficulty. It was definitely feeling tough by the end of it. I’ll have to see how I feel I think next time whether I stick to this same weight or if I try to go for the 40’s in on last hurrah before changing up the exercise variation. Superset to end things. Dumbbell lateral raises and half kneeling single arm band rows. Sets decreasing to two from three. Reps increasing on the dumbbells to 20 while no change to the band rows. I decided to push the laterals again since it was one less set even with the increased reps. I wasn’t sure what I’d done post 2016 injury reboot but I felt like I was close to it here. Turns out this was a 3lbs PR as 28lbs is the most I’ve done for 20 reps on this variation. Side delts are looking bigger and triceps have been looking more defined at times. So I’m building something here. The rows felt surprisingly easy. I was still a little leery with the right biceps how it was last week but seemed to not really be any cause for concern. I did stretch the band setup a little more on the second set but it wasn’t much tougher. The laterals were where the effort went today. But stuff away before finally getting to eat dinner and then stretching. Another night not really getting to sleep when I want to. Got to try and make up for it with the next few days. Off Monday holiday could also help with that.

February 15, 2025 – Week 10, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Depth Drops to Box Jumps (12”)
18”x1
24”x1
30”x2
30”x2
30”x2
30”x2

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
295x2
345x2
395x2
420x2
445x2
472x2
445x2

16” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
255x1
305x1
345x1
395x1
435x1
Added Straps
486x3
486x3
486x3

Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows/Glute Ham Raises (TBD, 4 showing)
+45x4/astx6
+70x4/bwx6
+110x8/bw+25x12
+110x8/bw+25x12
+110x8/bw+25x12
+110x8/bw+25x12

Machine Lying Leg Curls/Hanging Leg Raises
+90x25/bwx20
+90x25/bwx16
+90x25/bwx17

Stretching
 
Comments: I wasn’t sure with how this session would go. I was hoping that by not doing pause squats and platform deadlifts and the paused back extensions that I’d see a truer glimpse at the scope of my deadlift ability. But I was also nervous about the slight tenderness in the right hamstring. I meant to get stuff ready to train before bed but I got distracted somewhere down the line and still went to bed later than I wanted to. I didn’t have to train with my sister this weekend so there wasn’t really a rush to get going. I also was good as long as I got there to train before 11:00AM with the incoming snow/ice. So I slept in about a half hour. I needed that. I also probably needed some more of that as I was still kind of letting my mind wander and drift while driving. Thinking about big things and little things. Will I get my overhead press back up, are deadlifts going to be tough, will my hamstring hold up and other stuff like that for myself. But also worries and stress with just the things going on in government these last few weeks. Just a lingering sense of dread when the other shoe will fall. But I need to get sleep and let that be the time I process things healthily. I did manage to get out to the gym before snow started. Like the first flurries started when I got there. I had been expecting stuff in my area around this time and then like 5-6hrs later here but I guess weather predictions are just that; predictions. So I wasn’t in a rush here as hopefully the stuff that was following would melt or at least be less slick later. Warming up was a bit scattered in that I did most of it and then ended up helping someone and then resumed. As I’ve mentioned, I end up doing a bit more warming up due to the drive out and also because bounding stuff requires it. So for the last block of this training, the box jump variation is another new one for me. It is a very intense variation so indication is to only do if for a little bit out of training blocks because of the force on the body from the overspeed eccentric. These are box jumps but I’m to do a depth drop first and use that to then jump on to box. I did my usual bounding warm ups plus one depth drop just to see how it felt and absorb impact. So unlike the other variations, I’m to do 4x2 instead of 4x3. I figured I’d probably be able to do 30” as I seem to be able to do that consistently now for the previous variations. These felt weird and were tricky to get down. First set with the goal height I wasn’t feeling like I was getting the rebound right. This was probably on me taking too long a break from my last single warming up and then going because of assisting with other people’s stuff. But once I start my actual work sets, I’m focused and doing those (ok, maybe I will if it is easy stuff and a breather is fine lol). There is skill involved in falling and that became apparent as I did these. As is usually the case, I got better and more confident as I went with the last set feeling the best. I’ll have to try and get things feeling like that sooner in the session next time around. Then on to deadlifts. I was a little leery with the hamstring but kind of going on the sense that if it goes, it goes and sometimes I’m just being a baby about things. I could tell just doing 135lbs that I was feeling less fatigued and it was moving easy and powerfully. But I didn’t want to get my hopes too high and took each set and rep as it came. But it did seem to be going well and not feeling terrible. I was also not hyping myself up as this is not a week for that. This is the more volume of the weeks with doing several doubles with a little jumps in weight. I decided to get a little funny with the weights here so that I got a little rest between the sets. Less than 3 minutes rest between the sets once I started working. These all felt comfortable. I was pleased with how things were feeling here. From there on to the block pulls. Still using the wheels. This last block is bumping up to 16” pull height so that meant bringing out the really big wheels again. I was trying to think of other setups since this would be a little tricky with getting that height but I managed with the rubber mats. I was initially thinking big jumps but decided against that as this pull height is more lower back and hamstring and I didn’t want to risk here just because I was feeling good. Make sure I don’t rush things. Plan was to do a little bit more than the top double on the floor pulls. Which shouldn’t be an issue as I’m stronger here than off the floor. Can’t say for certain on the other two heights as pretty close. But I know I can from this height. This would probably be the easiest the block pulls have felt actually even though most weight for the working sets besides the max days. 3x3 here after doing 40-50lbs jumps up. I was feeling confident in myself these would go well so I started singing along to the music playing as I was setting up for the first two sets. A little cockeyed on the second set with the second rep so I felt it was best to just pay attention and move the weight with purpose on the last set. Which I did. These felt comfortable and easy. Still there is strain on the body as this isn’t nothing. I do feel like my goal of getting a rep PR with 500lbs at the end of this is back on the menu. I wasn’t so sure about it last block but I think that was just the hardest block of this training cycle. Pulls were done then and it was time to do supersets to finish up the session. I took a little time before getting to doing these after the pulls. One to help out and another being wasn’t sure if someone was going to be using a piece of equipment I needed. So the first pairing has been a familiar one with the chest supported rows and a glute ham raise variation. The rows I was not needing to do pauses/holds this time around. Even with that restriction lifted, I knew I couldn’t just increase the weight drastically. This particular plateloaded row is tough after a certain weight it seems. As for glute ham raise, I was to add some kind of resistance to it in the form of either weight or band tension. I wasn’t too sure what I wanted but eventually settled on just doing weight as it would be consistent and put more strain at the bottom of the lift like I need there to be. I did some warming up here so that not such a shock to the system. It seemed to be fine for the glute ham raise stuff but just seems any weight over 90lbs on those rows feels rough regardless of what I do to prep. I decided to stick to 4x8 today on these as that first set was tough and usually those don’t get easier. I’ll just try to add reps each session on these and keep the weights the same. With the glute ham raises, I was to get 6-12 reps on each set. I didn’t want to just jump to something stupid heavy since I felt like something had wanted to cramp up on me last time with all those 20 rep sets with bodyweight only. I felt it was risky doing weight on these but I had no issue with bodyweight warming up so I went at it. Not too bad. Definitely feels harder than no weight. I managed to get 12 reps every set so I’ll need to increase the weight for next time on these. Then the last superset pairing. Hamstrings and abdominals. This was a big change up in that I’ve been doing seated band leg curl variations coupled with holds/braces for the abdominal stuff. As I mentioned in the Day 2 session, this was to be lying banded leg curls for high reps. But I decided I’d just do these with a machine instead since I’ve been doing lying banded leg curls for the past two months already. I’ve not done these in well over a year really. Honestly closer to 2yrs or more. I was a little concerned about the right hamstring so there was hesitancy. Plan was 15-25 reps but going for the higher rep range like I’ve been doing with the band stuff. Even the weight I picked (which was lower than I was expected) felt tough just testing it but once I actually committed it was doable and I got 25 reps all three sets. The abdominal exercise was closer to what I do on the Day 2 abdominal stuff with it being hip flexor involved. These were to be hanging leg raises and done like the past two abdominal exercises on Day 2 have been with it being for reps until I don’t want to. This was always going to be tricky to combat swaying. I was unsure if I should take grip out of these or not but decided I should keep that aspect in since I will need to use my grip a good bit for this upcoming competition. These were ok but surprised how quickly I seemed to fatigue on these. I’ve been used to doing weighs and doing them with holds doing knee lifts vs legs out in front style. Definitely tougher that way. I got things done and put stuff away before drinking a shake. I figured it was best to head home now because not sure what the next few hours could bring as far as wintry weather. Had to clean off the car before driving and then shoveled snow at my house and my parent’s when I got home before stretching. Need to rest up.