January 26, 2025 - February 1, 2025 - Week 8

 January 27, 2025 – Week 8, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (5 second eccentric, 3 second pause in rack)/Dumbbell Push Presses/PVC Thoracic Extensions
35x2
65x2
95x2
125x2
155x2/10’sx2/3
185x2/10’sx2/3
216x3/40’sx3/5
216x3/40’sx3/5
216x3/40’sx3/5
216x3/40’sx3/5
216x3/40’sx3/5

Axle Jerk Dip Squats (3 second eccentric)
215x3
265x2
315x1
365x1
415x3
415x3
415x3

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: Still a bit miffed about how deadlifts had felt on Saturday. Even though I’ve rationalized why it still bothers me. Just have to hope that I can bring it next time around for the testing session. I was expecting to sleep like a log after that similar to last week but that didn’t happen. I woke up about when I’d normally wake up for work. Weight about the same, up slightly. I was a little irritable with work stress and just the aches I was feeling in my body with my right knee and hip. Those little things getting me to feel some doubts in my decisions. Training went well for my sister. I was thinking of not doing anything besides that Sunday but then remembered I’d be in the office Tuesday so no walking that day so went for a walk. Going to have to try and catch up on sleep I guess for recovery. I was feeling mentally down. The “pep” I had coming into this session wasn’t there this time around. Body aches had me worried and just feeling a little dull mentally. I was feeling like I was having a hard time getting warm doing my warm ups. I did foam rolling for upper back and hamstrings. I do feel like my upper body was feeling good to go here. My right knee was acting up on me. It had seemed to be fine after a bit with recovery last week and then seemed to feel wonky at times last week. Then fine and then not fine. It decided to be not fine today. Which isn’t great. The session for this week was the same as last week with the plan to be doing 2.5-5% more weight on the main exercises. Ideally the same RPE as last time but I was going more by the weight than anything. So the push pressing portion increasing in weight and the dumbbell and PVC stuff remaining the same. My intent was to do straight sets with the top weight rather than build up like I ended up doing. I did misload as I thought I had 5lbs more on the bar than I actually did. Which in hindsight appears to have been the right call. I’m still surprised how much better unracking the axle feels with the regular shoes vs my lifters. Things were not feeling as “crisp” on the dumbbell and PVC stuff I felt a little tight. I did end up with a bruise from the dumbbell at some point on my right shoulder. The axle stuff seemed to be good and able to handle. There were times that I was forgetting about holding in the rack before racking the weight. The hold was noticeable for making these a little tougher on the following reps. I could tell my right knee was getting a little sick of the day as I went, hence having to pause the first rep on the 4th set before pressing it. But I never felt like any rep was wonky or not firing properly like I’ve felt on most overhead sessions this training cycle so far so I take that as a win here. It could also be that I wasn’t feeling it since this was after work vs middle of the day like last week. From there moving on to the eccentric focused jerk dip squats with axle. Same as last time like the above with reps and sets and attempting for 2.5-5% increase in weight. I wasn’t too sure here about how I wanted to proceed because I knew I’d probably need to go heavy and my right knee was not feeling too great. But sometimes more weight is the answer to discomfort. I felt compelled to stick with what I had. I did feel like I had a better idea of what I needed to do for warming up here. The aim was to do straight sets like I did with the axle push pressing since I hopefully found the right level of effort. Unracking the weight was most uncomfortable part of these. Felt damn heavy on my body but I seemed to still be able to move things fine and controlled. This definitely felt heavier than what I did last time. Especially since it was about 20lbs more than the top set which had been a 30lbs work up weight over three sets. I survived here. I’m glad I’m only doing these two times during this stint. New protocol for this stuff next week for two weeks. From there moving on to the usual suspects. Chaos band push ups again. Same as last time with 3x15 and the 5 second eccentrics. I stuck to the setup I had last week with it being the harder setup. I could tell that I was feeling the stuff beforehand coming into this. Again, there were moments where I’d relax my shoulders in kind of a downward dog pose to catch a brief respite before continuing the set to get my 3x15. From there the superset of Dumbbell y raises and band triceps extensions. The reps per set on both of these increased. Another good reason I didn’t increase the difficult last time. I was feeling it by this point. The extra reps were noticed. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Aiming to get to bed early-ish due to having to go into work.

January 29, 2025 – Week 8, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x5
115x3
155x2
205x1
248x3
248x3
248x3
248x3
248x3

2” Platform Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
328x2
328x2
328x2
328x2
328x2
328x2

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (3 count eccentric)
10’sx12/12
25’sx12/12
40’sx12/12

Paused Band Lying Leg Curls (2 seconds)
2(mb)+2(µb)x15
2(mmb)x15
2(mmb)+2(µb)x15

Romain Chair SItups
bwx30
bwx21

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

Stretching

Comments: Going into office was again dumb. It is going to continue to be dumb. Lot of stupid stuff going on outside of work. So I guess I should be thankful that work wasn’t really that stressful. I was feeling a bit tired and figured it was probably for the best if I tried to get to bed early this whole week to try and give my body sleep to recover. Besides the allergy meds for work, I had taken anti-inflammatories for my right knee just because I didn’t want to be having issues at work. Also my neck and traps were quite tight from holding tension and the y raises. It has been a good while since I’ve taken any. Like I said, little aches and such and stress gets me feeling a little doubtful and paranoid about things. Warming up for the session this time did feel like my aches weren’t as bad as they had felt on Monday. Still not 100% confident but this was better. I had not been looking forward to this. Starting off the day with the paused ssb squats. This is the “light week” for the squats, usually with more sets and less reps. For this variation, the volume was inverted so 5x3 instead of 3x5. Seeing as how using lighter end of weights on the squat seemed to be good on the third week with the box squats, I did that here too with going to the low end for these sets. I was also considering my knee, hip and back. But also seeing how much this session is sapping me with hitting my weak points before the primary deadlift day. I was a little concerned about how squats would go but thankfully there were no issues here and I felt pretty good about things. From there it was the platform pulls. Again, going up in weight. Going from 5x3 to 6x2. The first set with 135lbs I’m not sure what happened there. I was fully expecting it to feel uncomfortable and not good and it just flew up like nothing. Which got me excited. But then I couldn’t get that feeling to be present on any of the following sets. Surprising how much the 2” change is with my start position. Just doesn’t feel like I want it. But it is perhaps why I should be doing them for a stint. The combo of paused squat and deficit deadlift is rough and I’m hoping that when I recover from it that it will pay off with my competition style deadlift. As this is the session during the week of deadlift testing, the assistance work is at reduced volume. First up the dumbbell Bulgarian split squats 3 second eccentrics. I had decided with how the knee was that I was going to working up weight sets rather than straight sets at a weight. Essentially doing 30lbs jumps in weight (10’s, 25’s and 40’s). My right knee was not particularly enjoying the light weight first set. Left side was fine. The odd thing was that adding more weight seemed to have things feel better on the right side. Balance is tougher when holding something in both hands on these. I was glad I could do the 40’s here for the top set. I was kind of wishing I hadn’t done the 10’s for a set but it was needed to work up to these. I’ll need to see if I can do more sets with the 40’s next time. But it was good to see that I could handle it. Moving on to banded lying leg curls. I was going to attempt similar here with working up to a top set with the reduced volume. My right knee had felt a little funky on these by the end of things last week so I was keeping an eye on that here. Thankfully no such issues. The band tension setup seemed to be going well for the first two sessions. Admittedly, I feel I was closer to my effort limit with the setup compared to the bss stuff. That was more a work capacity issue. But I was quite surprised how difficult the last set was with the band tension configuration. That was a tough one to finish. I’m likely to not attempt that setup again for next week. Perhaps find a middle ground. I guess have to see how things are feeling as maybe I’ll feel stronger next time. It can be tricky with band tensions. Roman chair situps were next. Just two sets this week. I’ve not had any abdominal soreness since that first week acted as inoculation I guess. Hip flexors were getting a little sore in combination with the bss stuff. The setup I have isn’t the best as the one roller came apart midway through my second set and I had to put it back together. The paused snatch grip hyper extensions were the last thing for the evening. Also two sets. These are surprisingly taxing on top of the other stuff I guess. Has me rethinking how I want to look at the lack block of this training offseason since this exercise is kind of dealer’s choice. But for some reason I thought it was a good idea to try 5lbs more than last time for 2x12. Weight added on this is really challenging. I managed to get through these as well. Really felt like skin of my teeth that last set. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Again, trying my best to get to bed early.

January 30, 2025 – Week 8, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x3
205x3
230x8
210x8

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (1 second)
185x8
185x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+21x12
bw+21x12
bw+21x12
bw+21x17

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

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

Stretching
 
Comments: Even though it has been warming up, it has felt difficult to “get warm”. The fluctuating temps are playing havoc with my joints. Really windy the day before and may have kicked up some allergens. At least I hope that is the case as I woke up feeling like that was the case. I didn’t want to take any chances and did allergy meds and then decided I needed Dayquil if I was going to make it through the day and be productive in some fashion. I already felt like I was going to take Nyquil before bed to make sure I slept restfully. Warming up for training today I did feel like I could get a bit warmer but still not quite how I’d like. But stuff seems to be moving well. Log incline pressing again. Got a few more weeks of this. And really only changing up to see if other pressing options work. This does seem to be a good one I can recover from at this point. So this time around, aiming for an 8rm and then doing sets with less weight and so on. Like I’ve been doing. Two weeks ago I had been able to close the gap from 20lbs difference from 2021 to 10lbs difference. But I was a little nervous here going into this with trying to stick to that. I was feeling worn/tired having had to take meds and I wasn’t sure I had the hype needed. Warming up as usual. The last warm up set I wasn’t sure on. Did it make sense to do 30lbs up and then do a 20lbs jump? I decided to go with two 25lbs jumps. 230lbs was close to limit. Eighth rep ended up a little grindy with the right side locking out slower. But I got it. Took off 20lbs for a downset and that moved quite well. Then took off 25lbs from that for two paused sets. Those felt pretty good. Not as much fatigue in the lockout as I felt last time I did them but shoulders were a little more achy. I did look at video to compare from 2021 and this session and the gap is probably still not 10lbs as it wasn’t a grindy lift to get the set of 8 reps that time. But I am chugging along here. Just got to keep pushing when I can. I took all the stuff outside down and put away before going into the garage for the rest of the session. Inverted ring rows were up next. So I was wrong last time here as I did 10lbs for the session in 2021 and not 20lbs. So I was doing 12lbs more than I did then. Oops. But good on me I guess. So the setup for this session was to do the same things as last time but do the whole “max reps” on the last set if I felt like it, leaving 1-2RIR. I didn’t check my stuff from last time so I accidentally did 1lbs less than last time. But so what. This was one of those days where these were feeling pretty good. Not feeling like I’m pulling with the biceps and my upper back and shoulder girdle are moving and mobile. I felt I was able to get more reps in at a clique than last week before I felt like I had to slow down. Matched the reps I did from 2021 with the 11lbs more. Arms feeling pretty big from these rows. About to feel bigger since triceps extensions with eccentrics next. Finally getting a reprieve in the form of reducing the reps. Still 3 second eccentrics and 4 sets but now just 12 reps. You wouldn’t think that dropping 3 reps from a set on these would be a lot but boy howdy did 5lbs more feel closer to the proposed RPE 7 on these. The weight did initially feel heavier in the wrists but stuff moved well. Just to show how much better this felt, I actually feel like increasing the weight a little next time, which has not been the case for the longest while here haha. Superset to end things. Dumbbell lateral raises and half kneeling single arm band rows. I was pleased I was able to increase the weight on the lateral raises last time. Hopefully could manage that again. The row part of things I wasn’t sure if I should attempt to increase the band tension as it can be tricky adding bands. I ultimately did add a band to the big band as it was too easy last time. The laterals were a little tougher since the weight combination wasn’t allowing me to have it got down to my thighs. But this was fine and felt strong. Could tell my neck and traps were still tense from everything still. The rows definitely took a bit more effort this time around. A good spot really. The tension felt like too much at the start but eventually I got adjusted to it and it moved like it should. Even when feeling worn down on stuff, I’m glad stuff still going up and improving. It will be the testing day on Saturday that I’m concerned/stressing about. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Again, getting to bed earlier with some Nyquil to hopefully keep recovery up.

February 1, 2025 – Week 8, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Box Jumps (22”)
18”x1
24”x1
30”x3
30”x3
30”x3
30”x3

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
385x1
425x1
472x8
420x3

12” Wagon Wheel Deadlifts
185x5
275x3
365x1
415x1
Added Straps
465x1
521x4
468x4

Paused Elite FTS Chest Supported T Bar Rows (2 seconds)/Glute Ham Raises (4 showing)
+100x8/bwx19
+100x8/bwx18
+100x8/bwx15
+100x8/bwx15

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: I was nervous for this workout. Because of how tough and heavy deadlifts felt last week. This was the testing session and I was terrified that I would not do as well as I was hoping I would here. I was worried that I’d fall short of that and that I was too tired to even get anxious. Last time this testing day came around, I was annoyed with how anxious I was going into the deadlifts and now I wanted that to be there desperately. I wanted to make sure I was still on the right path with my training. The whole focus is more so geared toward the deadlift capacity so if that fails, what was the point? Ok, not really but it is the combination of stress (it has only been 2 weeks of this). I was also stretching myself a little thin as plans to help out with Arnold prep for one person and then also doing the training/coaching for my younger sister. This month she is doing her training on Saturdays to get time at the gym and see if that last 1% of uncertainty will disappear after session or two. I made sleep the priority and did the getting stuff ready in the morning before heading out. About half way out to the gym I was thinking maybe I should’ve taken all the allergy stuff and not just nasal spray. There were a good bit of people at the gym. About half for strongman and the other half I guess general fitness stuff. There was a dog (I think a Portuguese water dog) that was very friendly that came up to me and that was nice and bit helpful with my nerves petting her. I was not feeling great and was regretting not taking all the meds. Did the warming up that I feel seems to work best for this day. Dropping some stuff and adding some stuff. I do feel like I am getting better at warming up for these box jumps. I had pretty much decided I was doing 30” for the working sets this week after last week. I was not expecting the allergies to hit me so hard right before I went (little coughing fit) so I was anxious how these would go. But I feel like these went better than 28” initially went and I was feeling good by the end of it. Which is usually the case. By this point, my sister got to the gym. She unfortunately had to wait as what she needed to use for the session was in use. So I went on to deadlifts. I had kind of hoped that I’d get through at least these before dedicating time to the coaching duties. So on top of the nervousness about how deadlifts would feel heavy, I was also dealing with not feeling so great in general. Bad allergies or a weak cold mind you. I guess the one thing that was at least in my favor was that the weights seemed to be moving well warming up. I didn’t throw up in my mouth warming up this time like last testing day in the previous block. Then it was time to do the rep set. Plan here was a top set with 90% of the training max and leaving 1RIR. With how 460lbs felt last week, I was worried that I’d get triple here with 472lbs. I changed the music to something more intense here as I kind of needed it with how I was feeling. This is the one session I allow myself to do this during these training blocks. After that first rep, I felt like a lot of my fear was assuaged but I could feel the fatigue after the first four reps. Catching my air at the top of the lift seems to work best for me. I ended up with 8 reps here with for sure 1RIR. Maybe 2RIR was there but it wasn’t for certain like when I did 445lbs last training block. I had kind of hoped I’d get 10 reps here again but considering how I was feeling and how much this training block has taxed stuff, I’ll take it. My hope is with how things will be this next block that I will be able to put it all together without the fatigue. Dropped down to 420lbs for a triple. I then took an extended break to help out with my sister’s training (she had a time she needed to go) and other stuff. I get distracted with helping setup stuff and spotting when it comes to strongman stuff. She did 90-100% contest weight on what we had planned which is a bit ahead of schedule from how long she has been in non-competition mode. I think if she feels that in a good spot with the next week that she may be all in for the competition. I’m not sure how long a break this ended up being but it was probably an hour. I had kind of hoped that I’d have gotten through all the deadlift stuff first and then it just be accessory stuff but not the case. So I had to warm up a bit more to do the 12” wagon wheel pulls. These also had a testing day. Unlike the deadlifts with a set percentage weight and repping, I was to find a max on these. Top set of 4 reps and then 10% off that for another set of 4 reps. Feeling off, I wasn’t sure. These slightly elevated pulls had actually been feeling pretty good comparatively. Which I think was what also let me know I wasn’t completely buggered with my deadlift last week. Ideally, I wanted to do about the same weight or more than the 14” pulls but that potentially might not be the case. Last warm up lift was 465lbs and that actually felt pretty darn good so I said, screw it, go big. A little less than what I did on the 14” pulls but considering I was thinking more like 505lbs for this working, I’ll take it. Got more intense music for this again. Throat was feeling a little scratchy and I was grunting loud on these reps. I potentially undershot this a little bit like I did with the 14” pulls. But that is ok. Down set felt about the same difficult honestly because I guess a done deal after that top set. That was it for the deadlifting. The supersets to end the day. The first pairing of paused chest supported rows and glute ham raises. 4x8 and then 4 sets of reps. A little warm up set on both seemed to feel good last time. My right biceps is a little tight but I think loading up with 25’s vs 45’s made the 10lbs increase on the rows that much tougher. Didn’t feel like that warm up set for the rows was enough with how these felt. The ghr stuff did seem to be good. I pushed these a bit more this time around. Which netted me 7 more additional reps in volume over last time. I was feeling pretty sweaty and exhausted at this point but I had to finish things up with the last superset pairing. This one didn’t require as much thinking. Single leg seated band leg curls and the hollow hold thing I’m doing with the medicine ball. I was kind of surprised my hamstrings weren’t so darn fatigued at this point but not complaining. It is good they are getting strong and conditioned. I always seem to pick a challenging starting weight on these abdominal hold exercises and it ends up being what I use the entire time. Though same could be said for the single leg banded curls this block. I was feeling quite done by the end of this and maybe a little worse for wear. Then I drank my protein shake and perked up a good bit. Decided it made more sense to get home before the sunset and stretch at home. One last week of this block and then moving into the final four weeks after that. Crunch time to get things figured out for after that I guess.