June 28, 2025 – Week 5, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Tosses (13’6”)
30x1
35x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
55x1
30x1/35x1/40x1
35x1/40x1/45x1
35x1/40x1/45x1
40x1/45x1/50x1

Zercher Yoke/Sandbag Carry & Loads (47”, with run backs, turf)
230x50’/200x50’
320x50’/225x50’
410x50’/250x50’
500x50’/275x50’
500x50’/275x50’

Rolling D-Handle Hangs (2” handles)
bw for 5 seconds
bw+35 for 7.70 seconds/bw for 17.96 seconds (30 seconds rest)
bw+35 for 6.86 seconds/bw for 12.83 seconds (20 seconds rest)
bw+35 for 3.90 seconds/bw for 6.40 seconds (20 seconds rest)
bw for 13.03 seconds

Backwards Sled Drags (turf)
415x75’
415x75’

Stretching

Comments: Work continues to be stressful but I guess thankfully Friday was not so bad considering things. But it isn’t just work. Just the constant deluge of crap with all levels of government. It is frustrating and stressful seeing stuff deteriorate so quickly. But this isn’t about that. A slight break in the heat finally. I slept in a little later just because I knew there was still some stress rolling around in my head that I needed to sleep off and I wanted to hopefully see if my knee was feeling up to training today. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with driving the new car. I still get a little concerned with how big the car is to what I’m used to driving and being spatially aware of how much space I have in a lane or parking. There were people actually training strongman today. While volume of training was going to be lower for me, it was going to require more setup. I did not get to start training as quickly as I would’ve liked as other people were training and get pulled in different directions with assisting on things. But I also kind of needed to wait to get stuff to setup anyways. Lower body needed a lot of foam rolling. I was kind of surprised by that considering usually this day needs the least amount. Neck rehab stuff was fine and did mobility stuff. Knees were feeling ok. Even though it was considerably cooler, it was more humid and I was just sweating standing around, which isn’t great. So first thing was bag toss. I’ve not done this with real intent in over a year. I’ve done some backwards tosses overhead to see if things made sense with the toss for distance but it was quite clear one of was better than the other with the weight. I had got the sandbags weighed out and set at 5lbs jumps from 30lbs to 60lbs with option to add 2.5lbs and 5lbs if needed. Show is 5 bags starting at 20kgs and ending on 28kgs (2kgs jumps) over 13’6” (well as close as the meter to feet conversion works). So decently heavy bags but a good bit lower than most tosses are in the US. I wasn’t sure how these would go but I had some hopes. One was that the neck rehab has helped and that I’m not getting tension or pain in my shoulder on these. I did some band dislocates as part of my warm up. I generally do a bit more warming up with getting flow and bounding but I felt that I was going to be in the heat a lot and since I had to setup the tower myself (since the previous setup broke) that I should probably go with light and work up and hopefully that gets me feeling ok enough. This is also going to be like the penultimate event on the final day too so not going to feel fresh. So the plan for the session was work up in singles and then do 3 sets of 3 with tosses as ascending weight. Work up and see how things are feeling and kind of hopefully hit a decently tough throw without a miss and then work on going for multiple bags. I tend to have issues with getting the power out put for several attempts and chasing down the bag tends to give me more rest then I’d normally have. The time limit is only 45 seconds for this. I also need to get used to the likelihood of my glasses and headwear coming off from doing the triple extension several times violently. I did not bring my sunglass lens but I guess I thought it was going to stay cloudy. But honestly, it wasn’t an issue I had with sun in my eyes. But I need to remember for next time potentially. Granted, this will be inside at contest. I’m definitely out of practice and not getting the full height if I was treating these as EMOM singles or a max toss. I do feel that the high pulls and the powell raises were helpful in helping me maintain pulling form and get better extension in the upper body. But I know I’ll need to get everything to synch up together. Plan is have this week be event focused and the alternated week being working variations. I started with 30lbs and worked up to 55lbs, which had been my goal. I didn’t feel like 60lbs would happen for sure so stopped there. So from there moving to the three bag series. I wasn’t sure how these would go so I started with the three lightest bags. I was definitely moving slow off the mark. Not trying to rush. It is hard to gauge if I should be trying to throw fast or not as the lighter bags are quite easy but with this series, the last bag is still 4lbs under the first bag of the event series. So that went well enough so I decided I’d go up a bag so everything 5lbs more. First two were fine but 45lbs bag I didn’t time right and it went into the band. Thankfully the band is the thickest one so not going to move or snap and also didn’t knock over the setup either. I was then able to get it over. I didn’t want a miss but I didn’t want to go down to the first series again as I knew this was a technical issue. So set it up again. Made the corrections that time and got closer with the 45lbs and no issues. That had felt good so I figured I’d go up another 5lbs. So now I was doing a little over the first two bags in the series after the first bag tossed. I hesitated a little after the first toss as I wasn’t sure if it had gone over. Second bag I knew it had and then with the third I brought the bag close stopped to treat it more like a max single toss. Just got it over. I need to work on getting my ankles and lower body more into these and load the hips. But I’m pleased with my upper body extension on these. This was a good start to these considering my worries. So put this away and got ready for the one event that I knew was going to be a bastard to do and recover from: zercher and sandbag. The inside concrete area was in use but I had kind of planned to do these on turf so I could actually get the full 15m for each thing. Not enough space on the concrete. I also didn’t want to do this on the uneven payment outside in the sun. I had hoped that my EMOM and EOMOM stuff had conditioned me enough for what this suck was going to be but I guess not. Initially I was thinking of just doing sets of these but breaking in half to build up and then do just one set in the final week for competition test. But I figured that may be too taxing to recover from. This is the only event that is 75 seconds time limit. Run yoke zercher style 15m, run back 15m to sandbag to carry 15m and then load over the yoke crossbar and then repeat to bring it all back. Working up I felt that having 90lbs jumps with yoke and 25lbs jumps for sandbag worked and just do half the course (so 45m total) on the working up sets. Add support gear as I went. Using the grip shirt here. Cutting the sleeves off definitely made it easier to take on and off as well as having it easier to “breathe” as far as sweat. Working up I could tell this was going to suck. More so because the part I felt was going to be easier (sandbag carry) was not. The zercher carry is really slowing me down and pre-fatiguing things for the sandbag. It could also be with my deadlift weights increasing about 150lbs from two weeks ago. What I ended up doing was my planned weight but I had to break it into two sets. I just couldn’t function after the first set. But I tried to take as short a rest as I could before doing the second set. Which ended up being 2.5 minutes after checking the video. The zercher carry while slow, was solid and I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out which is great. The sandbag on the second run I was so slow as I just felt everything in my posterior chain fatigue hard and trying to go any faster I felt like I’d stumble and lose control. I was surprised that my second run was actually faster overall then the first one by a second or so. I guess I was a bit more efficient on the carry of the yoke and pick of the sandbag the second run. But I was dead after the second set. I had been foolish in plans to think that I could’ve done these for 2 more sets with short rests as I had initially planned. Considering it took me over 40 seconds both runs, unless I get a lot faster even with immediate recovery, I’m not likely to finish this event in the time cap. Looking at getting distance hopefully with the second leg of the yoke depending on if I can adapt to 95lbs more and probably best case is distance on the second sandbag. The 275lbs I used is a really tough bag since it is 25lbs underfilled 300lbs. I don’t have a 130kgs bag so this will work for that as just 5kgs under. In retrospect, I probably should’ve done 225lbs bag paired with 500lbs zercher and then done 50lbs/25lbs jumps to finish up the training. I’m going to have to think on what adjustments considering the difficulty here going forward. Speaking of making adjustments that weren’t expected is the grip work. For the contest, it is 50mm rolling handles for the Hercules hold. 50mm being about 2” with the conversion. I had gotten some handles with knurling that kind of revolved but not that well. They had been relatively cheap to setup for the previous show. However, didn’t end up coming to pass but I had seen what the intended handles had been and they were not knurled and were smooth with easy revolving handles. Much tougher then what I had. So when it was announced it would be a Hercules hold 2” handles, I bought something similar to that. Now I don’t know if they are going to be smooth or knurled handles. Prep from last time seemed to be good for getting grip up to par so that was what I was going to do. Warm up and do a RPE 9 set aiming for 45 seconds or more. Did just bodyweight for a 5 seconds and it seemed to feel like how the other handles I had did so I assumed I could put the weight on there like I did. Wrong. This became quite clear when I was feeling like I was immediately losing it after 5 seconds. Well damn it. I took weight off and reset and did no weight but even that was way too much as I didn’t get to 20 seconds there. Woof. So change of plans. I’d do these “drop sets” with weight added and no weight for sets and try to get over 45 seconds combined. I know that I tend to have a big drop off in time after a first set effort. I didn’t know how long I was resting between the drops so didn’t know until afterwards that I had taken longer on the first set by 10 seconds. Second set was decent compared to the first but the third set was a big drop off and clue to stop there. I was planning to be done but showing the setup to someone else there it was feeling easy again so I did another set at bodyweight but got humbled again haha. I can feel my forearms being really tense from these. I was wise to get these handles and plan to work my crush grip this prep for this event as this is really tough. I will need to rethink how I want to work the prep on these going forward as I don’t think I can hit longer times with my bodyweight but Hercules is a pain without at least 2 other people. It was about an hour later than I was expecting it to be at this point. I had also not expected to be sweating so damn much either. Last thing was some more leg work. Backwards sled drag. I had liked doing these last prep but not having supersetted. I plan on only doing these twice. My hope here was this would help knees feel better going into this prep since I know that power stairs will beat them up. Just 2 sets of 60-75’ here. I was not sure if I wanted to do 335lbs with a max of 405lbs. But I think I was annoyed enough with how things went with the zercher medley and the rolling handles that I just put all the weights that were nearby on it so it was 415lbs. Slow and steady. Took me about a minute for the first set going into it with not much and then about 10 seconds faster the second set. So that was a good end there. Downed my shake before I put stuff away and headed home to stretch as it was already like I said an hour later than I wanted it to be.

June 26, 2025 – Week 5, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Deadlifts (straps)
136x3
186x3
226x3
276x2
316x2
366x1
416x1
466x5
437x5
437x5

Axle Jerk Dip Squats (3 second eccentric)
136x3
186x3
226x3
276x3
326x3 (15 seconds hold last rep)

Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bwx3/3
bwx3/3
bw+55x10/10
bw+55x10/10
bw+55x10/10

Paused Snatch Grip Back Extensions (1 second)/Roman Chair Sit-ups
75x10/bwx12
75x10/bwx12

Stretching

Comments:  Today the heat wave is allegedly breaking. But not really sure what that is going to mean as it seems like it is still going to be hot. Work has been stressful with pretty much having now a third of the staff in the unit from like 7yrs ago. I feel like I’m doing 9 times the work I had to be doing from then. At the very least, I’m doing 3 times the work duties. I needed a good bit of soft tissue work warming up. My right knee is achy. I kind of knew it would be like this because of how my knees were feeling Saturday on that last yoke run and then the power stairs and leg presses. So not doing knee based stuff Monday was helpful but not being able to really go for a walk after work Tuesday meant I wasn’t moving around. Just have to hope that my knees recover with the new split and wearing knee sleeves for the sessions. Neck rehab after the foam rolling and then mobility stuff. No cleans now as merging the lift together so this was going to be starting off with axle pulls. No pauses or anything like last week. Using the big wheels and standing on platform to get to standard height. I’ve not pulled from the floor for a good bit as it was likely February as it has been elevated pulls and the floor pulls have been just the past 4 weeks with most of it being under 300lbs. 350lbs had already felt tougher than I was expecting to and had hoped the 390lbs would feel like that. But made the choice to stick to 350lbs because of that. It still left me open to hitting the numbers I wanted assuming that the bigger gap between the “heavy” and “light” day would work in my favor for recovery. But no clue how heavier would go with one less day to recover and pulling 394lbs for 10 reps total on power stairs on top of 250’ with 600lbs on yoke. I’ve not done a max axle pull from the floor with straps besides warming up at the 2019 Arnold. I had a show that was to be 18” pull with axle at 600lbs but ended up being 600lbs from the floor and that didn’t go well (no straps but then allowed). I’ve done 552lbs without straps (alternated grip) back in 2009 and that was also without a belt (as didn’t know no better). Plan was to work up to 80% for a set of 5 reps and then drop down to 75% for 2x5. Rest up to 5 minutes if needed. I set things up so that I was able to do 40-50lbs jumps and adjust as needed if this ended up to be too much for me on the day. This was like one of those things where every other set from terrible. It is difficult to find the right position here. 366lbs was the best feeling pull and it is what told me I should be good today and stay in it. Could definitely tell that I’m not used to regular deadlifts as this was feeling in lower back for sure. This was thankfully not a max set of 5 reps here. I was worried I was taking too long between sets to recover but thankfully I was only about 4.5 minutes for rest going from the top set to the second set and I was able to keep things the same for the last set. It is a little hard to gauge reps in the tank with how I’m pulling but I feel like 2RIR and 3RIR respectively on the low. Like, these are absolutely certain but likely do another for each. Maybe these will feel better next time with slightly more recovery and maybe my right knee won’t be feeling achy. I’m not under any delusions about getting contest weight of 661lbs in training or even at the contest. I will likely just walk out and take a zero and not warm up to save energy. Only way I see myself trying will be if I get 600lbs or more in training comfortably. Still going to keep working deadlift as if I will be pulling as I need to monitor training recovery and tweak as needed in the event I actually get things on point and need to be able to perform at my best on everything contested. It would be nice to get over 550lbs in this prep on this. Moved outside for more axle fun. This was a little bit of a late addition. Trying to keep things kind of in blocks. Doing stuff to work parts of the axle movement with overload so that hopefully I can get at least 130kgs on the day from where I am now. So bringing back the axle jerk drive squats. I had done these with log for SC Nats prep in 2017 with some success with improving my log pressing (though fell short on the day). Work up in triples over 5 sets to a top set and then hold. Axle the hold isn’t quite as taxing as log so that was the main focus. This was more getting comfortable with rack position and doing the slow eccentrics into the dip and then launching back up. The fever of the heat was breaking slightly as it would drizzle a little bit. I had the fan outside on as I was wearing the grip shirt to get used to what I’ll likely be using. I ended up taking scissors to the sleeves afterwards as they are too restrictive and I think that might be why I was having some issues with my press using it in the past when fatigued. Essentially did 40-50lbs jumps here. Plan was to do 30-50lbs over what I could press right now. Knees were achy but I felt in control here. Used the big wheels too. Last set I did go up 10lbs more than I was planning just because. Reps felt strong. I think I need to get used to this rack position so not stressing shoulders to much. Held for 15 seconds after the last rep and then walked it back in to rack. So this went ok as well. I’ll likely do these one more time next heavy axle pull day before dropping and focusing energies elsewhere. Now the stepdowns have been the end of the session for the past four weeks. Well not this time. Last of the “heavier” sessions as plan is to wind these down as there are more moving events this prep and swap in something different that will work on my stride length. So next two sessions going to be greater ROM and lighter weight. I wasn’t sure how these would go as last time my knees felt great and felt like crap the time before. Feeling like crap now and having done the axle jerk drives. So I decided I’d do two sets of bodyweight without the knee sleeves to make sure I could tolerate these today. The second set was definitely helpful. 55lbs is the most I’ve tried on these so that felt a bit unwieldy setting up but once I sturdied myself, it wasn’t too bad. Definitely harder than 45lbs was last week for sure. This was definitely the most effort I’ve had to put into these so it was nice seeing that legs were getting worked. The last thing was the new thing replacing the good mornings. Well, kind of. I was initially going to just do one exercise but I felt it was a good idea to pair these with an antagonistic movement. I’m not doing pull-ups and dips every week like I had been so I’m not getting decompression of the spine to start off every week. Back extensions with varying intensity and holds is the thing at the moment with being the “lighter” session on my “heavier” deadlift sessions. I’ve made some changes to my initial plan besides that. In either case, this was snatch grip back extensions with slight holds and the supersetted with roman chair sit-ups. Plan was RPE 6-7 for the back extensions. With the abdominal stuff, thinking is to pair with the light sessions to work both spine flexion and extension with having bag toss be a thing as well as get some stress to the area for the load over bar stuff too. I was a bit surprised that there felt like an area I was missing doing other stuff with the back extensions. I had put 10lbs on to what I was initially planning as thinking I was starting too light. I guess not. Out of practice on the roman chair stuff. Hopefully I don’t get terrible DOMS there. Training done and stretched out after eating. Hopefully my knee feels better by Saturday training.

June 23, 2025 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Close Grip Bench Presses
45x5
75x5
105x5
135x5
165x5
195x5
225x5
255x5

Narrow Grip Bench Presses
230x5
 
Inverted Ring Rows
bw+20x12
bw+20x12
bw+20x12
bw+20x15

Chaos Band Bradford Presses w/ Chains
45+22cx3
45+44cx12
45+44cx10

Powell Raises
17x12/12 
19x12/12
20x12/12

Band Triceps Pushdowns
sbx30 (neutral grip)
sbx30 (pronated grip)

Stretching
 
Comments: It was damn hot since Saturday. I thought Saturday had been quite brutal in the sunshine but Sunday was way worse. I didn’t want to do anything Sunday but I knew I needed to do some moving around as I was stiff and sore in my back and knees. I was likely not going to get to do any walking Tuesday since also going to be hot and I was going to be having to go in to the office for the currently once a month dumb thing. The “heat wave” was initially only going to be Sunday and Monday but been extended to Wednesday. I made sure I got to walking around noon before it got really hot on Sunday. Weight down slightly from last week. Training for this day was a bit changed from what it has been for the rest of the training prep. Some stuff just not recovering weekly. And I think it was going to be more apparent this week with the Saturday training session and having these next two sessions a day earlier than usual with recovery days from the previous week. My knees and lower back had taken quite a beating with the yoke and power stairs stuff with no knee sleeves or belt. I figured I’d need a bit of soft tissue work. Neck rehab was a majority of the warming up as this was not a lower body drive upper body session so there wasn’t really a need to work the knees and ankles as much. Perhaps let them recover a little. But still did the stretching and such. The heat was beastly so thankfully my changes didn’t have me doing any outside work today. Purely in the garage with three fans going at all times. So actually pretty tolerable. The rotation is trying to go off something that seemed to work with training as far as building up overhead press and that was with alternating bench press one week with the overhead press variation. I’ve not really been doing bench as worry about shoulder fatigue and such. Had been doing the four days a week and then dropped back to three days. And usually the variations had been board or log incline. Regular benching had not really been pushed and had been with chains and trying to have it be something done where it was more speed focus. My shoulders hadn’t really been thrilled with that stuff but that was also with I think not realizing the neck issue and not actively including stuff to stretch out my pecs during warming up. So axle clean and press one week, close grip bench the other. So for this first week, trying to not kill myself. So work up in sets of 5 reps to a top set of 5 reps which is hopefully well under what I can do. Ideally something that is 70% my max. That I should be able to do for 10 reps. Like I said, it has been a bit so I assumed I was down on press here. Decided I’d do 30lbs jumps starting with the bar and that should hopefully get me to 255lbs as my top set with those jumps. But things just felt a little off today with setting up on bench. I fiddled with the rack height a little but seems this is where it is right now. Oh well. Left shoulder was fine, right shoulder would get tight and need to crack my elbow from the tension building up after the sets. But this actually felt pretty good considering how things have been lately with benching. I don’t think changing the ROM would really do anything for the shoulder thing with how it was. Warming up was feeling ok. Could tell I’m out of practice with the reps. 135lbs felt fine and then of course adding 30lbs more things started to get a little challenging. I had not wanted 225lbs to feel like it had. That had been how I had hoped 255lbs would’ve felt. So I guess need to take things a little more serious. I didn’t get super hyped up or anything for these. Just a little more focused. I knew the plan here was to just get a break in session. 255lbs looks like it moved really easy on camera but it had felt a bit challenging on the last rep. I don’t think I’d have gotten 10 with how I approached that set and was feeling. But it is a starting point. Next was to drop 10% off that top set and do another set but bring my hands in closer by 2”. My close grip is already pretty close so guess call this narrow grip. I’m not sure. These were ok. Little hitch/hiccup with the last rep going up smoothly. Sticking point on these can hit hard with the close a grip. Like I said, a starting point. And hopefully I will feel more comfortable next time around. Since I had done horizontal pressing, it made sense to do horizontal rowing. Which would be the inverted ring rows. I’ve like doing these were I do reps for certain sets and then go for max reps on the last set leaving 1-2RIR. I wasn’t too sure how I wanted to start with these. On one hand, I’ve not done them in a few months and not sure how they’d feel from doing other stuff (left brachialis potentially calming down). Fatigue on these can hit hard as well over sets when not doing them consistently. But the other point is that I’ve been doing those cable rows and built those up a good bit over the past four weeks so I should be fine I think. I guess see how I feel touching them and go from there. So setup for just bodyweight but I knew just doing one rep that I was going to do 20lbs added in the back pack for my sets. Feeling good here. I knew I’d probably not set any PRs on the rep set with not really doing these and pushing things that hard on rowing exercises with all the other things stressing biceps. Did 3x12 and then an extra 3 reps for the fourth set. The rest of the workout was lighter stuff to hit shoulders and triceps. Trying to have the bench be the stressful stuff and the other week with axle the more stressful day. The first exercise was kind of a new one for me. I had planned to do this as something in my original off season plan before making an about face. I’ve done some chaos weight stuff but never really got a chance to be consistent with doing overhead. But the plan here was to do alternating pressing from shoulders and behind the neck with chaos band weight while seated. No back support. Not locking out the weight either so keeping tension on the shoulders the entire time. Something that works the shoulders but is easy on the joints and will hopefully promote blood flow and help keep shoulders happy. I felt that using chains would be the most “alive” weight to attach. I had no idea how these would feel but thankfully no discomfort. Fatigue definitely builds on these. It is also hard to keep track of reps as I’m counting a rep to the front and rep from behind as a single rep. I essentially miscounted on both sets. I had thought I did 10 reps the first set and then seeing as I did 12, I attempted 12 reps the second set and got 10 reps when I watched video. So that was a little confusing. The plan was 2 sets of 10-15 with it being RPE 6. So I feel like the RPE was correct for these then. I’ll likely try to get more reps and actually do the same reps each set. Powell raises were up next. I did just do these for the first time last week and ideally like to give them a week before coming back but it didn’t seem to make sense to have these with the axle press session as these are a bit more intense compared to say face pulls or other external rotation stuff. This is also a new exercise so there could be some quick adaptation here. Plan was 3x12 with a little more intensity than last time. I felt like last time I had overshot the effort I was to do here so I was contemplating doing the same weight or just a smidge more. It would seem that I had a better understanding of the movement or was maybe not so beat from other stuff by this point as I kept needing to add weight each set (a few lbs) to have things be the right effort. Even that last set felt easier than what I did last week. I wasn’t truly resting between sides so I imagine these could improve a bit more. I was kind of moving things along as it was still pretty hot (but not so much I had to change shirts) and because I had to get up earlier to go into the office the next day. Last thing being triceps. Just band pressdowns with idea being 2x20-30. I wasn’t sure what I would do here as far as band tension as it has been a bit here as well. I tested the strong band and it felt like it would work. I did the first set with my hands positioned in a neutral grip. I was a little surprised 30 reps was comfortable enough. I decided I’d switch up to pronated grip (definitely harder) for the second set. Took a bit more effort to get 30 reps but I did. It has been a bit since I’ve done them as triceps were lighting up from them. But not so much they were spasming afterwards like I sometimes have happen when I push triceps things and they can’t keep up with the effort/volume. Put stuff away and got delivery for dinner as it was too damn hot to cook anything inside and I wanted to eat now, not later. Stretched before going to bed.

June 21, 2025 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle High Pulls from Blocks (9”)
113x2
157x2
201.5x2
245.5x2
289.5x4
295x4
300.5x4
306x4

Yoke/Power Stairs (17”)
235x25’/25’ -- 214x2
325x25’/25’ -- 259x2
415x25’/25’ -- 304x2
505x25’/25’ -- 349x2
EOMOM
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
110x5/440x10
155x5/660x6
220x13/880x15
220x7/880x8
220x7/880x8

Wide MAG Grip Cable Rows
140x5
180x5
220x15
220x15

Stretching

Comments: Last session of this current higher volume block of training. I kind of knew that some parts of the session today would be rougher than others since I pretty much have to get everything back to the M-W-S schedule of training after the competition at the gym the previous week. So not as much rest from the last lower body training session. Hopefully this will be the last time between now and the competition with needing to make those kinds of changes (not counting the week of for family vacation as that may actually work out). I think I’ve got the plan in place for training the rest of prep with the different phases of things. Biggest change being upper body session as going back to alternating overhead with lower body drive and benching sessions. I didn’t really feel a rush to go out to train today so I did sleep in an hour to make sure I was feeling rested. A good bit of traffic getting out of the city but after that no real issues. Again, not many people at the gym today. It felt really hot out today (and it will be hotter the next two days at least). I had brought about 300lbs of sand to get some bags and such ready for the next part of prep but I wasn’t sure if I was going to spend time doing that today. I knew I’d need more foam rolling for the lower body since I wasn’t getting as much rest between sessions and weights had been heavier. Neck rehab continues to be good. Simplified mobility stuff. No issues with hips or adductors warming up. Starting things off with the axle high pulls. Knurled axle again. Plan was to do 4x4 with 5kgs more than last time as progress has been good. Especially with having the knurling helping with keepings things from slipping. I was kind of surprised how well things were feeling as I was definitely expecting some lower back soreness here. I did make a change from my plan here in that I’ve been sticking to the same weight each set on these once up to working weight. But with adjusting things for the next block, I’m not going a two week phase of another axle clean variation and going into the full motion. So I figured if I was feeling good, I’d take a little more rest (only because how long it takes to adjust weight, the blocks and secure things) and go up 2.5kgs a set. I wasn’t too sure what that would be as I was doing these but my hope was that I’d be doing over 300lbs for the last set. Trying to set things up where I’m touching around that weight on the things that are to be “overload” for parts of the lift for axle. I know it isn’t where I want it to be right now and I do wish I had more time to figure out what actually works for me. These went ok. I did end up having to put liquid chalk on my hands for the last one because I was sweating too much even with the knurling. I really dislike training events during the summer months. Now on to the medley stuff. So today was yoke into power stairs. This had ended up being much more exhausting compared to the zercher carry and sandbag carry into load pairing last time. It being as tough as it was had been the major reason I considered doing EOMOM or adding some support gear to be able to recover and manage. Plan here was to do no support gear other than knee sleeves on the power stairs to protect my knees from the implement causing serious bruises. These two exercises definitely let me know that my lower back was fatigued from deadlifts and goodmornings on Thursday. Same distance plan with 25’ down and back with weight (so getting two picks) for yoke but dropping the reps from 3 to 2 on the power stairs. The runs for yoke are half the distance I’m to be doing for show and the power stairs are quite heavy and don’t need to be killing myself with volume there as I still got deadlifts during the week. I was thinking I should go up the steps each time here (as longer rest period I could reset) but I figured it was best to make myself deload each rep during this volume phase and save going up steps for the next phase when doing just one top set. The picks for yoke felt heavy on my knees and I felt a little stiff and slow. However, unlike last time, I actually got better each set up to the 3rd run and then it dipped only a little after that. Which is generally how I seem to be with multiple sets. The power stairs were quite rough in comparison. First set was ok but the second set felt like a disaster with how tough it was to get the reps. My knee sleeves weren’t really helping much with protecting my knees as they were getting bastarded with the plates. But my third set with them felt the best. I didn’t have any doubts about finishing up the yoke runs (though my knees were feeling it with the power stairs) and it was more the power stairs with sweat and fatigue. I had tried to cut down on sweat by taping my wrists and using combo of isopropyl alcohol spray, liquid chalk and chalk but to no real avail. Exhausting but I have remind myself that this was all without any belts on either things. I was quite overheated here but I didn’t need to lie down in front of a fan like last time so I guess that is something. Hair drenched with sweat. But it was hot and sunny enough that leaving stuff outside was drying them out. Supersetting tempo seated leg curls with deadlift start leg presses. Last of these for a bit I guess. I got to cut back so I can do more event specific stuff and let stuff recover. With the leg curls, doing tempo stuff and plan was same weight as last week and try to get an extra rep on the first set and then do about half those reps on the other two sets. For leg press, this was to go for a top set of 15 reps and then 2x8 with same weight. What it has been the past few weeks really. This is one of those exercises where it takes a bit to figure out where I’m at and what I can do. As well as taking time to get things adjusted. Besides that very first week, I’ve felt like I’ve been under weight on these by a good bit, despite making some pretty big jumps. 90lbs the first time, then 50lbs the second time and I was considering 80lbs for this time. Leg curls were fine working up but my knees were about killing me at the start. I know it was from the power stairs as they had been fine doing the high pulls and the previous lower body session. Just being whacked about was not helping things. They were still aching on the second work up set but I could tell that things were fine with how the legs were feeling so I stuck to my plan to load up 880lbs. The leg curls were fine and then it was time to leg press 400kgs for a little more than a baker’s dozen. This felt really heavy to unrack but then I did the reps and again felt like I left stuff on the table here. But I feel like I was a lot closer to what I should be getting. So maybe 20lbs for sure left. Then the last thing that was actually part of the workout was the seated cable rows. Heavier session of pushing it on 2x15 for the sets. Still supposed to leave 3-5RIR even with pushing it. I already had my mind set on a 20lbs increase here. There is still some tension in the left arm as far as brachialis and forearm but It is manageable. The first set was feeling a little challenging so I was surprised the second set felt easier. I slammed a shake after this but I wasn’t quite done for the day as I figured I’d try and get the sandbag situation taken care of. This ended up taking over an hour. Adjusted the throw bags so now I have 30-60lbs in 5lbs increments (and found all my 5lbs bags that people inconsiderately left inside bags). The thing that was the time vampire was the sandball implement as I had paver’s sand that wasn’t moving smoothly. I had gotten the biggest size sandball as I wanted something awkward and needed to fill it up so it was underweight and not 308lbs or more. I think I got it where I want it at 278lbs (show is 286lbs). I went home to stretch rather than stay any longer as I was sure I was sweating way too much out.

June 19, 2025 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean Complexes (hang clean to 3 second pause to sternum first rep, regular rep second)
46x1+1
76x1+1
106x1+1
136x1+1
166x1+1
196x1+1
226x1+0
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1 (3 reactive dip drives)

Paused Axle 1+1/2 Deadlifts (3 seconds, 3” below knees, straps)
120x3
170x3
210x2
260x2
300x1
350x3
350x3
350x3
350x3

Rack Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
65x5
115x5
155x5
205x8
235x8
265x8

Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bwx3/3
bw+45x10/10
bw+45x10/10
bw+45x10/10

Stretching

Comments: It was good that June now has a holiday that I have off work. With how things were Tuesday and just kind of feeling tired and processing, I was essentially banking on using Thursday to catch up mentally and physically with myself. One thing I was able to kind of ruminate on was that my shoulders tend to not be at 100% after doing decent weight and volume of zercher yoke carries. I had this when training for Puller Express in 2023. I did go up 60lbs from the previous carry session as well as increase the pressing weights a good bit so shouldn’t have been so surprising. But I need to keep pushing the zercher stuff to be within a hell of a chance of doing that event at worlds. I need to manage recovery better to have success here. I’ve not missed being sweaty all the time with the heat and humidity. It looks like early next week that there could be a heat wave and potentially have temps “15 degrees hotter than normal” for this time of year. Really hope that doesn’t end up on my in office day as the place can’t get good airflow and I got to wear layers to be “professional”. I wanted to just sleep in and I could to some extent but I had to eventually get up and train today. I didn’t feel it was the best thing to train as if I had work and wait until after 5PM to start as I’m kind of playing catch up. I won’t have my usual 2 days of rest like I usually get before going into weekend training so best to train a little bit earlier so as I can maybe get a little more hours buffer before training hard again. I didn’t get to fully figure out my plans with training modifications but have a strong idea of the direction of things. But like I said, I needed to start training at some point. I was kind of surprised that my calves didn’t really need much in the way of foam rolling. The left one needed more than the right. Quads a bit tense but hamstrings fine. Having stiff/sore upper body seemed to distract from the inner thigh and hip thing on the right side. But I also think it is getting better. I was very surprised how tight my pecs were. Knees weren’t really barking at me at all warming up. Axle clean complexes to start things of. Same as last week with deadlift the first rep and then do a hang clean pull to sternum and then hold there for a 3ct before finishing the clean to the shoulders followed by a normal style axle clean. Sticking to no support gear besides a soft belt so that I have place for the slick axle to gain purchase. I had indicated that I was doing 3 stints of 2 weeks but with my plans and adjustments for upper body sessions and the time frame, this will be the last week. I need to integrate the full movement together sooner as well as potentially space out sessions more. I did try to stick with last time with mostly metal plates for loading. I was initially thinking 30lbs like I did with the first variation but that had been before I saw that that big a jump was a bit much to go up. I was perhaps too light the first week for the effort and way too heavy the second week. My hope was to have things a little closer with this variation. The first week it was good but it got too easy by the end but I didn’t want to stop and add weight and disrupt the zone I was in. Doing 16lbs more this time around felt like a safe bet. Maybe too safe. But I was also worried with how my upper body was feeling from the previous training and wondering if some stuff was overworked (shoulders and chest tight, tension in mid traps and right biceps). Things were feeling pretty crisp here. But it just seems that 30lbs jump right to the planned working weight felt a lot heavier than the previous 30lbs jumps. I missed the catch for the second rep of that first attempt. I was annoyed as this is what happened last time I did the second week. But as long as I regroup and don’t land on my butt, I’m doing better than last time. I put liquid chalk on my hands and went back at it. This definitely felt tougher than I’d have like here but it wasn’t as rough as the second week of the previous variation. The second half these started to feel easier and I was wondering if I should add a little weight. I decided against it as I may end up having to some more cleans around this weight next week so I elected to do 3 reactive dip drives after racking the last rep of the last set. Right shoulder was a little stiff here as not expecting it. I don’t know if it is just doing the zercher carry stuff that makes the “second week” feel harder or if it is just adding weight. I feel like these two variations were the most bang for their buck if not doing the regular clean (coupled with the block high pulls with axle). Took the weights off but still needing the axle for the deadlifting. No more snatch grip without a belt. The deadlift event for worlds is 300kgs (661lbs) with axle for reps from standard bar height. No suits or briefs allowed. This is the one that is like 99.99% chance I bomb it. I mean 645lbs on a deadlift bar from 2011 is my best ever “raw” deadlift per strongman standards. I have done 635lbs from 13” in 2023 and feeling like I could’ve done 650lbs. But I’m not there right now and most of my deadlifts lately have been elevated for the past few months. So I got to figure out where I am with an axle floor pull. I could’ve just put bumper plates on the axle and just do that but I wanted to be extra. Bumper plates can bounce a bit and wanted things to feel more sturdy and dense. And also like I had to setup for it. So I put the wagon wheels on the axle and stood on 4” platform so it was at standard height. So while not snatch grip, this was going to be similar to what I had been doing. These were going to be 1 ½ deadlifts with pauses. Pull up to about 3” below knee and hold for 3ct before setting the weight back down and then pulling for a full rep with no pause. That being one rep. I had a goal for the weight to hopefully be where I’m at which was pretty much just doing 40-50lbs jumps all the way up. Working weight to be 4x3. Well it has been a bit and as I was working up, it became apparent that the weight I was aiming for was going to be a lot harder than I wanted it to be and that would make this session not really a “lighter” week. So I swallowed my pride and did 40lbs less. These aren’t easy and it gets tiring fast. I guess it was good that I didn’t feel like I needed to take longer to rest between sets or that the sweat had anything slipping here. I will need to adjust my goal numbers here going forward. Though perhaps not as much as I thought as I think I just need to have the difference in percentage from the training max be greater from the light and heavy sessions. So treat this as 5% lighter for now on this and the next lighter session (variation change after two sessions). From there, on to the rack ssb gms again. Probably the last week of them for this training block. Things have been improving but I feel that keeping them in weekly will take away from recovery for the sandbag/sandball loading after this 4 week block winds up. Like a few of the things during this way shorter than I was planning offseason (that I had to modify), I think it is worth revisiting these when I get the opportunity to do offseason stuff again and stretch it out. I tried to piece it all together from the past three sessions here. Swapped in a fresh shirt. Knees were thankfully not as stiff/achy as last week but still noticeable with unracking the weight. This week being 3x8 with increasing weight. I figured that 15lbs more than last week with 30lbs jumps was about right if plan was not to really have any RIR. Those first two sets were not inspiring confidence in that assertion. But I do need to remind myself that these are the top weights thereabouts I did the first week and the second week respectively. Maybe I took the last set a little more seriously (I kind of build that in with adding more support) but this felt good and I feel like I left 2RIR here for certain. So I probably could’ve been greedier on this. Oh well. Last thing for the session was stepdowns. Still 3x10. These hadn’t felt so comfortable or good last week so I was kind of expecting that, especially since I was adding 10lbs more to them. I was fully prepared for my knees and ankles to be upset with me doing the bodyweight only to get acclimated. But things were good. Ok then. Added the weight and was expecting there to be resistance and discomfort. Not really. Things were going quite smoothly here. Comfortably even. So these went by pretty quick and I was done before I knew it. Took a little bit of time to put stuff away and stretch as I needed to eat something and kind of cool off. I still got to get thing sorted out but at least somethings feel good and on point.

June 17, 2025 – Week 4, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
50x5
80x5
110x3
140x3
170x2
200x2
220x1
240x1
225x4 (misload)
217x4
217x4

Paused Axle Push Presses (3 seconds in dip)
190x4
190x4

Dips
bwx5
bw+50x3
bw+95x8
bw+95x10

Pull-ups
bw+5x5
bw+5x5
bw+5x5
bw+5x5
bw+5x5

12” Log Seated Overhead Lockouts (7” ROM)
185x3
235x3
285x0
235x3
235x3

Powell Raises
16x12/12 
16x12/12
16x12/12

Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls
sbx25
sbx25

Stretching
 
Comments: I was a little in my own head because of that sensation in my right inner thigh and hip area. I’ve had this before (early 2018 and early 2023). Sometimes it actually is hip stuff but usually it seems that related to lower back pressure. I was hoping that mobility and warming up stuff as well as the potential decompression from exercises today would help with matters. Also thinking about how little time I really have with contest prep for this level of show. I mean, got as much notice as everyone else but I feel like I needed a better baseline and more time figuring out my training. But I guess positives is that my neck/shoulder thing has been more manageable. Been diligent with the rehab stuff. It has been damn humid the past few days. Raining off and on and then being muggy when it is not. Also dealing with some car related headaches (nothing in regards to the vehicle, just the paperwork bullshit). Also just a bit self conscious about my deadlifting and overhead but what else is new? Warming up and mobility stuff and stretching fine. I had made sure to target the hips/inner thighs with soft tissue work the day before and that seemed to help as well making sure I move and do walks. Then on to axle work. I may need to make adjustments to the training for this day going forward with how I was feeling. Plan here was to work up to a comfortable single (82.5%) and then do 3x4 with a little less than last week. But of course I tend to focus on where I want to be at and if I’m using the right numbers. I’ve been basing the training max off 270lbs and I’ve hit 290lbs as my best in the last 7 months out of the rack. So I got a little creative with the weights and I guess I was seeing how I felt. I was feeling pretty good warming up. Knees were really aching and aim was to do 230lbs for the single. But I started overthinking it. Put on the wheels. I do thing these make things feel heavier when doing these since they don’t move as smoothly with axle compared to my other plates. The weight with the wheels the first set working up felt decent so I figured I was good for today and decided to change things up. But the next set it felt tough. But I was stubborn and went with more jumps to get to 240lbs for the planned top single and then I’d do the same weights as last week for the down sets. 240lbs actually went up well enough. Just a bit rough considering this was 30lbs more than last week and that had already been about 30lbs more the week prior. The plan then was to do 3x4 but I screwed up my math. Original plan was 210lbs but figured I should do the correct percentage drop. Which erroneously got me to 225lbs (I felt this was a bit much considering). This felt tough. Heavy on my shoulders and triceps not really firing. This almost was 1RIR feeling (I was without belts or knee sleeves) and I wasn’t going to get two more sets if they ended up like this. At least not get them and be in a good place mentally. My match was off and I was to be doing 217lbs here. So corrected and these did go better than 225lbs but there was already some doubts and damage done here. Dropped down to 190lbs for the paused reps. Just 2x4 here but still doing the 3 seconds hold in the dip. These felt like they should as far as bar speed and difficulty. Didn’t feel as much variance between sets as far as fatigue compared to last time. With the axle work done, into the garage for dips. The dampness of the previous day and today messed with the electronics for the garage lights so it was a little dark. I think being inside let me catch up with how sweaty I was at this point. I was hoping that my fatigue in the upper body wasn’t going to be something holding back the dips today. I feel like I had a lot of lower body drive power but stuff feeling heavy in my shoulders and triceps. So it wasn’t great. Shoulders didn’t feel that achy warming up here on the dips. First set for just the prescribed 8 was fine. I was hoping these would help with getting hips and lower back decompressed and feeling good. Maybe that happened. The weight is getting to where it is moving me around a bit. Took a bit more effort than I’d have liked but I was able to keep to double digits on the second set. Moved on to pull ups. I had switched to doing lower reps but more sets as that seemed to be more in line with what I wanted to be doing and I wasn’t taking a long rest between sets to recover like I was doing with less sets and higher reps. Pull ups are one of those weird ones like that. I put in that this would be 4x5 session with 5lbs added to the dip belt. See how things went. I wasn’t as optimistic of 5x5 here as I remember how my forearms and such felt before after doing the zercher carries. Put on a fresh shirt as I had drenched the previous one. But things went well enough. I started cooking up dinner at this point as I knew this workout was taking longer than planned and with newer stuff at the end planned, may go long. It started raining about half way into this and it go more so as I went. I did a fifth set as these were feeling good. I’ll likely drop a set next time to increase weight a little bit more. Not sure as what I felt was certain is not so right now with the training prep with how I’m feeling today. Log rack work next. These sucked today. Dealing with the rain and setting this up and just being sweaty while it was raining was not fun. Plan had been to do less reps to hopefully get more reps on the top set with the same weight. I could tell that this wasn’t going to be as easy with how my shoulders felt fatigued and the 235lbs felt heavier. I could barely get 285lbs off the pins and I gave up after like 3 attempts at it. It was pretty apparent I was not fresh here and beating myself up on it wasn’t productive. I dropped it back to 235lbs to do 2x3 as a “deload” but I think this may be it for them this prep. As something has to give I guess. The superset from last time was no more for the last bits. Trying a new exercise here with powell raises. I’ve seen various setups and such on these. Lying on the side and doing a horizontal shoulder adduction with a dumbbell. I’ve only really done something like this as part of rotary cuff rehab and that was usually with therabands or similar. Not something that was pushed. But it seems like the idea is to push these. These were tougher than I was expecting and I think I went a bit too heavy on them for what was to be an introduction week. But I think part of it was that I was annoyed and just wanted to move weight around. I can see where these can be helpful on things like shoulder movement on sandbag tosses for the release. I got these long arms too so be interesting on how I can really progress here. Face pulls with bands to finish up. Perhaps having both these and powell raises is a like a hat on a hat but I didn’t know that going in. The plan is to do more event specific style of face pull going forward and this was kind of a transition to that with doing no pauses and higher reps. Just took the strong band and setup in the rain as I didn’t want to bother setting up an anchor inside since already had weights out. Rain had picked up at this point. These did feel fine though. I was feeling a bit tight in some areas in my upper body but hopefully rest and soft tissue work with even that out. I also need to think on things. And make sure I don’t catastrophize and spiral. I know this is early in the prep and I can recover (as seen last prep).

June 15, 2025 – Week 3, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle High Pulls from Blocks (9”)
102x2
146x2
190x2
234x2
278.5x4
278.5x4
278.5x4
278.5x4

Zercher Yoke/Sandbag Carry & Loads
Z – 235x46’
S – 200x46’
Z – 335x46’
S – 225x46’
EOMOM
Z – 435x46’
S – 250x46’
Z – 435x46’
S – 250x46’
Z – 435x46’
S – 250x46’
Z – 435x46’
S – 250x46’
Z – 435x46’
S – 250x46’

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
110x5/400x10
155x5/600x6
220x12/800x15
220x6/800x8
220x6/800x8
220x6/800x8

Wide MAG Grip Cable Rows
140x5
170x5
200x15
200x15

Stretching

Comments: It was probably a good thing that I didn’t train Saturday. I had a disagreement with my new/old supervisor at work that stressed me out. I ended up sleeping like 12hrs Saturday so I had like no day to do anything really. I had planned to do some chores but rain made that not the best thing considering I was going to do stuff with the roof gutters. Ended up doing nothing but organizing paperwork and workout stuff. Also watched some strongman stuff. Even with how I am at this time, I feel like I could’ve placed well at the competition yesterday. But I decided which basket I’m putting all my eggs in for right now. Body weight is up over 3lbs from last check. Lol ok I guess. I was feeling confident enough with my driving in the new car (just around the neighborhoods) to go out to Lancaster solo. And thankfully not much traffic on the day. I didn’t get out there quite as early as I expecting but that was ok. Not many people at the gym today. Thankfully there were some working big fans and it wasn’t as beastly humid and hot. In either case, I did bring two extra shirts after last week. I mean last week my soaks were soaked from sweat and grime. Left forearm is still feeling the pressure from the zercher carry and whatever. It is finding it hard to recover with other things. I decided that I’d take out stuff in my warm ups that seemed to irritate it to hopefully help that. It did have me a little nervous that this session would reaggravate it. Lower back disc pressure wasn’t present at all so that was a good sign and just hopefully showing that just from a tough lower back focused session on Thursday. I didn’t feel like I needed much foam rolling today. Knees a little achy with the warm ups. I may not attempt some lateral movements going forward. Right adductor felt a little “off” with stretching but I didn’t pay it much mind as didn’t seem to be present. So, first thing was again axle high pulls from blocks. I made a slight change here as while I still want this to be axle focus, I didn’t want hand sweat on a slick implement still be an issue. I didn’t want to keep chalking up and trying to keep things for the most part these first four weeks minimal support gear. I had used liquid chalk the past two times. I decided I’d use the knurled axle at the gym instead. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was a good move. But as I went up in weight, I saw that the knurling was a good thing in that I could pull and hold a bit harder and higher with it. Not once did things feel off balanced. So this was good and I felt strong. One more week here I should be able to go up another 5kgs. I want to keep this in mind with these more Olympic based lifts as things in the future even with off season. From there I moved on to moving event stuff. Back to the brutal pairing of zercher carry and sandbag carry with load. These past two weeks of doing alternating EMOM of two event pairings was quite brutal and I knew that I’d need to make some kind of change to make any meaningful progression in weight from the previous session. Either add support gear or increase rest. I figured the increased rest option made more sense since I’ve done that before. So instead of EMOM, it was now EOMOM. I was going up by 60lbs on the zercher carry so that was a decent jump there considering my ceiling on that is a good bit lower than yoke (650lbs vs 1012lbs). I was also not sure on the event details (need to ask promoter) so I wanted to make the load portion tougher on the sandbag to one be more like the sandball but also in the event the load height is higher for the zercher stuff. I’m not sure if the yoke for the zercher will have two crossbars like I’ve seen the yokes at the show had last year. One yoke at the gym has that so I figured I’d use that one for this session, especially since it would make my plate math easier with 100lbs jumps. So this wasn’t ideal. One was that there were a few sandbags out which I guess were from the competition the day before. I hope not from the one guy that was lifting sandbags before I got there. So I had to move those. The yoke crossbar was upside down as it was being used for the competition the day before. This is the tallest and heaviest yoke. So this was very frustrating to get setup by myself. On top of that, I was feeling the weird tension/sensation in my adductor on the right side when I was bending down to move sandbags and such so I was feeling a little anxious and freaked out about to be honest. But I finally got things setup and picking up the sandbags how I normally do did not bother things in the adductor. I mean, I had just done all those high pulls and didn’t even think about it. So five pairs of each with the added rest. The increased weight was noticed but not as much as I was expecting to be honest here. Zercher actually felt more comfortable this time around but it was getting challenging with the arms handling the strain by the end. The load was now the toughest thing with it being 11” higher than it was last time with the 25lbs increase in the sandbag. Front carry and then popping it up and over was tricky. That was the only thing I was worried about screwing up with the fatigue from the sets as moving with the weights was fine. The longer rest was nice and was more so helpful in giving me time to wipe off sweat rather than needing to catch my breath. Forearms didn’t feel that bad honestly besides the raw skin from the athletic tape on the crossbar. The bit easier stuff after putting the event stuff away. Swapped out a fresh shirt for the machines. Supersetting tempo seated leg curls with deadlift start leg presses. I don’t really have a plan with the leg curls like I do the leg press. But I figured I’d try to match the energy. So since lower rep range for leg press (15 reps now), I figured I’d try to increase the weight on the leg curls. So this was to be kind of the tiptoe week here with it being 3-5RIR on the top set of leg press for 15 reps and then doing 3x8 with said same weight. 750lbs had felt too easy last week for the proposed 20 rep set so I felt I had to increase the weight here for this. Ideally, the 20 rep set weight would’ve been this week’s weight for top set but I knew that was going to be too light. So I went with 50lbs jump so even 800lbs. With the leg curls, I added 20lbs to the full stack. This was sufficiently challenging as I got stopped at 12 reps here on the top set. Leg press this felt decent enough. I honestly probably could’ve done another 40lbs and it still being with 3-5RIR for sure. Likely 880lbs for next week to finish out. I didn’t feel like I could just go back and forth like last week with the weight and the sets so I did take a bit of a breather and walked between pairings. Last thing was some rows. Supposed to be the lighter session to see how things feel with going at 2x15 for the sets. With how these were last week, I had a feeling that if I was feeling good that I’d probably have similar things with feeling stronger. So I set things up to give myself the chance to do 200lbs for the sets of 15 with leaving a good bit in the tank (5+). There was some tension in the right adductor with setting up (which makes sense in that I’m doing these to help with sandbag pick up) so there was some anxiousness here. But other than some tension in the left forearm (less than last week), these went well and how they should. This is another exercise I’ve been enjoying with training. But this is more an offseason one with the event focus I have. I mean, it is seven different events. Got to trim from somewhere. Downed a shake and modified some of the weights of the throwing bags before stretching and heading home to have BBQ with family for dinner. Hopefully the adductor thing is just a little annoyance and goes away with some quality sleep and rest.

June 12, 2025 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean Complexes (hang clean to 3 second pause to sternum first rep, regular rep second)
60x1+1
90x1+1
120x1+1
150x1+1
180x1+1
210x1+1
210x1+1
210x1+1
210x1+1
210x1+1
210x1+1

Snatch Grip Iso Deadlifts (straps, 3 seconds just off ground) 
135x3
185x3
235x2
275x2
315x7
283x7
283x7

Rack Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
65x5
115x5
155x5
190x10
220x10
250x10

Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bwx3/3
bw+35x10/10
bw+35x10/10
bw+35x10/10

Stretching

Comments: With the gym being closed Saturday until 5PM (which I think is a bit much considering not a lot of people doing the competition) and seeing how exhausted this current block has been and with possibility of protests on Saturday, I knew I’d be training Sunday this weekend. So I figured it was probably best to give myself an extra day of rest as I’ll have to do training next week on an altered schedule to get things back on track. And would allow me to have more time with my family after work this week. Still dealing with stuff with work and car stuff but good news is I now have a new vehicle. Some of that stuff did result in starting training a little late after work but dinner plans I had wouldn’t mean I’d be eating super late with the delay. Another day where it go up to 90 today so I knew I needed the fans going in the garage and got them running so it was somewhat hospitable to train. Lower body needed the foam rolling today. Continuing with neck rehab stuff as majority of the upper body stuff. Lower body circuit I was noticing knees a bit achy today. Still have annoying thing going on with the left forearm/brachialis. Has me a little nervous with stuff in that what if that arm/biceps goes? It is annoying but it hasn’t seemed to impact training. Just have to keep an eye on it. Then time to train. Axle clean complexes to start things of. Switching up the style. So this time the sequence is to deadlift the first rep and then do a hang clean pull to sternum and then hold there for a 3ct before finishing the clean to the shoulders. So a bit different in that getting weight to shoulder the first rep of the sequence. The second rep is then a normal clean with axle to shoulder so no hang pull or pause on stomach/sternum. My intent with these is for the three different pulls is to do first week lighter and second week heavier. I know that I can’t get nearly as much power on the hang clean version of these just from past experience compared to pulling all the way through. My hope here was to build up over the three variations with getting it kind of a build up and then down but have the next variation be a little heavier in weight compared to the previous. My butt on the left side isn’t as noticeably sore after falling on it last week thankfully. Hardly notice it. I wasn’t sure if I would need to use chalk or a grip shirt. I kind of didn’t want to if I could because of how hot it gets and trying to keep things at a weight that is not requiring all support gear at the moment so I know I can recover from it. I started 10lbs heavier than I did the first week of the previous pull variation so that 30lbs jumps I’d be 10lbs heavier. I decided to have it be mostly metal plates to kind of have things be a little similar to the axle with the wheels as not sure how the weights will be with the competition and I figure that more dense setup will feel tougher. This was feeling pretty darn light and I did end up grazing my chin on one of the pops to shoulder. But then it felt heavier than I’d have liked at 180lbs and I still planned to go up 30lbs more. I think before this, I was entertaining doing little increases each set if it felt too light. At the start, it did not feel light and it felt like I had picked a rough weight. But then I got better as I went and more comfortable. Last set felt the best and weight was feeling weightless in those last two sets. So that was a good feeling there. Put this stuff away and got ready with deadlifts. Snatch grip pulls again. Beltless, barefoot and 3 seconds isometrics just off the floor. And this was to be the last week of them as I need to pivot to competition specific stuff to try and build up to a decent axle deadlift. Ideally, this would’ve just been a tough session and then dip down a little next week and build up and such for 8 weeks total. This was to be working up to a top set of 8 with the parameters but have it be closer to 97% of what I could do here. So thankfully, the down sets were dropped to just two instead of three here as those seem to be the most torturous things of this. I kind of wasn’t sure how much I could really push these as each added rep is quite fatiguing with how they are done. I was looking at 315-335lbs for the top set and kind of gauging how I felt with the warm ups. I wanted to prime but not fatigue. I’d been doing triples warming up with 30-50lbs jumps the past two sessions but pushing things for this week would be having me using weight roughly around the top sets of the previous two weeks for a warm up. So I made the last two work up sets be doubles and I decided it was best to do something I knew I could do here and opted for 315lbs for my top set. Knees a little achy here and I wasn’t feeling the most confident with the working up sets. But I knew I could do this and I did. But man was this rough with bracing and such. I do think that 335lbs for this style with the isometrics and such was doable and likely 100% and no more on the day for a set of 7 reps. So I probably left 10lbs off the bar that I probably could’ve done. But I’ve never pushed myself on these and the idea was to hold back the previous two weeks. And even doing that, this was exhausting with the down sets. Especially since the progression I was doing was pretty much having me do about the top set of the previous week for multiple sets. And this was the closest it was to me doing the same weight. I was feeling that these were harder sets compared to the top set with the fatigue. Feeling my hamstrings and glutes as well as lower back. I was feeling the disc compression symptoms afterwards from the effort. Just need to watch that and be careful. So probably a good thing taking a break from these to pivot. Perhaps having just two sets allowed me to not completely soak my shirt so I kept the same one for the duration of the session. From there, on to the rack ssb gms again. The first week was terrible and last week was actually pretty good. I seemed to get my form down and not have things feel so terrible. I ended up going up in weight a good bit from what was planned last time. I wasn’t as hopeful that would happen his time with just dropping a further 2 reps mostly because of how much heavier the deadlift was beforehand. I was looking at like 15lbs increase from last time at best. I was thinking of making bigger jumps so that I was having stuff be less fatiguing. I was debating how I wanted to do things so I was having things for the first set being as low as 155lbs and high as 205lbs and jumps being 20-50lbs. I eventually landed on doing 30lbs jumps and having it so I could end up with the ssb and 2 plates a side for the top set as an option. First set was just ok. Knees were achy unracking the weight but it felt light. Just seemed to be a little uneven and not in the right groove. Second set started the same but then got better. This is the second time that my older soft belt rehband has popped off on these during the set. This time, I was able to keep it on as I reflexively pinned it with my elbows. That motion had me feel even more rigid and secure and have the movement feel even better. So I decided to do 250lbs for the top set and try to get that to happen at the start. I’m still a good ways off the weight I was doing these over like 15yrs ago but it is good to see that I’m getting comfortable with weight on these again. This is almost 50lbs more being moved in three weeks. Next week will be the last session with them with contest prep. I’m keeping how things are going with the off-season plan workout stuff as I do plan on doing a longer thing for 8-16 weeks in the future when I have the time to really build up as I’m liking the results from this short stint. The stepdowns to finish things up. Same as last time with 3x10. I figured with how the knees had been feeling today and with the increase n weight planned, that I should do a warm up set. I had skipped that with how late I had gotten around to training last week. Lord was this set needed as I’m sure if I went right into these with weight that I’d have looked stupid. My joints were feeling terrible with just bodyweight. Needed to get the uglies out now. The movements felt achy but did get better as I did more sets and reps here and by the end was pretty smooth. I’m trying to figure out how I want to progress with these as I’m not sure I want to keep them in the entire cycle. I will be dropping stuff as moving and transitioning as don’t need to be doing tons of knee stuff if doing a ton of moving events as that is stressing stuff. Put things away and ate dinner before stretching out. Still ended up a late night.

June 9, 2025 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
30x5
60x5
90x3
120x3
150x2
180x2
210x3
210x3
210x3

Paused Axle Push Presses (3 seconds in dip)
182x3
182x3
182x3

Dips
bwx5
bw+45x5
bw+90x8
bw+90x11

Pull-ups
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5
bwx5

12” Log Seated Overhead Lockouts (7” ROM)
185x2
235x2
285x4
285x4
285x7

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls
36x10—10/sbx15
36x10—10/sbx15

Stretching
 
Comments: Another week down. Definitely felt the need to recover after Saturday session. Gym will be closed until 5PM Saturday for competition and seeing as how beat I’ve felt doing these past two weekend sessions, I’m likely going to workout Sunday instead so that I can have plenty of day and daylight. Still some things with the left forearm/brachialis area. Insides of my knees are bruised to hell from the power stairs. Weight up a tad but still under 260lbs for another week. Still no response from insurance about status of vehicle stuff. I’ll give it another 2 days and then I guess. Warming up stuff has gotten fairly routine at this point with the neck rehab and foam rolling. Calves felt like they needed a lot this time. Mobility stuff and stretching fine. Then on to axle work. So changing from the high volume stuff to more a contest conditioning prep for heavy axle. Keeping the clean and press separate until we are 6 weeks into prep and then merging together. So for the next 3 weeks, keeping to no support gear on the axle work besides wrist wraps. I think this plan still works as being what this week needed as volume reduced but intensity increased. As I had mentioned, the original plan before doing worlds was to be potentially an AMRAP with like 75% of training max. New plan was to work up to 77.5% for 3x3. Knees a little achy and with the weight coming out pretty nicely for 30lbs jumps from empty implement I did that. I’m not sure what the competition setup is going to be like but I figured I should get used to “denser” weight in the event they use metal kilo plates. I’m not sure why but after I got done with 120lbs, I figured why not use my 26” metal wheels for weights? That could be what the setup is and I recall that sometimes big plates mixed with other plates feels different on parts of the movement. So I did that. It was not confidence building to feel that difference. But I know from past experience that feeling heavy on the shoulders doesn’t mean I can’t move it. But there was hesitation. I definitely noticed that the weights didn’t move as freely and it felt like more triceps/wrist needed for lockout. 210lbs did feel a bit heavier than I’d have liked on my shoulders but it did move well. I’m not sure if I’d have really been hitting a crazy good number on a max rep set with how I was feeling though. But not going to worry about that. The other part of this phase is brining back in the paused axle stuff. Stop hard going into the dip and hold for 3 seconds before launching the weight up. 10% off the previous weight for also 3x3. So this ending up being the weight I did last week for the 10x3 but pauses this time. The dropping in weight did give the feeling I was hoping for with this feeling really light on my shoulders and in my hands on that first set. Just launching it up there. Fatigue does tend to build with this exercise between sets as recovery takes longer so I did notice that but still powerful the entire time. That was at least a good thing. With the axle work done, into the garage for dips. I had indicated I’d be doing 5lbs jumps weekly and that had been my intent. Some shoulder aches but I knew that usually I just needed to add weight and things feel better here. I ended up doing 2 more reps than I had planned warming up and I figured fine, I’ll just do 2 plates rather than try and figure out a combination that felt balanced and aesthetically pleasing to my senses. The added weight was noticed. I only felt like I needed the single oscillating fan in the garage to keep reasonably cool. First set for just the prescribed 8 was fine. A little fatigued on the second set but still matched what I did the last time I did 90lbs (last prep). So likely I’ll be back on track going forward with improving this. Moved on to pull ups. I made a change here. Plan had been to just keep trying to add reps to 3 sets with 12 as the max for this week and maybe next week and then move to lower reps but more sets for weighted pull-ups. But I felt that wasn’t the best option here as far as progressing to that point as I was taking a long time between sets when I was going for that many reps. I needed to change things up so that I was getting back to doing these like other sets where taking about 90 seconds and then going. So I dropped it to 4x5 with just bodyweight. Left triceps was feeling kind of tense. The forearm/brachialis thing was acting up at times depending on the way I was exerting stuff. Not ideal. But the reps felt easy enough. I could tell fatigue was building but still able to keep the reps consistent and solid. I think because it was going as well as it did is why I did a fifth set of them. I guess I’ll see how things are next time but I may stick to just 5x5 for bodyweight (maybe add a set) or add a little weight to it. Log rack work next. I mentioned how last time I had lowered the weight and the rack height from what I had set the first week because I felt it wasn’t quite right. I had done the 9 reps I set as the determinator on whether I go up in weight or reduce volume so I went up in weight. 15lbs jump was probably a big ask. I was thinking this might be a hard one today with how the last warm up felt. Last week I had not worn wrist wraps on the first two sets and then did wear them tight for the rep set. The added weight was noticed here as I was having a dickens of a time with get the sweet spot. First set I was ok but second set I just couldn’t get another rep and went a put the wraps on loose to get the remaining three. Ugh. So not looking forward to the rep set. Wondering if I need to pull these back and potentially not do them some weeks for recovery. I got set and I went to work. 15lbs is not nothing being added here. I wasn’t quite able to stay in the groove like I managed last week but I was able to get more than 4 reps in the set. I just hit a wall trying to get an eighth and stopped there rather than try and force it. So 7 reps ain’t too bad. Just stick to same weight next week with reduced volume and see if able to improve the reps. Last thing being superset of leaning laterals and paused face pulls with bands. This might be the last week of them as I have plan for assistance work after this session. Just not sure if starting the migration over next week or if giving them another week. Plan was to do set of 10 reps for the laterals for the last time on them. I also wanted to try and push the face pulls so increased band tension with possible expectation of reduced reps or not doing pauses to make the reps. I ended up going a little heavier on the laterals than I had planned but it worked out. Band face pulls I felt it was good enough so I did pauses as I felt I could get my reps with them at this tension. So 15 reps again with the face pulls. It was a good bit of tension as I felt my one knee “crack” bracing. Second set was tougher as it usually is with this kind of pairing of shoulder exercises. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

June 7, 2025 – Week 2, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle High Pulls from Blocks (9”)
91x2
135x2
179x2
223x2
267.5x4
267.5x4
267.5x4
267.5x4

Yoke/Power Stairs (17”)
Y – 235x25’/25’
P – 214x3
Y – 335x25’/25’
P – 259x3
Y – 435x25’/25’
P – 304x3
EMOM
Y – 535x25’/25’
P – 349x3
Y – 535x25’/25’
P – 349x3
Y – 535x25’/25’
P – 349x3
Y – 535x25’/25’
P – 349x3
Y – 535x25’/25’
P – 349x3

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
100x5/390x10
150x5/570x8
200x16/750x20
200x8/750x10
200x8/750x10

Wide MAG Grip Cable Rows
100x5
140x5
180x20
180x20

Stretching

Comments: Another odd week for me. So I guess positives to start off with essentially getting approval for modification of leave to travel to Ireland to compete. So starting the trip plan with travel agent this coming week. The event weights posted and some things surprising and other things not so much. Deadlift event is heavy so likely a zero for me unless my new training somehow adds over 60lbs to my raw deadlift in 3 months. Some of the events are bit more brutal (yoke distance and zercher weight) than anticipated so need to adjust progression accordingly. Need to figure out what bags for toss are still viable to figure out if I need to get anymore. I had initially not planned to get the “sandball” but it being a load for reps event after a carry and load, it may be in my best interest to have one due to size and grip. I guess having the 2” handles for training Hercules hold worked out as it appears that is what is being used for the competition. Car issues continue with insurance and traffic citation. Appears error in insurance system and now finally confirming about a week later vehicle considered totaled. So need to get a new car. I’ve had the same car for like 16yrs now and honestly, all the add-ons and such to newer cars aren’t my thing. And going to eat the ticket as can’t afford to fight it with upcoming out of state (and country) travel. But I thankfully don’t have many day to day expenses so I have the financial security to handle these things. So my morning did start off on the early side as this was pretty much the only time I’d have family available to go and look at a car at the dealership. I didn’t want to have to move training to Sunday with things as the training for these first four weeks to lay down the base for the second half of the prep is quite brutal on recovery. So a few hours with getting things setup with getting a car and plan is to actually buy and finance it early next week. I’ll need to practice driving this new car with the features and it being a bit bigger space wise compared to the more compact vehicles I’ve been used to driving. So out to train with my dad taking me out. Hopefully the last time for a bit. Unlike last week, there were people there training stuff but kind of on the end of training. My one friend is still undecided with doing worlds and me signing up is like one of the reasons they are still considering it. I checked with the throwing bags and emptied out the two busted and leaking bags. I have enough to prep it would seem so that is good as far a cutting down on a further equipment expense for this prep. Air flow was not great in the gym today as all the big fans were missing (there was one but it appeared to be broken) so only the small ones on the ceiling and one smaller floor fan. So I knew I was going to be a sweaty mess today. Did the warming up to get ready for the day with foam rolling and such and the mobility things. Left glute is still sore from falling on my ass but I’m not sure if like a bone bruise or the muscle honestly. I had kind of hoped it would be 100% good by today considering things. Left forearm is still feeling the pressure from the zercher carry last week. Another thing that has been annoying but not effecting anything I’ve been doing fortunately. So, first thing was again axle high pulls from blocks. My plan is to do these with hopefully increasing weight each week for the first four weeks of prep and then bag toss and such will replace as intent is to eventually switch to axle clean and press together after the 6th week of prep. These had been interesting last time and feel very different as the weight increases. So trying to learn from last time. I started heavier as the lighter stuff felt like nothing really and just wasted energy. I also tried to find collars that didn’t jostle as much as last time so I wasn’t getting uneven weight distribution. I also slowed things down between reps rather than trying to go immediately into the next one. One to make sure I was getting an even grip but also a secure one. The sweat factor was also part of that. I was a little leery that these might bother my forearms so I was trying to not have much of any eccentric on these. I did doubles all the way up to my working weight with 20kgs jumps. I had done 256.5lbs last time and figured I’d go for 267.5lbs this time (5kgs increase). This seemed to go decently well. I did have to reapply a little liquid chalk for the last set as my forearms got so sweaty that it was dripping into my palms. I feel like the third set had the best quality reps overall but that my last set was better than my last set the previous week. I feel I had less off balance pulls this time as well. My hope is to add 5kgs each time here so that I’m doing reps with what is hopefully my second (but hopefully first) attempt for the axle. From there I moved on to moving event stuff. I was feeling pretty good after the axle stuff but I knew that the EMOM workout I had was going to be quite brutal just from last time’s efforts. But I think knowing I had just this monstrosity and then machines after possibly made it not as daunting to finish up the session. So last week I had done pairing of zercher yoke and sandbag carry and load as that was one of three moving medley events. Two of them were kind of similar with sandbag type objects being carried and loaded so plan was to do the one that was a bit different on opposing weeks. I had an idea of weights before weights and such announced. I will need to adjust the zercher and sandbag for the next session as I had the zercher about 20kgs lighter at most so need to put a bit more on that. Also need to try and load higher as I think the yoke will have two crossbars so likely higher (and will be better to get for the sandball carry and load event). I was at least close with sandbag weight. So today was yoke into power stairs. I had expected it to be decently heavy but not where the yoke was moved 100’ (50’ drop and turn) before the power stair for 3 steps. Power stair is also pretty darn heavy. When I last did yoke with pairing EMOM, it had only been for 25’ so I had already planned to do 46’ or so runs like zercher carry. But now that it is drop and turn around, it seems like best thing is to get practice at that aspect as well so changing to 25’ run with drop and turn and then back 25’. Plan had been 500lbs but I felt I needed to increase that a bit to match numbers and not have myself be so far off the mark with prep. But yoke I’ve at least been doing consistently until December of last year. So 6 months away is a bit of time. But power stairs I’ve not done since 2023 Nationals in training and I don’t really count helping move implements for my friend’s prep for Worlds last year as doing them. This event the weight is 66lbs more than I’ve ever attempted. Granted that weight I did do for 9 reps twice in training but still. I was initially going to go up the steps rather than reset back to the ground each rep and I was doing that with working up in weight with the yoke. But I realized three things. One that holy crap was doing these back to back exhausting, two that I forgot I need to wear knee sleeves when doing these to keep my knees from being so darn bruised and three that it takes a good bit of effort to reset each time as far as time and energy. So my plan wasn’t going to work with EMOM timing. I then thought maybe I do 5 minute EMOM for each separately but figured that wasn’t going to cut it. Then realized I could just deload each rep which a little more exhausting but cuts time between sets to get back to yoke and vice versa. This was way tougher than then the zercher and sandbag last time. I know I was contemplating stopping that at like round 6 but I was thinking I may not be able to physically do this at that time. Mostly because of how sweaty my hands were on the power stairs. But I made it through. My yoke runs got slower each time but I got faster on the power stair. I think that was more to do with me being more efficient because how tired I was and finally getting myself to do the form right that saved energy and moved things faster. I had to lay down in front of the one fan for a bit afterwards to cool off. I took my time and put on fresh shirt before moving on to the machines to end the session. Supersetting tempo seated leg curls with deadlift start leg presses. No real plan for the leg curls other than to do similar to the leg press in that doing a top set with the weight and then half the reps with same weight for following sets. Keeping leg curl weight at 200lbs as that still feels fine and I’m doing this more for having my knees feel ok with leg press. The plan there was to do 20 reps with like 1RIR and then same weight for 2x10. Weights had felt right last time with fatigue and such so I figured that 90lbs added to the leg press was a big ask and be a struggle to get 20 reps, if at all. Warming up was feeling decent. I did an extra rep on the leg curls so that the other sets were even with half reps. I got set for the leg press. I didn’t feel as drained but I was feeling the session. This ended up feeling a lot like last time in that I had 5RIR. Probably more. Not sure what to make of that. I may need to adjust for next time as ideally it was to do this same weight for 15 reps so that 3-5RIR and then the last week do 15 reps with 1RIR. I didn’t feel nearly as drained or regretting my decision like last week and I pretty much did these last two sets back to back with no rest besides getting out of the seat, rotating the camera and adjusting knee sleeves. Again, drenched in sweat. I guess I need to bring a third shirt (but feels so early in the year to do so). Last thing was some rows. Heavier session to kind of push the 2x20 I did last time. I was initially thinking 20lbs more but I felt like maybe I could go up a good bit seeing as how my endurance for things like the iso deads and leg press improved dramatically. So 40lbs on. Left forearm a little sore but I feel like I did these with 3-5RIR on them with the MAG grip setup. Want to try and get these up so that I have a good base for picking up sandbags and such. Downed a shake and essentially stumbled out of the gym and rode home with my dad. Stretched when I got home. Still have some things to sort out with training beyond these first four weeks but I got time.

June 4, 2025 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean Complexes (2 hold seconds at knees, only pull to stomach first rep with 2 second hold)
80x1+1
110x1+1
140x1+1
170x1+1
200x1+1
230x1+1
230x1+1
230x1+1
230x1+1
230x1+1
230x0
230x1+0
230x1+1

Snatch Grip Iso Deadlifts (straps, 3 seconds just off ground) 
135x3
185x3
235x3
285x7
256x7
256x7
256x7

Rack Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
85x5
135x5
175x12
200x12
231x12

Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bw+25x10/10
bw+25x10/10
bw+25x10/10

Stretching

Comments: Waiting on response from management about getting the appropriate leave approved to do worlds but seems to be positive it will be ok. That and I guess training are bright spots. Tuesday was not a pleasant day in that I was getting harassed by the other driver’s insurance company and getting not much in the way of sufficient responses from my own on matters. I also happened to find out I was cited with traffic violation for the accident and getting a notice in mail. I was quite livid about that considering no indication of that on the day and nothing has been provided to me yet despite giving my e-mail and phone number. But I’ll worry about it when it gets here and see what I can do. Can’t get mad about it now. Walking was needed to clear my head and cool my head as well. As for today, I knew I needed to get training moving along a bit smoother than last week where I started like an hour later than planned. It got up to 90 today so I knew I needed the fans going in the garage. I was not feeling as sore compared to the first week of training aftermath so that appears a good sign as far as adapting and recovery. Foam rolling to start things off. Surprisingly not as much needed as I was expecting. Then on with the neck rehab stuff which constitutes most of my upper body session warming up. Dropped some stuff for the lower body mobility stuff as really the knee flexion and ankle stuff seems to be the main things needed. Then time to train. Axle clean complexes to start things of. As I mentioned last week, my thinking here is two weeks with each variation of the complex with going harder the second round after getting familiar with things the first week. Reminder this is 2ct pauses just above the knees and then popping on to stomach for another 2ct before dropping it for the first rep and then no pause on the stomach and cleaning to shoulder on the second reps. I knew from last time that I needed to wear rehband belt so there was something for the axle to not slide on as otherwise I’d need to wear a grip shirt or chalk up my shirt and wear one that has some decal on it for grip. I still want to be working with no or minimal support gear for these first four weeks if I can manage it. But the heat might have made things tougher here. I did feel I undershot the weight last time so I guess I overcompensated with going up 30lbs. My shirt felt like a worse choice than last week apparently as axle was sliding bad on that. I did not feel like these got easier as they went. They felt tougher as I went lol. I felt like I needed to be really violent to get to my shoulders with the axle sliding down on me. I guess good to know that I got power to spare and feeling like those high pulls with axle are building some good habits. Had some hiccups with the last set. First go at it my timing on the hand flip was off and I missed it so rather than fight that I took a step away and went at it again. Axle was sliding a lot here and I attempted to get under it lower than usual and I lost balance and fell on my butt (primarily my left side). So now my ass smarts and I still have not gotten my sixth set done. Finally got it together and got the set done. Flipped the weight double middle fingers for the required effort. I may need to wear grip shirt next time if I don’t want to be dealing with chalk and slipping shirts in this heat. Put this stuff away and got ready with deadlifts. Snatch grip pulls again. Beltless, barefoot and 3 seconds isometrics just off the floor. This was quite trying and brutal last week. And I thought I was undershooting there but it still was incredibly taxing. I was to do 20% off what I thought last week with then this week to be tougher so increasing the weight by 5-10%. Then going up more so that like at 97% for the final week planned (cutting this short to get axle deadlift prep started). So like last week, plan was to work up to a top set of 7 reps and then take off 10% and do 3x7 with that weight. But more weight than last time. And also having a sore left butt cheek for the rest of the workout. I went with 20lbs more than last week. I had initially been looking at this as being every other week but every week is kind of needed to get everything fit in to actually prep for competing. The top set actually felt pretty good comparatively to last week’s top set. But those down sets did not get any easier. The sets and reps got to me for sure and I was sucking wind trying to recover. But I got them done. Just one more week of this nonsense. But I feel like this is good for me. No surprise that I had sweated through my shirt at this point so I put on a dry shirt as I got ready for the next thing. The rack ssb gms again. Last week with these had just been rude all around. The first set had been fine but after that I was feeling out of my depth. Dropping the reps here for this week with the plan to do some warm ups and then do 3x10-12 with 3-5RIR. I had not left that many RIR last week on the top set. I was a bit surprised how tough things got so quickly. Out of practice. Glute was letting me know it was there warming up. These didn’t feel as awkward this time around and I seemed to get my form and bracing to follow suit. I had added 20lbs to the weights to hopefully be able to handle things with lower reps and hopefully not struggle like I did top set last week. The more worn soft belt popped off near the end of the second set and I felt like I had more in me than just a 25lbs jump and still be in the appropriate effort range so I went up some more. This seemed to go well here as this did seem to be better and leave more RIR compared to last week. So I’d say I’m getting better. The stepdowns to finish things up. I knew they were the last thing for the session this time around unlike last week. Still 3x10 and I did just jump right into it as I felt the weight I was using was light enough and I didn’t really want to hassle with doing lower height or just bodyweight as I wasn’t sure how my left glute would like these today. I used my plateloaded kettlebell handle rather than the 25lbs grip plate. This was a bit rough on my left leg to start out as my ankles felt stiff and such. But obviously better as I went on these. Felt good and like I was done at a decent hour this time around. Hopefully I do get approved for the trip and event weights get released shortly so I know for sure if this is happening and what I need to be working on.