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.