September 15, 2025 – Week 3, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Strict Presses (3-0-3-0 tempo)
30x3
60x3
90x5 (miscounted)
90x6
90x7 (extra for 1st set)
90x6
90x6

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds)
90x4
130x4
165x8
165x8
165x8
165x8

Alternating Dumbbell Floor Presses
50’sx40 seconds
50’sx40 seconds
50’sx40 seconds

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Dumbbell Presses/Spanish Squats
45x12/12 – bwx30 seconds
45x12/12 – bwx30 seconds
45x12/12 – bwx30 seconds

Deadstop Pendlay Rows/Walking Lunges
135x6 – bwx5/5
185x12 -- bwx20/20
185x12 -- bwx20/20
185x12 -- bwx20/20

Stretching

Comments: I had been a little hungry when it came time for dinner Saturday which may explain why I was up like 4lbs from last week in bodyweight. It only really matters if I’m doing a weight class type show and it this point nothing is present. Sleep has mostly returned to normal at this point but I still tend to wake up before my alarm and I’ve been getting up rather than staying in bed until it goes off because I’m nervous about signing in to work late and because I have it at max volume now so it would wake the dead if it ever does go off. Still keeping an eye on my right heel/ankle as still noticing that sensation but nothing I’m doing appears to replicate the discomfort I felt stretching my calf on Monday last week. So I guess just note it and move on. Work continues to be unnecessarily stressful and dumb with new things being done. Like trying out having everything be closed for 3hrs every Thursday starting next month for two months in the morning. So we can I guess spend that time relearning. Whatever. Still checking about competition stuff as while I’m in off season, I really would like to be at least considering something interesting/fun for competition. I’ll need to make a decision by middle of November so hopefully some potentials come out of the woodwork between now and then. I didn’t have as much DOMS as I did last week which was good considering it felt like it took all week for it to mostly go away and it looks like today’s session was going to be having some stuff in there that would require more effort on the lower body. Foam rolling felt good and neck rehab felt fine. Lower body stretching for hips, ankles and knees. From there it was axle strict press. Still tempo but mercifully lowered to 3-0-3-0 for 5x6. The time dropping meant I could conceivably go up in weight and suggested was 80-90lbs. I was initially thinking 86lbs but decided I’d do 90lbs just because. I was definitely feeling fresher with these as 8 reps was quite terrible on my shoulders. I was able to go back to just double rest time like I did the first week of these. I did miscount the first set and did an extra rep on the third set to make up for it. I had been a little worried my left triceps wasn’t going to be on board today as there was some soreness from Saturday session. There was fatigue from this but it didn’t come to the level I was feeling with the longer sets with the burning warmth sensation or the tendon inflammation sensation. From there moving on to the paused log work. Same pauses and same suggested weight but essentially doing what I did on the axle strict presses last week with 4x8. Notes indicated that I should be more “robotic” with my lockout and not just quick and moving on to the next rep. This note was also for the deadlift stuff and some other things and I made a note to hold the lockouts for a beat before doing the next rep. It might be a bit more challenging coupled with the extra reps on the set. First two sets were quite smooth and easy through to the end but fatigue was making the lockouts a bit tougher by the end of the second half of these sets. But still good. Moving right along into the garage. More pressing. Alternating floor presses with dumbbells again. I was told these looked better last week and 10 more seconds were being added to each set. As a treat. Same weight. The extra 10 seconds on these felt a lot longer than that. To where I was worried that I didn’t hit my timer or I did and accidentally knocked it off or something. Unlike last week, I did not think I was going too light on these as I was feeling like I was struggling on the second set and was most definitely struggling on the third set. With this day and my Saturday sessions, can’t say I’m not getting in my pressing volume. The rest of the workout was the odd pairing of upper body with lower body but changes to the lower body stuff. It has been the past two weeks wall sit related stuff. Not this time. Just like last week, I wasn’t looking forward to these with DOMS in my legs but also because the changes were more like what I had just done on Saturday. The first one being the half kneeling presses to start. Same weight but more reps this week. I got a little off balanced early in the first set on the right side being pressed so got a little cramp in my butt keeping myself from losing balance. The other part of it was Spanish squats. I’ve not had a good time with these, either with discomfort in the knees or just feeling like I’m not doing them right or as intended. I feel like there is a lot of cues and I feel a bit overloaded with trying to fix them all at the same time as these definitely don’t look like how I see them done. Not enough ROM or leaning too far forward. Sets of 30 seconds so not bad. I will say that this was the least my knees have been bothered by these so that was nice. I’ll have to see what tips/cues I get on these to figure out if/how to improve here. At this point I started getting dinner ready as I was kind of up in the air about what to actually make. The last superset for the evening was Pendlay rows followed by walking lunges. I had received my new shoes for lifting/events in the mail in the afternoon so I’d get a chance to see how things felt moving. I was not thrilled about doing 120 reps of lunges after doing four 30 seconds sets each leg of Bulgarians on Saturday. Same weight on the pendlay rows but more reps. Lunges in the street and it was getting darker by the minute. I did a warming up set to make sure I was limber in the knees and feeling good and to not just jump into heavy weight on the rows. That little work up set felt good and I got to work. The lunges had me sweating a good bit after the effort so I did apply liquid chalk for the last two sets of rows so that my grip wasn’t an issue. This was effort but it was good. Put stuff away before eating dinner and then stretching.