September 17, 2025 – Week 3, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
155x5
215x4
265x3
315x2
365x1
EMOM
415x2
415x2
415x2
415x2
415x2
415x2
415x2
415x2

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (24”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
295x3
295x3
295x3
295x3
295x3
295x3

Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps)/Pull Ups/Prone Band Hamstring Tantrums
135x5
225x3/bwx3
295x10/bwx15/(2)lbx15 seconds (15)
295x10/bwx13/(2)lbx15 seconds (13)
295x10/bwx10/(2)lbx15 seconds (11)

Sandbag Over Shoulders
175x45 seconds
175x45 seconds
175x45 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Finally slept until my alarm went off this morning. First time since I got back from Ireland. The sound was not pleasant lol. Again, part of not staying in bed has been because anxious and because of the month on and month off bullshit with the job in office stuff starting in a few weeks. Monday had felt fine with stuff but then Tuesday and today feeling aches in my shoulders and knees. Still watching the ankle stuff. I didn’t have as bad of DOMS as I was expecting with my quads but really tight calves on the foam rolling. Near the top and a lot more so the right one. Neck rehab stuff was good and needed. I did not do as much movement prep/mobility stuff as I have been. I figure save that for the days when I have to travel a great bit to train. Did stuff more for glute activation and bracing and then stretches. I knew with this session even if not feeling quite warm, I should have the fans going. I managed Saturday and Monday to only need one shirt to get through the sessions. I knew that this wouldn’t be such a session mainly because I’d need a less “soft” shirt for the last thing for the session. Volume was dropped a good bit from last week but weights up a little. Starting things off with the long ass bar deadlifts. Again, tweaking things slightly each time with the setup. Last week’s setup had been about right but there was still a little gap in the plates and where the bar connectors were that was having some shift issues. A little more weight to take up space seemed to work. Up 10lbs but dropping to a merciful 8x2 for the EMOM here. I was advised that pulling is good but to hold the lockout for a touch, as if I were waiting for a down command. I tend to rush when I see speed as the emphasis and try to go fast. Also knowing that I get done quicker, I get more rest before the next set. It was a lot of reps last week and I had gotten skin irritation around my knees from the bar friction. Less sets and switching to doubles I knew this would be bit more manageable to recover from. I probably couldn’t keep up doing that another week. This workout was going to be heavier and more compared to last week’s session. My understanding is this may be switching to more a strength prep shortly. From there on to the ssb front box squats. 10lbs more and dropping down in volume like the deadlifts a decent bit to 6x3. It would appear I may have overcorrected on these. I had thought that knees tracking forward was the most important part of things here with the slowing down so as not plopping on the box. But it does appear that sitting back while doing all those was the main thing perhaps. Knees didn’t feel as great this week compared to last week but still loads better than they felt that first week of these. Weight was such that I could do 40-50lbs jumps on plate-quarter-plate all the way up. These definitely felt tougher with the sit back rather than squat to box since breaks the movement and essentially more ROM with the depth compared to staying quite rigid. I did my best to make sure I was controlled and not plopping down. I’m not sure if these will stay as they are. But I’m finding myself quite comfortable with the ssb on the chest/clavicle and I’ve not felt the same choking myself out sensation like I was having with regular front squats with straps. So the sideshow versions of deadlifts and squats were done and the more “interesting” parts of the session began. The previous two weeks this triset has been the same. But it was changing now. Not sure if just trying something different and the previous one served its purpose or some other reason. The first exercise was being changed from the paused barbell hip thrusts to snatch grip Romanian deadlifts. The other two things remained as they were. I’ve not really done an rdl in a good while and I had to go a bit of a ways back on snatch grip. I’ve tended to do only tempo stuff with snatch grip and beltless so very light generally. I had asked about specifications here as to make sure I was doing things right as far as my grip and depth of movement as I find there is variance on what constitutes a snatch grip and a complete rdl. Notes were to go as deep as I felt comfortable without compromising the hip hinge and to grip it as wide as needed where the bar was sitting in the hip crease at lockout. So that meant collar to collar and bringing out the sawhorses as I couldn’t do snatch grip in my power racks. They look rough but they’ve handled over 800lbs on them. 3x10 with no tempo stuff and 7-8 RPE. Weight felt heavy on my upper back but not too bad elsewhere. I did feel some fatigue with the ROM on the movement and just not really doing them so while looking strong, I could feel myself petering out at the end of each set. But I feel like form was solid. I could probably go heavier now that I’ve done them. These felt less taxing than the hip thrusts. Overall as I knew these would effect the pull-ups. Goal was to beat the reps from last time and I knew that this would be a tall order with having just done snatch grip rdls. I didn’t feel like I could get another rep that first set and hoped I’d be able to add reps on later sets. Nope. It was a struggle to get the same reps as last time on the second set and it was ugly for the last rep. I just knew that these were taxing me and I ended up one rep shy on the last set. I’m at least getting double digits on pull ups consistently across multiple sets again. The last bit was the band tantrums again. Decreased to 15 seconds and told to go even faster. These felt a little weird after the first set in that I felt like I was out of synch with how I was doing the kicking. First set felt good. And of course, I had another misfire with the timer and didn’t hit it for the last set. But I managed to keep it about 15 seconds (closer to 20 seconds) to finish out this nonsense. Good news was I wasn’t feeling the supreme exhaustion I had last week after the triset. I want to say it is because I didn’t do the hip thrusts and the volume was drastically reduced on the other stuff. I still took my time to make sure I was good to go with the sandbag over shoulders again. Changed my shirt to the comp shirt from worlds. Plan was 175lbs for 3 sets of 45 seconds this time. I knew that with that time limit I’d be hitting an odd number. I decided what I’d do would be do one side for the first two sets and then alternate for the last set. I felt decent enough here and managed to get 7 reps both sides. It definitely feels smoother going to the left side. I was close and went a little over on the last set to get 8 reps total. Those last two reps were definitely not as explosive as I’d have liked. Breathing a bit heavy after that but not for very long. Put stuff away and ate a later dinner before stretching.