September 24, 2025 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

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

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

Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps)/Pull Ups/Concentric Lying Band Leg Curls
135x5
225x3/bwx3
315x9/bw+10x10/2(lb)x15
315x9/bw+10x10/2(lb)x15
315x9/bw+10x9/2(lb)x15

Sandbag Over Shoulders
225x30 seconds
225x30 seconds
225x30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: It has been a busy week with work but there seems to be a light at the end of the week. Walking Tuesday I saw a small garter snake which was neat as I rarely see anything besides squirrels, birds and dogs when out walking. I’ve usually seen dead little snakes from lawn service stuff during the fall so it was good this one was healthy. I’m glad that I didn’t seem to have any issues from Monday training session as far as the hip/thigh thing. My left side shoulder was feeling a little tight/compressed but no muscle soreness. Right knee a little achy and I wonder if that was from the traction and extra effort put in on trying to get Spanish squats to work for me. Soft tissue stuff needed. A lot for my right calf and quads. Neck rehab stuff fine as well. I was advised to implement some ankle stuff in the form of calf and tib raises so I did that with some glute activation work as well before doing the stretching for lower body. I was a little slow going with getting to training. I don’t know why. Maybe because I think this workout doesn’t take that long on paper but I know better that it does. Starting things off with the long ass bar deadlifts. Same as last time with the weight and increasing the EMOM to 10x2. I was told to film from the side fully this time so that Ms. Funk could review my form better when I had mentioned my knees had gotten a little raw when I had to do 12x3 session two weeks earlier. I had to rotate the bar 90 degrees so that I could get it to fit and get a good side view and not worry about the weights rolling away. Warming up was fine here. I had issues with my belts today. First attempt of the first set the Velcro on the belt came undone and I dropped it. I reset things and went again and I got through the set before it popped off again locking out the second rep. I don’t know if I was bracing harder or something but I couldn’t keep having this happen on these with the short rest and I rushed to get a different belt (ratchet belt) which I generally use for my heavier pulls. It does not appear though it was purely the other belt as I had this belt come loose a few sets in and need to fix it as well (in this case, I hadn’t gotten it secure when I first put it on to stay in the EMOM rest period). I don’t feel like I’ve been consistent with getting these pulls to feel “perfect” on the first rep. I don’t really see too much difference set to set on the second reps really but there does seem to be a sweet spot where if I get the brace, flex and pull timed right that it feels weightless. Now I say this but this session was probably the best I’ve had with that being hit with getting it on the fourth and tenth set here. I think I got one set last week, none the week before as far as weights over 400lbs. The first week I think I had 2-3 that were but those were lighter weights. Everything held up in my lower body and no issues from the belt stuff or anything else. Getting that last set to be feeling like my best kind of gave me a boost/second wind but I knew I needed to take time setting up and tearing down. One for getting fluids in and the other to kind of think of staging for stuff later in the workout. From there on to the ssb front box squats. Same weight as last week but doing 6x4 instead. I did well last week it seems with control and form. I was a little anxious about loading the hips with the left side issue and the right knee being a little achy. I did the same warming up I did last week with 40-50lbs jumps on plate-quarter-plate all the way up and dropping a rep each set until working weight. A positive was that these didn’t feel as heavy compared to last week. Felt comfortable almost. I could definitely feel the left side thigh stuff as I did more sets and the fatigue was building from the controlled decent to the hard foam box but still good. So these went well as well. A little longer a break here to setup things for the triset. Again, slight change here. The snatch grip Romanian deadlifts started things off. Plan was 305-315lbs for 3x8. I figured that I’d probably have adapted to the movement after the first session so wouldn’t feel so alien and not feel like I was uncoordinated in the bottom range of the movement. So I went with 315lbs. I was also told that I should try to get my glutes to fire on these better so I did try and thick of that (easier said then done). 315lbs I miscounted the first set and since it was easy enough, I figured I’d stick to 9 reps for all the sets. Second set felt a good bit tougher than the first set and the third set felt like the first set. So that was a little weird. Pull ups were next. Same as it has been with 3 sets of max reps but adding 10lbs to bodyweight. I knew this was have me take a hit as adding weight does add a factor that makes the moving around part not as easy and trying to pull violently without control leads to that extra weight working against you. I also had the unfortunateness to be dealing with rain so did my best to keep the pull up bar dry between sets and dry my hands with liquid chalk. Reps took a hit here with getting 10 twice and 9 on the last set. I made a little mistake with the last thing. Indication was leg curls with bands in the same position as the band tantrums. I took that to mean using the same setup with the bands and this resulted in a more concentric only leg curl for just the top end. I used the same bands and did 3x15 here (reps and not seconds). Got quite hard contractions in the hamstrings on these. I’m not sure if Ms. Funk will have me keep these oopsies or if I will be doing more proper style next time. It gets a little tricky with moving things around. It was definitely getting later in the evening than I was hoping at this point and I still had one more thing to go. Arguably the most sport specific exercise I’m doing right now if intent is the Natural Strongman qualifier in January. Sandbag over shoulder. I’ve been doing 175lbs these past three weeks so told to move up to the next weight bag I got and go back to 3x30 seconds. Which meant 225lbs. It is a bit firmer compared to the 175lbs but it also has a not great top knot section to grab on one side vs the other. It makes me yearn for the Velcro bags that feel somewhat even each side. The 50lbs increase was definitely noticeable here. I figured that I should be able to do 4 reps on these in the time limit or just about going over finishing up. Even though I didn’t drink anything besides a few sips of water before this, I still was a victim to my biology as I threw up in my mouth picking up the bag the first rep on the first and second set. Just a little bit but it isn’t fun and it is quite distracting. These require a bit more effort with getting grip and wrist placement right and then if the umph isn’t there, a bit more muscling it over. But thankfully the work was done and I could go and eat dinner and then stretch out and try to fall asleep at a reasonable hour.