September 29, 2025 – Week 5, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (4 second eccentrics)
26x5
56x3
86x3
116x2
146x2
176x2
206x4
206x4
206x4
206x4
206x4

Breathing Pause 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (2 second eccentrics)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x5
180x5
180x5
180x5

Alternating + Together Dumbbell Floor Presses
70’sx8(1/1/1)
70’sx8(1/1/1)
70’sx8(1/1/1)

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Dumbbell Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats
55x10/10 – bwx45 seconds
55x10/10 – bwx45 seconds
55x10/10 – bwx45 seconds

Deadstop Pendlay Rows/Band Single Leg Seated Leg Extensions
135x5 
205x10 -- mb+10x20/20
205x10 -- mb+10x20/20
205x10 -- mb+10x20/20

Stretching

Comments: Weight down a few lbs as I kind of expected from not eating as much as I usually do on Saturday but still a bit surprising that about 3lbs difference. This is more for just keeping track and notes so that I don’t have a situation where I don’t realize I’ve dropped like 20lbs over 9 months and wonder why my leverages are all out of whack on events. I’m still not sure what it was that happened or is still happening with the left thigh/hip but it does seem to now be just the thigh in a set area. It is tolerable and not keeping me from doing anything. It could just be something was irritated or I could have had a slight muscle tear. I do have one of those in the other thigh but on the outside area. All I can really do is just monitor things. I did make sure I got some soft tissue done on Sunday to help with recovery as that did seem to help some leading up to Saturday session. Perhaps some but not that much this time around. I was promised/warned of changes with the routine for this coming week. Foam rolling was not really as needed as I was expecting but did need a bit for calves. Neck rehab stuff followed that up and then did some stuff for ankles and knees before doing lower body stretching followed by a dead hang. I did the ankle/knee stuff today because one of the changes to this session was starting off with axle push press instead of strict press. I had not expected to be doing push press twice in one week nor so soon after doing the heaviest I’ve done since world’s (which isn’t really saying much). No pauses like on Saturday but still adding something to screw around with it. And that would be keeping the eccentric accentuation going from the strict presses. We could think of this as just being strict press negatives. I’ve done these fairly recent in training memory (December) so I had some expectation of how these would feel and go. Plan was to do 5x4 at RPE 8ish with 4 second eccentrics. It did take a bit for my knees to accept that I was doing this crap in 48hrs time frame. The eccentrics really sap the energy from me in the upper body to keep the form tight. Trying to focus on what Ms. Funk says with keeping things tight and not losing that tightness as that is when stuff goes out of the groove. Just with how the eccentrics strain is (and this is going up over 100lbs from the strict) I wasn’t sure that my goal of axle and two plates was going to happen. But it did seem to work here. Double rest here as I knew how much those eccentrics take out of me. Third set was the best set here and it felt downright perfect. So good that I was thinking that I was not using enough weight but I thought better of it and it is a good thing as the fatigue was hitting hard and those remaining two sets were the toughest of them. I could feel that I was hopping backwards on those sets with the push drive which if I recall is a timing issue with the drive in lower body and upper body. Fatiguing the shoulders with the slow eccentrics makes that more obvious. I was able to get these done without incident. Where does the time go as I swear it was already looking like 6:30PM at this point when I didn’t think I was that slow going get off my duff from work. From there moving on to the paused log work. This had also been changed up from what I’ve been doing the past four weeks. Still a pause circumstance but intent much different. What I had been doing was pauses for 3 seconds and gradually getting better control of the eccentric and lockouts. These were to be 2 second eccentrics and the doing a “breathing pause”. So push out the air in my lungs and then take a deep breath to rebrace and press up to complete the rep. So closer to a 4 second pause then but one where I’m relaxing and then contracting. So similar to like cleaning and pressing catch for an overhead or having to rebrace if needing to get air for an overhead lift. Like the axle push press, I was told to aim for RPE 8 here. Plan being 4x5. I did 30lbs jumps here and I was kind of hoping I could do 200lbs or more but I felt like maybe I stick to just 15lbs increase on these with switching over. It was good call as while things didn’t feel bad at the start, those last two reps got tough quick on these. I was worried I miscounted an extra rep on the last set but nope, just tough fifth rep there. Moving right along into the garage for more pressing. Alternating floor presses with dumbbells again. Well, kind of. So one change was these weren’t for time like the past four weeks. Just 3x8. But not really in that a rep constituted one press each side and then pressing together. So right, left, both and that is one rep. I was initially uncertain if I could handle the 70’s here for that but after I looked at a video of what I did in 30 seconds and that was more reps than these sets were going to be, I went with that. These were a bit tricky with bracing and switching gears. I’m not sure if the plan here will be to increase the reps or push weight but I’m ready for either. Moving on to the supersets. So as the same as last week with half kneeling presses to start. Bumping reps back up to 10 and told to do 50-55lbs here. For the most part fine but I could tell that if I lost any tightness that a rep would get a little tougher. Had to also stop myself from trying to just bang out the reps like I’ve done. Need to work on the lockouts to be solid. Keep the triceps engaged. Not have core get soft. The other half being the Spanish squats. Consigned to the rope assisted ones with regressions to be able to do it. It had been nice to finally get these to click (albeit the last set) so I was hopeful I could get them to be from the onset this time around. I tested with no knee sleeves and that wasn’t going to happen. Knee sleeves needed. Sets of 45 seconds and I did start a little slow and gingerly but I was doing these much better this time and was feeling like they got better as I went. Something must be wrong with me as I wanted to do them longer as the quads were getting burn here and my mobility and aches were also improving. It just takes a bit to get this setup to work for me. Last thing had a change to it as well. The first half still being the Pendlay rows. Same weight as last time but increasing reps to 10. I did inquire if I should be wearing a belt and was told no so keeping these as they’ve been. No straps added as I like these this way for picking up odd objects. Little bit of knee aches to get into position but better as I went and feeling tension in the hamstrings. I wasn’t sure if I did an extra rep on the last set (I didn’t). The other part was not the walking lunges. Just went I was getting used to those. Changing things up to let my hips rest. So told to do banded single leg extensions. Sets of 20 reps. I had to get a little imaginative here with anchoring. I was having issues with doing just bands and getting things to work so I ended up using my 10lbs ankle weights to keep the bands in place on my legs. These seemed to be fine. I may need to do more band tension (either thicker band or move the table out further). Cooked up dinner and put stuff away. Stretched after eating.