October 15, 2025 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Deadlifts (straps)
116x5
156x5
206x3
246x3
296x2
336x2
386x1
426x5
426x5
426x5
426x5
426x5

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (21”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
275x6
275x6
275x6

Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps)/Paused Pull Ups (1 second)/Lying Band Leg Curls (first 10 with 3 seconds pauses)
245x3/bwx3 (no pauses)/(2)mmbx3+3
335x8/bwx8/(2)mmbx10+10
335x8/bwx8/(2)mmbx10+10
335x8/bwx8/(2)mmbx10+10

Sandbag Carries
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’

Stretching

Comments: Got news Tuesday. My one family member did pass in the very early morning. They had been suffering so it is good they are at peace now. Funeral stuff a bit in the air and confusing with federal government shutdown somewhat effecting burial. But that is a later issue and not for me to figure out. Some good news as far as the other family member with medical issue is that it seems the one issue has been resolved and on the mend. Weather changes and the increased workload on my lower body did have my right knee feeling a lot more achy than I’d like it to. My ankle also a little stiff/achy as well on that side. Not terribly surprising going with heavy axle clean and presses after heavy circus dumbbell (which going to just the left side does spare my right knee) and a ton of yoke volume work. I needed a good bit of foam rolling for my right leg on both the calf and quads. Otherwise everything else seemed to be fine. Neck rehab stuff was fine. Kept the calf and tib raises again with some glute activation work. Seemed to feel a little better compared to last week. Did my normal stretching before moving on to training. Axle deadlifts again. These had not felt great last week so I was not sure how these would go. Lower abs still sore from Saturday (it takes so long for them to recover after the first session) and I was not sure with the right knee aches adding to just how uncomfortable these felt last week. I elected to just use bumper plates and standard plates this time around as the big wheels idea was a bust. For whatever reason, the weights didn’t roll out of position so I didn’t need to get the crash pads here. So plan for the session was to work up to 5x5 with 415-425lbs. So a little bit lighter than last time but more volume. I had mentioned how heavy stuff had felt and I don’t think with the frame of mind from that time I would’ve expected to keep pushing forward with that intensity. But could’ve just been the ebb and flow of things with just recovery and stress as I am already surprised with how strong stuff had felt on Monday considering things. We seem to be doing some things right here as I felt a good bit stronger coming into this session. Like I felt how I should with these weights. I did have a belt malfunction going for that first set and had to restart. I thankfully had no further belt issues. But I could tell today was going to be different with the pulls as to how that first pull before the belt came undone felt. It was annoying but it gave me a feel that things would be in my favor. I know my form isn’t great on deadlifts yet (I mean not like I’ve been doing these for over 20yrs or something) but feeling pretty good and controlled here. I was a little uncertain with hamstring tension before the working sets but was no issue at the heavy stuff. I was getting a little silly between sets amusing myself with setup to pull which tends to be a good sign when I’m able to enjoy myself. Third set I did kind of a reset each rep where not keeping rigid form the entire time so I was rebracing each rep from scratch at the bottom. Fourth set I was a little loose as I accidentally did kind of touch and go on one rep (not intentional). But I liked how things went here. It was good work and I didn’t feel like things were strained that shouldn’t be feeling it like last time. Put stuff away and rehydrated while setting up for the next thing. Front box squats with the ssb as has been the case. But I guess I’ve been having it too easy/good for too long here. These have been to an above parallel box of 24” so far. And man was even going to that the first week rough on my knees and having to essentially fall back the last bit of the movement. So with I guess mastering that height, adding in more ROM. Reducing box height by 3”. This is essentially parallel but a little above for me with the hard foam. Not an ideal time with my knees being especially achy this week. Plan here being 3x6. My hope was that I could keep about the same warming up that should hopefully gauge my knees and have me feeling warm and ready for the working sets with my hope being about 285-295lbs. I knew that I’d likely need to drop the weight a good bit from the 24” height. I had some issues getting the box the right height but did eventually get it figured out and stable. This was about as rough as the first week of these had been with knees and finding the box/depth. My last warm up did at least feel best of the warming up sets but not super confident. Went with just 275lbs and leaving possibility if that was easier than expected or felt better to add weight. It was not easier than expected. The good thing is that having worked up to 315lbs on the other variation has me feeling quite comfortable with holding the weight in the rack position because I needed that time to recover from the difficulty of each rep. Definitely lacking at this height. I ended up taking double rests to make sure I recovered here as that first set felt really damn tough. Thankfully, the movement did feel better as I went and I felt less stiff and worried about it. But it was still really tough. So pulls and squats done and on to the triset. Essentially the same with snatch grip rdls, paused pull ups and band lying leg curls. The rdls the weight and reps changed. Plan being 3x8 and suggested 325-335lbs. I was going to go with 335lbs as I felt that I could handle it with how axle pulls felt today. I did try and see if I could setup things on my outside power rack rather than the sawhorses but not enough space for my hands to safely fit to rack the weights. Notes also indicated to brace hard. Tried to keep that in mind but sometimes the first issue is feeling like I can do the lift first and everything feels good and then add it in there. I was also a little worried I’d pop my belt doing that (I did not). These felt pretty strong but I could tell I was getting tired by the end. The paused pull ups same as it was but told to do 3x8 here. So no wiggle room suggested like last week. I was uncertain with how these would go as left arm still feeling Saturday and now Monday session of circus dumbbells, axle and one arm rows. Also the soreness in the lower abs. So I was nervous I’d fall short of expectations. But to my surprise, these felt even stronger than the week before and only really had to fight to get the last rep on the last set. So that was good. The leg curls were adjusted slightly in that not paused every rep. The pauses were increased for the reps that were paused though. So like the leg extensions with bands in that first 10 paused and then regular style fast movement. These didn’t feel too bad and oddly enough the fast reps after the pauses were tougher I think. Maybe because the fast style doesn’t give a moment to recover and just pump them out. It was even later than it was last week when I got to the sandbag stuff. Darker out as well. I put away only a few things so that I could move right along as I was pretty much going to eat a late dinner and then have a little bit to clean up and then down a shake and go to bed. So sandbag carries again. It had been 225lbs for 3-4 sets of 50’ last week and I did 4 because they were easy to recover from and I didn’t want to have to bring the sandbag back with my not so good handtruck/dolly system that week. This time it being 5 sets and I was seriously considering just doing 6 so I didn’t have the same issue potentially. But the moving things around wasn’t as bad as last time had been as I knew what to do and I also wasn’t feeling so discombobulated in my lower body. I feel like these went better than last week. I’d like to say that with 100% certainty but I apparently forgot to hit record so I don’t know. From feel, I felt like my pick ups were less labored and I was moving/running faster. There is still an issue with lag between me picking up the bag and getting into the hold position to move and then just moving. Granted, the weight will be about 80lbs heavier so not as bad I think compared to if this was this light for the event with me not being the fastest. Put stuff away while dinner heated up. Stretched and cleaned up before getting to bed. Only got 2 more weeks of this in office nonsense messing up my scheduled thankfully.