January 10, 2026 – Week 19, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x6
95x5
125x4
155x3
185x2
215x1
245x5
245x5
245x5

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, with run up)
49x5
85x3
108x2
120x2
140x1
140x1
45 Second Sets
130x10
130x10

Hercules Holds
300x30 seconds

Rolling D-Handle Hangs
bw+100 for 30 seconds
bw+100 for 30 seconds

Yoke and Sandbag Husafell Carries (50’ run back)
Y – 230x50’
Y – 320x50’
Y – 410x50’
Y – 500x25’
Y – 590x25’
680xpick (5 seconds)/270x5’
680x50’/270x50’ in 31.63 seconds
680x50’/270x50’ in 30.03 seconds

Atlas Stones
55”
310x3
310x2 (1 miss)
51”, 30 second sets
330x4
330x3

Stretching

Comments: Wednesday deadlifts I think had me feeling a bit better mentally with my training and circumstances. I knew that if I was to survive the planned Saturday session I needed to get my sleep right for Thursday and Friday and get up like I’m going to work Saturday to insure I have enough time to finish everything and to try and have friends/help with stuff. As this would essentially be the entire contest for multiple runs minus deadlifts. Body was certainly feeling better as the week went on. I’m not sure where random bruising on my right knee came from though. Probably from the suit work honestly as I got bruises on my pecs from it as well. Cold and rainy today. It has been a good long while since I’ve gone out to train at this time. Lot of cops out today. Apparently the gym has a group of youth athletics people training in the gym in the mornings on Saturday until about noon which I’ve been missing. A bit slow with starting training today even though getting in early as the gym owners had moved stuff to make space for a new piece of equipment and then moved stuff back. Thankfully that was done by the time I got to doing event work but it was bit much. My one friend is back to training at the gym since she is prepping for Arnold. She had jokingly said that my last session I was low energy because I didn’t have friends. She may have been right considering how the session went for me today. I was a little worried with some things as having to setup stuff, was I really back on track and I think just some stuff being treated like I didn’t miss a week or skip it before. Soft tissue work to start and not as much was needed as the previous days. So maybe a sign body recovering normally again. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was good and nice decompression from the dead hang. So starting things off was squats. Change in style again. Indication was like the tempo push pressing this was to be a primer exercise. Pauses with the ssb for these. Worker up to 3x5 at RPE 6. The gym equipment shenanigans was happening at this time and I wasn’t sure what rack to really use so I just went with the monolift like last time I was here. Turns out that was the only choice as the other racks needed to be resecured to the floor and that meant drilling into the concrete and brick foundation. And that shit was loud. I did not go full atg style here as I feel that if I do that and pause them on my calves, there is not real tension and completely relax. So squat to depth for the holds. Pauses also seem to put stress on my knees. I did 30lbs jumps here like when I was doing the tempo ssb stuff earlier in the offseason prep. But I was worried that 245lbs was too much with how 215lbs had felt. But I guess I just needed to be serious as 245lbs was fine. The angle really showing that my upper back has gained some size these past few months. I made sure these were 2 second pauses by counting in my head to 3 seconds as I noticed I was counting too fast on things like paused rdls and I know I was probably going to do that on paused squats. So that worked out. I took longer rests than usual here because of the “construction” but also helping my friend with resetting power stairs. So this went well enough and it was on to actual event work. Circus dumbbell. A little leery with how these had treated me last time. I also decreased the warming up sets here as I probably won’t have this much selection at the show warming up. So big jumps for the most part besides going from the second heaviest to heaviest empty. Since smaller jump there, I did another double. Each set I was doing the run up and toppling the dumbbell here. What was written I almost didn’t follow. The plan was to work up to 140lbs for 2 singles and then do timed sets with 130lbs. My ego wanted me to do the singles at 150lbs as that is contest weight and I’ve only not done contest weight or above besides the first two sessions on the dumbbell this prep. But I figured I should listen to my coach and considering that I needed to take a deload last week. My hamstrings were a bit tight from Wednesday but these went up fine enough. I did have to borrow wrist wraps from a friend as I forgot to pack them for today. I was too focused on the other stuff. So then it was the timed sets. I was to do this weight last time for 2 sets of 30 seconds but now it is going to be 45 seconds sets. I was not expecting these numbers coming into this. When I hit the 8th rep on the first set, I was wondering if the timer wasn’t working. I was equally surprised that I matched reps on the second set. I did feel like I was getting to the point where like last time I got sloppy and missed a rep but I seemed to course correct and actually feel better. I think I got to where I just knew the dumbbell was secure and right place just by how it was contacting on my traps and side of my head. I was a bit out of breath after the first set there. I feel on pace for what I want at show. But I know that there will be other factors like length of the run up, dumbbell may not feel the same and other factors. But in the ballpark so to speak. Feeling the most prepared for an overhead event I’ve been. Now I had to change up order of operations here. I was to do yoke and husabag next but I knew if I did that, I’d have 0% chance of getting any Hercules hold in. I did want to do that and who know if I can get in even more than 1 set here with people’s schedules and such. I only got in two sessions total last year for the two shows I did with this event (though one had to change due to equipment safety). I had another session but I bailed on it as I felt like crap (last heavy workout before world’s) and this is a pain to setup. Last time and this time, I’d need to setup it rather than the gym owners getting it setup beforehand like in the past. It takes at least two people to operate it and with how it was stored, I needed two other people to help me get it out and total of four people to set it up. It took so long to setup that one person that was potentially going to help had to leave and another was only going to be able to stay for one set. The plan had been to warm up to 3 sets of 30 seconds with something challenging (but not like struggling at 20 seconds). So I did only a dead hang for 15 seconds to warm up and got assistance from enough people to do one set here. I had figured 300lbs would be a good weight but to my chagrin, it felt too damn easy. Which I guess is both a good and bad thing. But the setup is there for next time now and hopefully I can get some more runs it. So with that being a one and done, I had to decide if I wanted to go on to yoke and husabag now or do something similar for the remaining sets. Since someone was using the lanes for stuff, I decided I’d do rolling d-handle hangs. I’m kind of flabbergasted with how much weight I was able to do here on these. I guess last time I did these with not thick handles was 2022 and I did 46lbs added for 30 seconds (with stuff in the tank). Here I did 100lbs added. And this felt much harder than the Hercules hold did. I guess I don’t really need to worry about grip for that. Then it was time yoke and sandbag medley. Well moving up in enough weight I can go from sandbag to the husabags we got. Plan being work up to three top sets but only do two if I didn’t feel like the third set would be a solid one. Which was a possibility. I had skipped this last time and then deload week after that so going from doing 600lbs/225lbs to now doing 675lbs/270lbs. Last time had literally been the first time going into 600lbs range after being in 400’s to 500’s range this whole offseaon and contest prep. So this was going to be a bit spicy as it were. Similar warming up as last time but I adjusted things near the end. I added 5lbs to the weight as I didn’t want to deal with chips here. At 500lbs, I switched to just half the yoke course. The top weight doing a pick and hold seems to be helpful as it feels heavy as shit at first and then it moves well enough when it is time to go. I’ve not tried moving this husabag before (the cheaper brand) so that was a bit interesting. Didn’t feel like smart idea to just one motion it up and I bopped it up my body before going. I didn’t feel fast on the yoke and just felt ok with the husabag. I felt I got a little unstable on the second run with yoke and figured it was good to call it there. If I had known that that run was actually faster than my first run, I’d probably have done another haha. This was a big jump up in weight on both things and I only really lost 1.5-3 seconds in time. So that is encouraging. It was now time for stones. Well I did eat a rice Krispie treat first. I may need to start packing these for this kinds of sessions as it is a long day and I am feeling a bit drained by the end of it. Plan for stones was to do 310lbs to 55” for 2x2-3 and then do 330lbs to 51” for 2 sets of 30 seconds. I’m not sure what “cleaning” people did to these stones since I’ve not been doing them but I do not remember the 310lbs stone being this dirty. They seemed nice when they did whatever they did to them but now they just seem to be a mess. I went right into the 310lbs stone and the first set was mostly fine. I got off balanced on the last rep in the lap position but extensions felt good. I don’t have a ton of tacky so I didn’t retack (just tried to activate what I had) for the second set and that sucked. I was having issues with picking up the stone for the planned third rep but it slipped and I was a little worried about trying again and it slid on me during extension. But I wasn’t going to beat myself up on that. I guess I will just avoid that stone and do 285lbs or 315lbs going forward. I knew the 330lbs was a bit better with sticking. I got someone to time here and first set was good. I got 4 reps as time ran out. I did retack but I couldn’t get much on for the second set. I was a bit slower this time so I didn’t bother trying for a 4th rep there. Clean up still a pain but not as much as last time. Thankfully I didn’t have to do anything after like last time I did stones. I had packed some food for afterwards as I want to try and mimic contest stuff as well as keep my weight stable. Cold and rainy drive home to finally stretch out.