January 31, 2026 – Week 22, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x6
115x4
155x3
205x2
255x4
255x4
255x4
255x4

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, with run up)
49x5
85x3
108x2
130x1
145x1
(60 minute rests)
160x1
160x1
160x1
60 Second Sets
150x5 (2 misses)

Yoke and Sandbag Husafell Carries (50’ run back)
Y – 195x50’
Y – 285x50’
Y – 375x50’

Stretching

Comments: In office is not conducive to recovery with how much it fucks with my schedule I’ve had for the past 5yrs or so. I usual don’t get this sick if I get ill and I sometimes mistake it for bad allergies. I can’t get as comfortable as I can at home and deal with the symptoms. It felt like stuff was going up and down with feeling better as I’d feel pretty good and then feel not so great. I know I was under a lot of stress with it being week before competition and needing to get stuff ready for travel and being off. My stress just magnifies. It probably didn’t help that my one co-worker (who started about the same time I did in 2012) got fired this week (not sure on the details, but not performance based). But I made it through the week, even if very stressed and had not needed to make any training adjustments. But I felt quite tired at the end of the week and apparently having a fever blister developing (after I had that in December). I decided for Saturday I was just going to sleep until I felt rested rather than try and get out there early off an alarm. I felt this was the best way to have it be a doable session as last time I had a session before show, I stopped after getting frustrated with stuff (and had already been a stressful week). I did end up sleeping for like 12hrs and it wasn’t too late in the morning honestly. Drive out wasn’t bad but it is really cold right now. It just feels cold all the time now outside.  A decent amount of people there and had me thinking that I could maybe do some fun stuff like Hercules hold instead of just rolling handle hangs. A bit slow going on getting ready as helping my friend with setup for events she has. This wasn’t to be that taxing a session (other than overhead). I was trying to keep myself low key as I felt that was the best way I was going to get the session down in any capacity as I felt very much 50/50 with sessions this week with the cold. I really want to be feeling good for next week. Didn’t need a ton of soft tissue work. Neck rehab stuff was fine. My left shoulder was feeling pretty tight though. Stretching for lower body followed and then a dead hang as well. On to training. Pauses with the ssb for squats. Out of the monolift. 255 for 4x4 with the pauses. Keep these as the primer. I did a few more reps with warming up with the odd jumps here. Knees didn’t feel as achy as last week and weight didn’t feel as heavy. That may be because I wasn’t as congested this time around. This felt fine enough. I have to be feeling really off for this kind of squat to be the tell that I’m not having a good day. Dumbbell was next and that was what had me anxious for the day. The plan was to do 10lbs over contest weight for 3 singles with the minute rest and then do an AMRAP with contest weight for 60 seconds. Circus dumbbell had felt surprisingly good considering things last week. But this time something just felt a little off. Clean to shoulders felt like more hamstrings, legs didn’t feel solid in the dip and the weight just didn’t feel secure on my shoulder. 160lbs felt tougher than I’d like it to be. It is a good thing that 180lbs is my top lift this training prep as I’d have probably missed these if I didn’t have that strength when not fatigued. I had to fight a bit to get these and I don’t think I’d have really been good for more than these three if I was trying to do them in a single 60 second set. Definitely not touch and go like when I’m feeling on point. I was debating calling it there as far as circus bell. I had a heavy touch but I feel bad if I don’t at least try to do what is planned by my coach. Contest weight is relatively light and it has been only a handful of times this prep with dumbbell where I’ve not done contest weight or more at some point. So this shouldn’t be that taxing. But it could have me feeling doubts if I underperform. Which is what happened. That first clean to the shoulder it just didn’t feel right and I felt like I should drop it but went with it. I was definitely going at a suboptimal pace and just trying to get some reps here. But I guess I just couldn’t keep it together as I missed the sixth rep. I checked my time and I had enough to give it another shot. This was better but still a miss. Ugh, how am I only getting 5 with this? I know I’m tired and sick but it was definitely getting to me. But this was the only really heavy thing here so just put it away and move on. Yoke into husabag. The initial plan was to work up to contest weight here with the initial plan but I had suggested that I do that a week earlier as I tend to feel like ass this last week and that I’d rather not tax my back so much after a heavy deadlift to recover. This seemed like a good call considering how I got sick last week and still managed contest weight here. So the new plan was just to do light runs of 555lbs on yoke with a 225lbs sandbag. 3 runs of the contest setup and try to keep to just 2-2.5 minutes rest. I was on board with that. But warming up on yoke, I just felt off. My joints were achy, I didn’t feel like I could push myself to go fast. And I was noticing that I was getting unreasonably irritated by the sounds the two other people in the gym were making. I’ve learned that when I’m stressed, that I have a harder time with auditory sensory stimulus management. This was not feeling good and I’d likely just be making myself more tired and annoyed. So I called it there before I got really serious. I will say I did a better job then last end of prep with doing stuff. My family had message about me being available for dinner in like an hour as I don’t think they thought I’d have a serious workout today (I’d have been out 2hrs earlier if I was feeling good too). So drove home and was anxious and hoped that I could get a good night’s sleep and spend Sunday getting myself organized.