February 16, 2026 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Dumbbell Push Presses (4-1-0-1 tempo)
10’sx3
40’sx3
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6
70’sx6

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds at lockout)
46x8
96x6
136x4
186x2
226x8
226x8
226x8
226x8

Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (1 second at lockout)
10’sx6 – 12x6/6
26’sx12 – 30x12/12
27’sx12 – 30x12/12
28’sx12 – 30x12/12

Close Grip Push Ups/Band Face Pulls
lbx3
bwx20/abx20
bwx15/abx20
bwx12/abx20

Stretching

Comments: While I may not bee feeling 100% physically after competing, mentally I was going a bit stir crazy come a week off from training. I came back to dumb work stuff and still kind of getting over stress from travel. Nothing was done while I was out so a bit frustrating to come back to a mess. But only two days of work before a three-day weekend. Bodyweight up a bit to 258lbs at that is after coming back and eating what I eat normally so I must have been eating good in Arizona. But got to get back to the grind. And hope that it doesn’t wear me out so much in the first week. I’d only done a walk on Saturday and did soft tissue work Wednesday. Training so far has some stuff present last cycle but doesn’t look the same. So starting things off with my usual foam rolling and man did my lower legs need it a lot. I was expecting that. Probably going to need a ton more next time around. Not so much elsewhere besides my right quad but that was still not as needy as my calves were. Good that this was day off session from work to get back into it. Neck rehab stuff felt fine and was needed. I was surprised that some stuff wasn’t as stiff as I was worried it would be. That came with the lower body stretching where I pretty much did double what I normally do here. I plum forgot to do a dead hang before moving on to lifting. So first thing in the session being dumbbell push presses. These have been generally tempo based and notes were to not kill myself with effort but not coast along. Aim for RPE 7-8 on everything. My shoulders (especially my left) were still feeling like I needed to baby them so I wasn’t sure what I’d handle today so I didn’t want to assume that my usual 70’s were going to work today. I went really light to make sure I was moving all good and 10’s felt like a joke and 40’s moved easy. The dumbbells do allow me to train this inside under the recessed lighting fixture so I didn’t have to move a bunch of things around and could stay in the garage for the session. There were times when the reps felt piss easy and others where I could tell that I was feeling fatigue from the eccentrics and holding the lockout. Apparently holding the lockout is now going to be my thing on all my pressing accessory work it seems. And I didn’t realize how much more tiring things were going to be because of that. I had one rep where I wasn’t quite under the lights and hit the ceiling tile and that through me off. I took a little longer rest before doing the last set. After that, I did do a dead hang and many were my chest and biceps sore. Needed that stretch. Axle not forgotten in the prep, just changing to it being a bench vs overhead. So bringing back floor presses with the axle. I did these for a few sessions for the world’s prep but those were with pauses at the bottom. These were at lockout. Plan being 4x8. Even from what I had done for the push pressing with holds and eccentrics (the pauses in the dip felt easy) had my triceps twitching something fierce. I worked up like I would with bench pressing usually and assumed 2 plates a side would be about right and if it was too light, I could add a little each set like I’m wont to do. That triceps fatigue built and the start felt a lot easier than the end did on these sets. Lockout was slowing down a good bit by the end of the third and fourth set. My triceps would receive no reprieve this session. While the heavier pressing stuff was done, I still had more things to do. Now one change I noticed with this session is that no leg work coming into the mix in the later half of the session. This is all purely upper body-based stuff. But some familiarity with it being supersets to end the session. First one being a pairing of chest flyes and single arm triceps. I’ve not done flyes in a while but at least done some triceps extension work in the off season. These flyes were a little different in that I was to end on an internal rotation. I did both movements light to start to make sure that nothing was feeling funky. My left shoulder/pec is tight so there was some strain there with these but felt better as I went honestly. The triceps extension felt harder with the weight I picked. They fatigue so fast with holds and many reps. I didn’t really have small amount of weight to really bump up the flyes (didn’t feel safe to do 40’s off the bat) so added 1lb per set with microloading. I know just from how the movement was that my chest is going to be really sore tomorrow and the next day. Probably all week. It was already too late for my triceps. With those done, one last superset. Close grip push ups with band face pulls. It apparently has been quite some time since I’ve done a face pull which didn’t sound right but judging by my notes, it has been close to a year. My left elbow was a little touchy at first with them but after doing them, I probably could’ve done a heavier band tension and had these be closer to the needed effort. The push ups were humbling. Just bodyweight but after all the other stuff, my triceps were toasted and I knew from experience that I tend to fatigue fast and hard when doing things like this. I got 20 reps pretty well that first set but then I knew that my triceps were just on fumes and called it before I started to make them ugly for the remaining two sets. Well one workout down. Put stuff away and stretched out before having dinner with my parents.