March 14, 2026 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

18” Monster Texas Squat Bar Box Squats (4 second eccentrics)
66x5
110x4
154x3
198x2
242.5x2
286.5x3
286.5x3
286.5x3
286.5x3

Double Paused Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, 1 second dip and catch)
49x5
85x3
108x2
125x1
140x2
140x2
140x2
140x2
140x2

Sandbag Carries (turf)
250x60’
250x60’
turns at 60’
300x120’
250x120’
250x120’

Standing Arm Over Arm Pulls (turf, uphill)
320x60’
320x60’
320x60’

Reverse Hyper Extensions
50x18
50x18
50x18

Pulldowns (drop sets)
150x10/120x10/90x25
150x10/120x10/90x20

Stretching

Comments: Burn out with work is very real at this time. I’m thankful that I have friends and family and that training is at least going well. I don’t like when I feel so overwhelmed and feels like no help in sight. Power went out for a little bit on Friday afternoon adding to that stress (high winds). Like last week, allergies were acting up a little on Friday and that carried over unfortunately into Saturday. I did have my stuff packed up the night before in the event I did need more sleep than I was expected to for feeling up to training. My hamstrings were feeling very sore and hard to tell if a good sore or a bad sore. I did end up waking up when I had set my alarm for and not needing more sleep. I did regret not taking anything more than nasal spray on the drive out. Just hoping that I don’t feel off with training. Foam rolling I didn’t need much besides my hamstrings. I think this is the first time I’ve actually done them twice to make sure things feeling ok and good. Neck rehab stuff was good. Chest still feeling tight but not as bad as it had been this week. Lower body stretching was good. I did double what I normally do here again with the hamstrings. Dead hang felt nice. Starting things off with eccentric focus box squats. A few things today had ranges for weight, reps and sets today so kind of based on “vibes” I guess. Box squats were to be 4x2-3 reps and have 10-20lbs more added. I asked for clarification here and the goal was more getting heavier weight with speed off the box component. I was prepared for either option here. The monster squat bar was in the monolift so I figured that was fortuitous and decided to go with the heavier option today. It does take a like a set for my knees to feel ready for these. I had thought the thicker bar maybe was an issue but I think that was more just first time in a while doing any kind of squat with a barbell on my back. I didn’t feel like I had any issues with unrack this time around. I felt good enough here that I did triples. This was a decent start to things. From there I moved on to circus dumbbell. Pauses back this week. I was looking forward to this. I knew that I had rushed things last week and that had been a lot to do with my anxiety being up for some reason. It was a little elevated today but I seemed to keep it in check as I wasn’t breaking into a cold sweat. Plan being 140lbs here for 4-5x2. I was fully planning on the 5x2 but depended on how fatigue was going here. I was feeling pretty good here. I did try to make it more an effort to have the dumbbell stop moving when going into the dip as I tend to further rotate as I do. I increased the hold times slightly for the last 2-3 sets here. Fourth set of these felt the best of the bunch. Things are moving smooth here but slightly curious on how things will hold up with 20lbs more for contest weight. We are getting very close to show time. From there on to sandbag carries. Plan for today was warm up to contest run and then drop down to 250lbs again for 2 runs of contest distance. I was a tad nervous here with the sore hamstrings. But I guess less so than I had been at the start as no issues on box squats or circus dumbbell. Since I was doing contest run, I did two sets with 250lbs of just 60’ to get ready for that. I was fully expected 300lbs to be fine but just feel darn heavy and slow. I got a friend to video from the side so I had a better angle for Ms. Funk to review. This was unexpected how this went. I had a little bit of crowd (didn’t notice until I was done) but once I stood up with thing, it felt light and I was booking. My camera man as also not expecting me to be off so fast. Felt good and was about the times I’ve been doing with 200-250lbs range too. Who knew? I didn’t magically go faster on the 250lbs sets as those felt about the same as last week with it feeling dense picking it up. But hey, 300lbs moved really easy and that’s what matters. Arm over arm next. I was paranoid about the rope coming undone so I made sure the knot was secured this time. Plan for today was same weight as last week but another set added. The note for this week was to try and pull to the one side as way to increase the arc of the motion for the pulls as well as a way to keep tension on the rope. Willing to give that a try. I was a little worried I think that pulling to the side might make the implement move that way but it didn’t. So first set felt a lot like my first run last week and didn’t feel that taxing. Similar time I think as well. Second set didn’t go as planned. I’m not sure what I did wrong at the start but I couldn’t keep traction with my shoes and my balance was terrible so I wasn’t able to get much power into the strokes. I did eventually get sure footing but this ended up being my slowest run of these this training cycle by a good bit. I was feeling pretty beat from that extra effort. However, not all bad in that near the last third or so that the keeping constant tension and going to the side finally clicked and if I could get that from the start and not have footing issue, I should be able to move this faster. Everything came together on that last set as I got it from the start and kept it the entire time. The rope did coil around my one leg and trip me as I walked away but it was about 5 seconds faster than my first pull (which was about my best time previously). Continuing to learn new things here. Event work done and now the more reps heavy stuff for conditioning. Reverse hypers again. 2-3x18 with 50lbs. Just going to keep adding the reps here as my lower back was feeling the pulls and the gms from Wednesday. And as long as these keep feeling good and are progressing, I’m happy about that. These felt fine and did 3 sets here. Then last thing being pulldown drop set. Back to 2 sets but now back up to 10 reps on these before the max reps on the end. So getting better here. I was kind of dreading the last set of these as my endurance has improved and I knew it was going to be a lot of reps that first set and then I’d be struggling to try and come close on the second set, even if I took a long rest. My upper and lower arms were feeling these after the first set so a longer rest needed so that I felt like I could make a decent effort here. Finally done and put down food while putting stuff away before driving home to stretch. A good week of training.