March 24, 2026 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds at lockout)
116x4
166x3
206x2
256x1
296x2
296x2
296x2
296x2

Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (0-1-0-1 tempo)
10’sx16 – 6x6/6
40’sx12 – 26x12/12
40’sx12 – 26x12/12
40’sx12 – 26x12/12

Paused Banded Close Grip Push Ups/Paused Band Cross Face Pulls
bw+abx16/(2)mb’sx20
bw+abx16/(2)mb’sx20

Stretching

Comments: Back on the onsite rotation with work, so losing an hour essentially each morning and evening. Weather continues to be a whiplash. It got up to low 80’s Sunday and it was near freezing Monday morning. The usually discomfort/soreness from long event training session did help in that I was up and active for the earlier start time with work. Work was uneventful for the most part and thankfully it seems most of the people that had been sick in the office for the past few weeks were either better or reverted to an offsite schedule.  Hip flexor issue with the right side persists but not feeling the need for ibuprofen like last week at the end of the week. Also probably because it didn’t really do much. Walking Monday after work (there is daylight now) to see if moving helped with recovery and such as my lower back is still pretty darn cooked from last week. A little delay in starting training figuring out the workout plan for the week. Soft tissue work to start off the day. Right quad needed it the most as tense/tender from the hip flexor issue. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was ok followed by a dead hang. From there is was the tempo dumbbell push pressing. Same modification as last week with just pause at lockout and the 4 seconds eccentric. Suggested weight for these was increased to 90lbs for 3x3. Last week I had done smaller jumps and started heavier working up as I felt that with how I need the larger diameter plates on the plateloaded handles that I should do a set with those so the clean wasn’t so rough on these. Knees were feeling a bit achy and with not having as much “free time” after work, I felt it was best to do what I felt would be enough to get ready for the top set and be the least time consuming. I was not expecting the hip flexor issue to be present here. It had only flared up after Thursday session (and I guess during) but it hadn’t been an issue on circus dumbbell but I guess with this being bilateral rather than unilateral, I can’t really move in a way that abates the stress. That wasn’t terribly pleasant. I’ve been in this situation before so I knew I could tolerate it. My lower body was definitely beat as I was essentially stifflegged muscling up the weights to get them into the rack position. The 3lbs increase in weight on the dumbbells was noticed. I think I was also a little hesitant with the clean to shoulders with the hip thing going but I bit the bullet to put a bit more umph into it on the third set and that did go up better to the shoulders (almost got off balance forward). Did attempt to work on being “solid” on the pressing. I seem to relax too much at points. I think because I worry about exhausting myself with straining the entire time if I’m bracing at all points. This is still a work in progress. But these were done and I could move back into the garage for the rest of the session. Axle floor pressing again with the paused lockouts. These were to be decently heavy again. I had been pleased that I had been able to go heavier on these past two weeks of training on these when things have felt not the best with prone pressing. I’m moving things quite well for the most part but it does feel like if I’m not fast that I will hit a wall if that makes sense. It is taking longer than I anticipated to get back into a heavier weight range on pressing (besides circus bell) and deadlifts but getting there. So the plan for the session was 4x2 (still doing the lockout holds) with 10-15lbs more than the weight last week. I was already thinking about doing more than that. Like doing 10lbs more than last week but then being sneaky and adding 5lbs per set. Take advantage of the less fatiguing dumbbell work compared to earlier in the training cycle and feel strong. I decided against that plan only because I decided to stick to straight sets but go up 20lbs. That way I was doing plate and quarter jumps to three plates on the empty axle. This would likely be the most I’ve done of any kind of prone pressing in like 2yrs. First set was powerful and easy. Not quite the case for the other three sets. First rep was always feeling good and strong but could tell on the second reps that there was a slight sticking point and then it went up. But felt good for the most part here. I could tell that my shoulders were a little achy and tense at this point in the workout. Had been at the start. Then on to the first of two supersets that have been the second half of this session this cycle. Chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps. Same weight suggestion for both as last week but going from to 3x12. Again, chest felt a little iffy at the start for these while triceps seemed ok to deal with what was about to happen. Felt some tension and aches in the right shoulder on the flyes. I had done more reps on them to warm up compared to how I have been. Triceps seemed to be fine with everything. I’m fine with having these be lighter weights as the pauses are making them quite tough and exhausting and I am noticing the difference with pressing from doing these this way. Last pairing for the evening still paused banded push ups and the paused face pull variation. Dropping to two sets, same rep range on the push ups and increasing the reps on the face pulls. Notes on the push ups was to try and keep my brace so that I wasn’t having my midsection sag with the push ups. Again, something like how I tend to relax on the overhead. With the drop in sets and with how well the light band had felt last week, I went up to the average band to see if that worked for me. The biggest issue I’m finding is with having the band want to slide down my triceps so that caused me some issues today where I had to reset after four reps on the first set to get things situated again and resume. All the cues did make it a bit tough to know what I was doing on the push ups as working on bracing, holding pause and lockout. There were times I did a pause at lockout by mistake and maybe cut a pause to short. Oh well. Work was done. The face pulls are quite exhausting at this rep range with the pauses. Got through the session and put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.