April 1, 2026 – Week 7, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

13” Wagon Wheel Axle Deadlifts (straps)
136x5
226x3
316x1
EMOM
406x2
406x2
406x2
406x2
406x2
406x2
406x2
406x2

Pendlay Rows
135x6
185x6
225x3
275x6
225x6
225x6

Deadstop 1 ½ Safety Squat Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
65x3
115x3
170x5
170x5
170x5

Wall Sits
bwx6 seconds
bwx60 seconds
bwx60 seconds
bwx60 seconds

Paused Lying Band Leg Curls /Paused Band Seated Leg Extensions
(2)mmbx5/sbx5
(2)mmbx15/sbx15
(2)mmbx15/sbx15

Stretching

Comments: No walking Tuesday as playing some catch up on sleep and also cashing in a gift card for dinner. Also my hip thing was acting up Tuesday so I didn’t want to bother it. I was very shocked with how well it was feeling right before going to bed Tuesday and then waking up Wednesday. Kind of a knock on wood that it stays like this or gets better from here. Work was damn busy as well. Hoping that my energy levels didn’t tank. Especially since it was 80 degrees again. I preemptively put on the small oscillating fan in the garage for some air flow. Soft tissue foam rolling surprisingly not much was needed elsewhere but really needed it for my right quad. A little more for the calves compared to Monday though. Neck rehab stuff followed. Chest needed this. My right arm (biceps) was feeling tense for some reason. Lower body stretching and dead hang after that. Didn’t have the weird “disconnect” issue like I had last time. Then on to the workout. Axle deadlift with the wagon wheels. Essentially the same workout as last week minus working up to a heavy double/single. Just doing the 405lbs for doubles but EMOM rest this time and two extra ones. Make these speedy. I knew that could be a tall order to make them feel speed but they should move fast. I tend to feel like stuff moves fast and feels light if it is after doing something darn heavy. Like last week. I took plate jumps just because I worry that I’ll have limited warming up at the show. Not received any e-mail updates or nothing the entire time. So yeah, 90lbs jumps are rough but I’ve done them before with warming up and for similar things. These felt heavy and straining but I know they weren’t. It wasn’t until the last three or so that the weight actually started to feel light. I’m glad this wasn’t a heavy session so I can recover and not feel like grinding things down to a nub so close to show time. Similar to day one, there were modifications to this day with the hip. Ms. Funk took out sandbag to shoulder stuff due to how that felt and it would likely get in my head to do it this week. I’m going to be doing sandbag stuff on Saturday anyways. So the change was bent over dead stop rows or Pendlay rows. I was somewhat tempted to still use a sandbag instead but thought better of it as Ms. Funk put barbell rows for a reason. Plan being strict and on these with 3x6-8 and RPE 7. I made a point to wear what I’ll wear for my midsection doing sandbag stuff. I overestimated what I could do here as my first “working” set was sloppy. I should’ve taken how 225lbs had felt warming up to have that be my working weight. I dropped the weight down to 225lbs for much better quality reps. Just moving on along here. There was a change with the ssb gms. Still doing dead stop style starting from the top but adding in 1.5 reps. So down and then up halfway, back down and the up all the way. So even the “5” rep set was going to feel like a lot. I misloaded these at the start as I was planning to use the same weight as last week. I didn’t notice until I was at the working sets so I added 5lbs to be in the suggested weight range. These were tougher than last week but felt better on my body if that made sense. This workout initially had these followed up with the sandbag zercher lunges with tempo pauses as I guess I hadn’t made it clear that these were potentially the cause of the hip flexor issue and that these were causing some anxiety. So they were dropped and I was advised to some wall sit variations instead. I figured that I’d do the one that had the least amount of moving around. Knees were pretty achy in the position and it has been over half a year since I’ve done any wall sits so legs were a bit detrained to this. Bodyweight only here and a minute was challenging. Essentially I did a set and then took about 90 seconds and then did the next set. Knees felt better as I did these but they did get tougher. A superset to end the night. Not having all the heavy stuff was moving things along at a decent clip. I had to do some logistics here with the last thing as it was banded lying leg curls and banded seated leg extensions. I’ve done them but not together. Had to do some testing to figure out how to setup both and make it work. I did find a way that was pretty quick. My testing set had the band tensions I picked feel quite challenging but they weren’t so bad during the actual sets. These actually felt pretty good on my joints and muscles at the end of the session. Did these back to back with rest being however long it took to get into one contraption and out of the other. Put stuff away and got to eating dinner before stretching.

March 30, 2026 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Seated Dumbbell Overhead Presses (3 second eccentrics, 60 seconds rest)
10’sx4
40’sx8
40’sx8
40’sx8

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

Paused Internal Rotation Dumbbell Flyes (3 seconds at lockout)/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (0-1-0-1 tempo)
10’sx8 – 10x8/8
40’sx8 – 40x8/8
40’sx8 – 40x8/8
40’sx8 – 40x8/8

Banded Close Grip Push Ups (0-1-0-1 tempo)/Band Pull Aparts
bw+abx10/mbx20
bw+abx10/mbx20

Stretching

Comments: The last true week of training before a competition. Really does come up too quickly. At first I feel like it is far away and then doing the events so many times but then get closer and there is a mixture of anxiousness and also wanting to be done with it so I can do other stuff. Still dealing with whatever is going on with the right hip flexor. I think it is getting better with reduction in training load, resting and not aggressively stretching. Weight was down about 3lbs from last week. No really rhyme or reason but could be just I get stressed as I get closer to competition. It is good the week before to have things pulled back so that I’m not stressing over everything and can focus my nervous energy on work. Not be chasing two rabbits when there is just one day where the stress needs to be there. I did go for a walk on Sunday to see if walking did help with blood flow since I didn’t really get any chance to walk last week really. The hip issues is there but besides that, my upper back and shoulders did feel a bit tense after training Saturday. Soft tissue work to start off the day. Pretty much a constant these past 2-3 weeks with the right quad needing it the most. My lower back is feeling a little looser so maybe that will ease pressure elsewhere. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching still modified in not doing stuff that was stressing my hip flexors. Felt a little off after stretching so that wasn’t ideal. Dead hang felt fine. Some things changed with the session from last week to hopefully let my hips recover more for the show. So instead of the usual tempo dumbbell push pressing I was to do tempo seated pressing. Plan being 3 seconds eccentrics with 3x8 for 60-90 seconds rest. I wasn’t too sure how intense these should be. I figured solid dumbbells would be quicker. I was hoping that short rests with the reps and eccentrics would have the 40’s feel like it was tough enough but I undershot the effort range here. Shoulders did feel a bit achy/tense. I don’t think I’d been able to keep 70’s here with as short a rest as I did but I definitely could’ve gone heavier here for the planned effort range. But it was a nice start to the session. My shoulders had felt really achy the last time I did seated presses as part of an emergency deload week session. Seated also let me stick to the garage for the day. Axle floor pressing again with the paused lockouts. 3x4 again but with 20lbs less than last time I did them. Which shouldn’t be an issue with how these have felt the past three weeks. Weight was feeling a little heavy on my wrists but this was moving well. I noticed after the first set that I was bleeding from my one finger. I apparently cut it on a jagged shard of metal on my cheap plateloadable dumbbell handles while setting stuff up. It was a thin slice in my finger and no further issues after that. This pressing felt fine. I do hope that I can be more consistent with this kind of pressing after this competition. Supersets to start the second half. Slight changes to both. With the first one chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps. The flyes were adjusted to indicate lower reps (6-8) and doing 3 second holds at lockout (when dumbbells together). I wasn’t sure how that would feel. Plan was initially to do 25-30lbs here. That would require the plateloaded handles. I got a little finicky with the weight distribution having it be the same for both the flyes and triceps extensions. Then wondering with the dumbbells how they’d work with the hold with the longer handles. I then decided I’d just not bother with the them and use the 40lbs dumbbells instead after I had cut my finger on the plateloaded ones. I was very suprised when I lay on the bench to start that my right hip flexor flared up something fierce. It didn't do that last week. So that was a bit unexpected and unpleasant. Especially since trying to avoid the usual suspects. But whatever. Can grin and bear it going forward. It wasn't a shock with working weights. This was fine on the flyes as far as weight went. I wasn’t feeling aches in the chest like last two weeks. But it was a mighty ask for my triceps upping the weight so much with the pauses. I stuck with the pauses but I know the form wasn’t as solid as it was with lighter weight. Cut the difference between under effort for the seated presses and over effort for the extensions. Last pairing session also a slight change. Still banded push ups but now pauses at both the top and bottom of the movement. Indication was to do 2x10 here. This worked out with the band tension from last time. The pauses at both spots was tougher but helped with not being confused what I was doing during the movement. The other part of this was band pull aparts. I do a variation with a theraband and underhand grip for my neck rehab so I’m familiar with these. Just been a bit since I’ve done them. 2x10-20 but I knew I was doing 20 reps here. These were feeling a deep burn in my shoulders/upper back. It has been a while since I’ve done this version and I guess there was fatigue from the push ups as well having tempo. But it was a pleasant burn effort. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.