April 15, 2026 – Week 1, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Chest Supported Dumbbell I/Y/T’s
10’sx10/10/10
10’sx10/10/10
10’sx10/10/10

Seated Barbell Overhead Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Bent Over Throws
75x5/10x5
75x5/10x5
75x5/10x5
75x5/10x5

Chest Supported Alternating Dumbbell Rows
70’sx9/9 (miscounted)
70’sx8/8
70’sx8/8

Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Side to Side Slams
40’sx11 (miscounted) – 10x6/6 (miscounted)
40’sx14 (miscounted) – 10x5/5
40’sx12 – 10x5/5

Seated Band Pull Aparts
mbx25
mbx25

Stretching

Comments: I was in a bit of rough shape after the competition with the travel still needed. I thought I got past whatever allergies issue had popped up the day before competition but that came back with a vengeance the next day. And not in the same way I was feeling it on the way out there. The neck tightness on the left side had popped back up again and I was having what felt like ear infections and my gums were sore. Been a while since I’ve had allergy and stress related stuff that bad pop up. It has also been like 8yrs since I last did a competition requiring driving into another time zone. I knew I’d eventually feel better once back home in familiar surroundings. We got back lunch time Monday and I did nothing Tuesday as I was feeling off. I was considering taking another day off work because this was still in office rotation and being home in comfortable climate and surroundings would probably be better and help me recover. The past two training cycles with Ms. Funk, I’ve taken off the week after the competition fully but that had more to do with not being home right away rather than lack of desire to train in some fashion. And the cycle before that under my own training I had gotten a cold upon return that kept me from training that week. So even though not feeling great, I did wish to do something this week rather than ruminate on the competition as I tend to focus on what was left on platform rather than what I did. So two workouts for this week to get moving and do a short off-season as I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing other than some big show hopefully end of August. These would be shorter workouts so that did lend to me being able to decompress from work for a bit before getting to training. Soft tissue work to start things off. Lower legs needed a decent amount and not much to really report on the hammies and quads. Upper back needed it a lot. I was expecting that with the neck tightness and just feeling from the show. Neck rehab was fine. Hip flexor is finally feeling well enough that I can do all the lower body stretching again. Dead hang was fine, could tell forearms were fatigued. Workout looked to be a lot of exercises that were going to make me look silly with light weight. Which is fine as I’m in need of a change of pace after one long prep going into a contest prep and one short contest prep back to back. What wasn't a fun start to this prep though is coming into first session with it being middle of April and 90 degrees already. So had all the fans going in the garage this session. First up was dumbbell raises of the IYT variety. Done these before in different styles. I just wasn’t sure how the neck/upper back would handle them as plan being them back to back so would be easy at the start (hopefully) and be quite a burner by the end. Thankfully no issues right off the bat and I was able to use my 10lbs dumbbells here. The pump and sensation of thickness in my upper back muscles doing these and after doing them had me feeling powerful. For whatever reason, when my upper back feels “thick” I feel confident and strong. From there moved on to an odd superset. The first part was strict press with barbell done seated. That’s not that odd but it was with long tempo work. Tempo on the concentric portion with lifts is what kills me with strength/weight wise on this kind of stuff. I initially was thinking higher weight but adjusted my expectations accordingly. I assumed my body would be plenty warmed up from the previous exercise. The other part of this was the unusual part in that I was to do medicine ball throws into the ground from a bent over row position. So tempo exercise followed by an explosive/ballistic exercise. I thought I had a medicine ball but I think I gave it away to my sister a few years ago. There were two planned exercises for this session requiring one and I wasn’t keen on the alternative exercises (just how they’ve felt in the past plus safety with setup reasons) so I did procure one. The throws weren’t as difficult or complicated as I was expecting and kind of active rest after the tempo pressing. The pressing I was getting quite fatigued from. A dumbbell row variation followed that. I’m assuming I did these right with the alternating style. Plan being 3x8 but I accidentally miscounted the first set. These were quite easy and I hadn’t wanted to load up the plateloadable dumbbells after seeing how these felt. This was a light and hopefully uncomplicated week. I’ll be back on telework rotation the next four weeks so I can fuck around then. Another of the odd supersets followed this. Again, pairing tempo pressing with a medicine ball exercise. This was the toughest part of the workout. The first half was a dumbbell bench variation with same tempo as the overhead pressing. But for 3x12 rather than 4x5. This felt like torture even with the weights this light. I ended up miscounting the reps on the first and second set. The other component was more med ball stuff but this was alternating slams from overhead. I was initially worried I’d need to do these outside but I had plenty of clearance and the med ball didn’t really bounce. These were easy like the other medicine ball exercise but I did have to chase down the darn thing at times. I miscounted the first set. Having survived that, the last thing was quite easy. Band pull aparts but seated version. This was done in short order. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Really dreading the DOMs from this one in the upper body.