May 20, 2026 – Week 6, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts (straps, wagon wheels, platform)
135x5
225x3
315x2
405x1
Cluster Sets (step back and strap in each rep)
405x1/445x1/465x1/485x1
405x1/445x1/465x1/485x1
405x1/445x1/465x1

Titan Fitness Farmer’s Walks (16” pick, drop and turn halfway)
135x100’
185x50’
235x100’ in 20.70 seconds
235x100’ in 21.20 seconds

Sandbag Rows/Safety Squat Bar Alternating Reverse Lunges
225x3 – 65x5/5
265x4 – 115x10/10
265x4 – 115x10/10
265x4 – 115x10/10

Toes Elevated Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings
155x12
225x12
225x12
225x12

One Arm Dumbbell Rows (no rest)
112x12/12
112x11/11
112x10/10
112x9/9
112x8/8
112x7/7
112x6/6
112x5/5
112x4/4
112x3/3
112x2/2
112x1/1

Stretching

Comments: This mini heatwave has not been fun. Thankfully not so bad when inside or at work but not good outside or training. I didn’t bother doing any walking Tuesday due to that. Figure wait until it passed later in the week. Knowing that I’d have to get up earlier and have less time with things didn’t seem to really sink in as I still had lots to do and ending up not getting to sleep as earlier as I needed. Lower back was still feeling beat at this point and I was feeling tired so I was contemplating whether I take an extra day to recover. I was going to have a half day the next two days and then be off Monday so I could swing it. I think part of it was it was raining a little and I had some outside stuff to do. The heatwave did break on this day but it was still incredibly humid so really no difference to me. Soft tissue foam rolling starting things. Again, didn’t really need much on anything. Neck rehab stuff followed. My right shoulder had been feeling stiff. I guess log pressing is going to have my shoulders sore these days. Lower abs were sore from the deadbugs too. Chest felt tight and shoulders achy so there was some relief from these. I had hoped tension in the spine on the left side would be alleviated with warming up but not so much. Lower body stretching was fine and finished up with a dead hang. Deadlifts were up and I knew these were going to be rough. My lower back had not recovered from Saturday at this point (especially the heavy farmer’s walk). This was somewhat similar to last week but instead of doing the same weight and restrapping in each time, I was to be adding weight each rep. I was trying to figure out best way to warm up for this. The planned starting weight is generally what I start with my hard belt on but sometimes I need more than a set to make sure I’m going with intrabdominal pressure and since this was going to be reps and such. So did 90lbs jumps so as to get acclimated but hopefully not unnecessarily fatigue my lower back. The wheels didn’t really like staying put. 405lbs felt fine enough, as it should. The plan for the working sets was to do ideally three sets of 3-4 pulls. The fourth pull if I was feeling good. 40lbs/20lbs/20lbs jumps. I was trying to get that feeling for what worked last week. 405lbs not enough to know what that will be. Removing myself from the bar and then going at it again had been rough last week but doing that and then having to add on weight takes it up another level. I did manage to get four lifts that first set. I took a longer rest as I’ve seen with deadlift sessions. I think if I knew that it took me almost 2 minutes to do that set between adding weight and getting into position that I’d have rested even longer. I did manage to be a little quicker on the second set but that last rep was near my limit. I stopped at three lifts on the third and final set as that last weight felt a lot like the last rep of the first set had. I’m essentially 80lbs off contest weight here. Which is about the same as the squat. But man is my lower back just fucking toast. I know that it is beat as usually I tend to feel better as I do sets but only really noticed that on the first two reps each set and then my upper limits seemed to be done-zo. And unfortunately this was the rough start to the session so I had a bunch of other stuff still to go. Farmer’s walk was up next and I had to set that up outside. This had been partly why I wasn’t sure about training today but it looks like the little rain had stopped and evaporated so went ahead with training today. Much lighter than Saturday but wasn’t sure how much that would help with how fried my lower back was feeling. Indication was to do 231lbs for 2 sets like how contest will be (50’ down and back) as fast as I could. Ms. Funk said my style is having me fight the implements when I’m walking with them. That is the trade off on the pick up being easier for me. My hope is that I was just stiff my first session back and I will get myself more forward doing these. Tried to make warming up for this as efficient as I could since needing to load weights in the street and it was really humid. Contest length and then have contest length with practicing the pick and turn. I went with 235lbs as it was easier to setup platemath wise and I didn’t want to deal with the possibility of microplates popping off on the drop. These did not feel fast and I was sweaty and hot. Shins felt stiff trying to get more forward lean going. But got these done. My right quad is going to have a bruise from the handles. Always get one from these handles and I’m not sure why and only on the right side. Doing moving event after deadlifting and then doing more stuff in the garage has me remembering just how rough/brutual training for worlds was last year and this is just the beginning. I swapped in a fresh shirt after this with the next thing being a superset. Still alternating reverse lunges with the ssb but no more dumbbell high pulls. Now doing sandbag rows. Low reps on those and high reps on the lunges. I’ve been picking up sandbags but not rowing them so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. 225lbs actually felt decently tough done cold so I felt like 265lbs would be pushing it. I wore what I’d wear doing sandbag carries and loads for this pairing. Again, trying to warm up in as little stuff as needed to move things along as it will take time and get late with everything. Knee sleeves would hopefully let me tolerate the lunges better with more weight. The sandbag rows were fine for the most part. The lunges are what had me dying with the added reps and me increasing the weight from last time. Legs were getting quite tired. But we know this needs to be done for this prep. From there ssb zercher gms like last week. 3x12 again with the top weight I did. These had been weird in that warming up was easy and smooth but once I got to what I felt was working weight, there felt like a ton of tension in the lower back in a way that felt more skeletal and musculature. That was present again on the first and third set of these. The pick up felt better and I didn’t feel like my biceps were fighting so much to keep the bar close to me. Just felt restricted in my ROM at times on that first and third set. Which was made all the weirder with how good the second set felt with things. The last part of the workout was not enjoyable and I knew it wasn’t. I was already beat before I even started this session and here I was doing the sucky row thing at the end of the session again. But made even harder. So while I dropped the weight 3lbs (just for ease of weights added) the ladder had increased by 2 rungs. Which doesn’t sound like a lot but that meant 23 additional reps before I even got to where I started on these last week. I had felt like retching after 2 sets last week but persevered. I put on a fresh shirt for this as this was likely going to be close to 10 minutes of one arm rows. One of the notes from last time was to aim more rear delt with the elbow tuck back vs to upper chest. Unlike last week, I had to take breaks during sets at times as my right arm fatigued faster and couldn’t do the reps unbroken. My left was ok for the most part but even that side had to on occasion. 5 reps rung of the ladder I was able to get back to doing no breaks in the sets again. Going to need to prioritize rest these next few days as best I can. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching and finally getting to bed late again.