July 10, 2026 – Week 13, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up 

Deadlifts (straps, platform, wagon wheels)
135x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
365x1
405x1
455x1
500x2
507.5x2
515x2

18” Axle Box Squats
46x10
96x6
136x5
186x4
226x3
276x2
316x5
316x5
316x5
316x5
316x5

Sandbag Carries (EMOM)
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’
225x50’

Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows/Zercher Jefferson Curls
96’sx12 – 115x8
96’sx12 – 115x8
96’sx12 – 115x8

Stretching

Comments: This had become quite the mess. Best laid plans of mice and men. Going from 3 days to 2 days and then consolidating. Also not ideal week to recover with the electric issue for a few days and then it just being damn humid on top of that. I did not feel powerful last workout. The air just was having me feel drained and the number of shirts I had to swap kind of made the point. I’ve not had to really switch that many times even earlier this year. Just each shirt getting drenched. Wednesday became quite a late night and I knew that Thursday I’d have to try and do as much as I could with work and then my free time would be getting caught up on workout videos and write ups as well as soft tissue work. The weather Thursday didn’t really make it that difficult to not go for a walk with it raining most the time. My thinking being I will have plenty of opportunities to walk at the beach coming up and I did want to see if my knees and other joints would settle down. Allergies seemed to act up too and not sure if stress related. A shitty start to week and then the stress of getting ready to take a trip mixed with everything else. The new annoying thing with my allergies/stress is my gums getting sore and having to be careful eating foods. Thankfully that part of things did clear up after just one day. My sleep got all off kilter and I didn’t end up getting to sleep until after 1:30AM. I think partly because I was doing so much that Thursday and I knew I was off Friday. All I had to really do was delegate stuff for the trip and do my training session. But me going to bed so late meant I was going to wake up pretty late too. Thankfully before noon but still not great as less time to do stuff and likely have to pitch more food that won’t keep while I’m away that barely survived the power outage crap. I did eventually get to doing this session as it looked like chance of thunderstorm again and I did have some stuff that required the street. Such is the nature of consolidating things into two sessions. These weren’t going to be ideal sessions and Day 1 had been quite rough and Day 2 was also going to be rough. So kind of counting of not doing anything really for 10 days after this. I had been lazy with putting stuff away Wednesday and didn’t get around to it Thursday so that was something I had to do today. But first soft tissue foam rolling. Odd but expected. Right calf needed a good bit in the lower section while the left upper calf needed a good bit. Hamstrings ok and quads/thighs were kind of how they’ve been with the right needing twice the attention. Nothing really to say with the upper back. Neck rehab stuff followed. Chest felt pretty tight on the stretching related stuff and it felt good. Right side feeling a bit tight in the chest/shoulders/arms. Glute activation and lower body stretching was fine and finished up with a dead hang. Then put away some of the stuff from Day 1. But not all of it as I did need to pace things so not getting rained out. On to the session. Initially I had just three fans but did bring in the fourth. Lights in the garage on the fritz due to the recent heavy rain so had the garage open to try and get some more light on the subject. Heavy deadlift day. Not as heavy as last week as less weight and less volume but still a heavy session. I wasn’t really expecting this but I felt I could tolerate it (hopefully) and then be good having over a week to rest from it. Plan was to work up to 3x2 with weight range of 500-510lbs. I must’ve misread it as I thought it was up to 515lbs. Typical quarter/plate jumps once I got to 2 plates here. Learning about myself that slow start on lift doesn’t mean it won’t go. But ideally not having a lot of grinding lifts as it takes a toll. I had noticed that last session that the humidity and just stress of things had affected me with feeling a lot more “pressure” on my body. It was quite apparent on yoke as it felt like I was being crushed and straining vs the week before where it had felt heavy but I didn’t feel like I was straining in the face to do it. So I was kind of expecting that nonsense today as it seemed to be even more humid today. Plan was just the minimum numbers of 500lbs and that if I felt like I could push it, add a little each set. Things didn’t feel amazing today but I’m back to doing reps from the floor on normal bar of 500lbs or more. I knew regardless of weight that the first set was going to feel rough. And it did. Especially going for a second rep. With this setup being on the wheels, the weight isn’t all nice and stopping and even. It is quite jarring as I go up in weight. So I had to kind of deal with that as well just the pressure on my body. As I had thought that my top range was 515lbs, I figured I’d facilicate things so that I could do half the jump between that on the second set. I felt stronger on the second set but I didn’t do myself any favors as I got out of position at the start as I was fiddling around with my bar placement. I managed to get 515lbs for a double and that was pretty rough going. I do feel like I’d need the next session a good deal lighter if I wasn’t taking a vacation break here or I fear I’d start grinding myself down. A change to things here was putting the axle squats next. I probably have a way to setup the squat to boxes but it would’ve probably been a janky ass setup and dangerous with what I have available so the notes indicated to just do box squats with the axle instead. It has been a bit since I’ve done box squats and I’ve never done them with an axle nor with the neoprene shorts and the thicker knee sleeves. My right knee was not having a fun week at this point from last week but I figured with the lighter weight and time off coming up that I should be able to have things recover by the next time I need to call upon them. The axle squats to box have not been having me go into a full squat or really a squat breaking parallel so notes were to do 5x5 with 315-325lbs. My plan was the lower range like deadlift and see how things were with the hope that it would feel good and easy and like speed work. It did not. I was very surprised how heavy the weight felt on the first working set after the last working up set. It did feel lighter on my back after that first set but these didn’t feel easy or moving fast in anyway. The movement felt awkward and disjointed somehow. This could also be from keeping an eye on my right knee as well as just being beat from heavy yoke two days earlier and heavy deadlifts right before this. But I got through them. I had sweated through two shirts and was on to a third at this point. The thing that I needed to do outside in the street and was hoping to avoid getting caught in a downpour was next. And that was sandbag carries. Plan being 225lbs for 8x50’. Which isn’t too bad. The issue was more that it was EMOM style so short rests and being incredibly sweaty. I could make it easier on myself if I got my grip set before each run as the running with it isn’t the issue. The pick is. Even though I intend to wear a hard belt for the medleys with this at show, I elected just soft belt since this was lighter and I generally have been doing these without. I went with not setting my grip so that it was like I just came up to the sandbag as it will be at the show. As noted, my street is slanted so one way is downhill and the other uphill. I was consistent here for the most part but could tell I was breathing hard on the second half to catch my breath between sets. Only the last set did I have a fumble with getting my grip on the bag secure before picking it up and going. The last thing would be a relaxing end to the session compared to what had come before. I was able to at least slow things down at this point after I safely got the sandbag back in garage before rain happened. I also put away the stuff I had neglected the previous session and put away. So the finished was the superset of chest supported dumbbell rows and zercher Jeffersons. Same weight on the rows but increasing to 12 reps whereas weight increasing on the Jefferson curls and reps decreasing to 8. Only was to be 5lbs more but I just went with 10lbs since reps were almost cut in half here and it was less hassle with loading the weight. I had found I could go right into this after the last thing last week without a real warming up so I did that here. As expected, the rows were a bit tougher with the extra reps. Zercher stuff felt fine but the added weight was noticed here. This was the one exercise I didn’t need to put on a fresh shirt for. Ended up eating an earlier dinner as I had to get stuff ready for leaving tomorrow and getting up earlier so as to finish with what I didn’t get done tonight. Stretched out afterwards.