September 26, 2026 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paloff Back Breaker Presses/Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (8”, ab)/Dead Bugs
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5

Push Presses (beltless, 3 second dip eccentrics)
45x5
75x4
95x3
115x2
135x2
159x4
159x4
159x4
159x4
159x4
159x4

Front Squats (beltless, 5-1-0-0 tempo)
45x3
85x3
125x3
155x3
185x8
185x8

Paused Heel Elevated Sandbag Squats (2 seconds, no lockouts)
112x20
112x20

Quad Fallbacks/Neck Harness Back Extension Holds
bwx6/bw+25x45 seconds
bwx6/bw+25x45 seconds
bwx6/bw+25x45 seconds

Power Pin Swings (EMOM)
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10
88.5x10

Backwards Treadmill Pushes (10% Incline)
5 minutes

Stretching

Comments: Again, dragging ass by the end of the week. But this felt different than last week. Not having supervisor for a second week was not fun. I got a lot of work to document come Monday from Friday. Allergies had felt like taking a back seat after that one day initially it seem but then decided to come back hard after work Thursday and Friday with just feeling tired. I ended up not walking Thursday to just focus on soft tissue work and then walking on Friday so that I could get to bed earlier than I had been to hopefully combat that. Also digestion was feeling off in a different way with feeling a bit constipated and I was kind of hoping whatever got me Saturday last week would hit again so as to clear out the system. I ended up taking Dayquil before bed Friday night to hopefully help my body combat the allergies and stress. Didn’t exactly oversleep but it was later start. Training at home due to powerlifting meet. But was kind of regretting that decision as I didn’t get up early enough to apparently avoid the rain so I had to wait until closer to 5PM to actually start training rather than 12-1 as intended. But I guess that allowed me to get some food in and hopefully have the allergy meds do their thing. Really gambling with the rain clearing up enough to do the one thing that I need overhead clearance on and the weather predictions were looking less and less likely but I trusted my gut. Foam rolling my calves and quads needed attention. Calves haven’t need it as much lately. Right quad tends to need double the time of the left to feel good. The inflamed sensation is thankfully gone at this point. Hamstrings tight but not really that bad and upper back needed very little this time around. It had been massively sore after deadlifts last week and only a little bit this time around. Neck rehab stuff was fine and no issues with glute activation and lower body mobility. I did do some additional stretching for the hamstrings just to make sure. Dead hang to decompress a tad before getting into training. With the rain, I was trying to not really go that fast as the rain was moving through slower than expected and I was hoping I could get it where there was a break in the action to do the one thing that needed to be outside. So in the garage for the triset of the back breaker paloff presses, step ups with band TKEs and dead bugs. Some knee aches as expected but not as much I guess compared to last time. Stuff felt fine and I was moving well enough here. It had thankfully stopped raining and I was onto push presses outside. As indicated last week, basing these two three week waves off percentages of 264.5lbs/120kgs as my estimated 1rm here. No belt, only wrist wraps and using this first three week wave of eccentric controlled lowering on the dip drive. I used towels to mop up the rain water on the stall mats so wasn’t worrying about slipping. 5% increase and going with 6x4 for the scheme this week. I felt less issues with getting the lowering and timing right but noticed weight felt like more effort this week compared to last. Granted this was a 13.5lbs/6kgs increase. I do hope this works out for me as getting my overhead up to par will be big for this coming season. From there, onto front squats. I took rest moving the weights inside to the garage as I wasn’t expecting the lull in the rain to be long. It did end up being a long enough pause I could’ve done the front squats outside like last week. Again, the aim being RPE 5-6 for 2x8 with long eccentric but more a guideline than anything. I ended up adding 20lbs to last week’s weights so that was definitely a risk. My knees initially felt more achy compared to last week at the start but I felt better as I went. Like the snatch grip rdls, this is the last week of this particular tempo and style. I’m not sure if I’m keeping beltless after this but I’ll figure it out. A bit of a break here as well as the next thing was those sandbag squats again. No lockouts and 2 second pauses in the hole. Raised heels. The guideline was 90-120 seconds rest but I knew I wasn’t going to stick to it. This was going to be the last week of these and I knew with needing my allergy meds today that my wind wasn’t as good as it would normally be. Same as last week with 112lbs for 2x15-20. Wanted to get more reps. Was initially going to stop at 16 reps with how they were feeling but then decided to do 18 and then said fuck it, do 20 reps. Which I knew was going to make that second set even tougher on me as I like to do matching rep sets. I told myself that doing 15 reps was fine as more than last week total. Then 16 reps, then 18 reps and then gutting out to get 20 reps. My quads were effectively dead at this point. So took time to get them to calm down (and allow me to hydrate more) before moving on in the session. I can take my time; I’m at home and not going anywhere. Pairing of the quad fall backs and back extension holds with 25lbs on the neck harness. No changes to the reps/sets of the fall backs but slight increase in the time of holds. At least that was the plan. My mobility on the fall backs was not great at the start. I felt very stiff but eventually stuff loosened up that I was getting like I was the week before on the last set. The holds I messed up the first set. It was to be 40 seconds but the timer never started and I noticed late and then started it. I guessed I was at about 45 seconds and stopped and then set it for that time for the rest of the sets. The added time was noticed in the glutes the most followed by lower back and hamstrings. On to the conditioning. Power pin swings with same weight as last week for the EMOM sets. But with 10x10 this time around. The added reps per set were noticed as these did end up being a bit tougher by the end of it. I didn’t have any tightness issues in my arms this time around as I seemed to get the form right from the start. Would be nice to do one more week but pivoting after this session. But like the bradford PVC stuff, this is a keeper for offseason and post competition stuff. Longest break of the session before finishing up. Mainly because it was getting late and I wanted to start getting dinner ready. That way, putting stuff away and doing the last bit of conditioning would be just the right amount of cooldown for my food to be ready to eat once I finished training. Again, backwards treadmill pushing to essentially do the infinity pool version of backwards sled drag for the knees. 5 minutes of this and done for this session. Ate dinner and stretched.