October 10, 2026 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paloff Back Breaker Presses/Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (12”, ab)/Dead Bugs
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5
mb’sx10 – bwx10/10 – bwx5/5

Paused Push Presses (beltless, 3 seconds in dip)
45x5
71.5x4
93.5x3
115.5x2
137.5x2
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4
159.5x4

Front Squats (beltless, 3-1-0-0 tempo)
45x3
89x3
133x3
177x3
210x8
210x8
210x8

Reverse Band Hack Squats (lb’s)
+90x5
+180x5
+270x10
+290x10
+310x10

RNT Sandbag Roll-ups off Box (lb, 20”)
175x4
200x3
225x3
255x8
255x8
255x8

Lying Leg Curls (up with 2, down with 1, 5 seconds eccentrics)
45x6(3/3)
60x6(3/3)
75x6(3/3)
90x6(3/3)
110x10(5/5)
110x10(5/5)
110x10(5/5)

Belt Squat Donkey Calf Raises/Paused Tibia Dorsi Calf Machine (3 seconds)
bw+90x15/+70x25
bw+90x15/+70x25

Stretching

Comments: Being home for work allows me to get in walks during the week with sunlight out and not eat into my time after I’m done work to get a full night’s sleep. Felt so busy this week I needed those breaks (the one’s I tend to skip) to clear my head of some junk. Also forgot that Monday is a holiday. Ended up sleeping in but not so much that I was worried about getting out to train as late or later than last weekend. I did have to be back at some point today though for family stuff in the early evening. I had gotten stuff ready so I could just eat breakfast and then pack up to go. Unfortunately, there were a ton of bad drivers out today. An accident on one of the busy sections of highway near where I live added about 30 minutes to my drive so not really saving any time. Some people at the gym but like usual, the people I actually know are gone before I get too far into training. Started things off with the usual foam rolling. My upper calves really needed it a ton on both sides. Probably because been hitting calves harder as of late (and getting in more walks). Hamstrings were also a tad tight. Big shocker was quads barely needed anything. Upper back was tight but in spots that were just sore and not really able to get any tension to release. Lats are feeling the inverted rows and rdls. Neck rehab stuff was fine and no issues with glute activation and lower body mobility. Dead hang was fine. On to training. It was thankfully cooler in the gym but more so because not as many bodies as opposed to it actually being cooler. Starting the lifting with the triset of the back breaker paloff presses, step ups with band TKEs and dead bugs. I almost forgot to do these as I was ready to start moving weights I guess. Same as last week and might have actually felt better overall. From there, on to push pressing again. But switch in focus as now paused reps. Still no belt, only wrist wraps. Decrease in weight form last week of 5% and going with 5x4. Rack position feeling good and seem to get right to the spot in the dip drive immediately, which is a good sign. One of things I try to focus on with the pauses is not going down any further after the pause is done as defeats the purpose of what I’m going for here with the isometric focus. I do wish I was moving heavier weights on overhead just knowing what I need to be hitting to be competitive and to hit numbers I expect but I know that I need to take the time here to build back up and fix this event and movement pattern. Trust in what I’m putting in the work with here. From there, onto front squats. Same as last week with the 3x8 and tempo. Aim being to add more weight to last week. I didn’t feel quite so confident to go up 10kgs on this one as already been pushing the RPE more than listed and suggested on some of these lower body efforts so went with 5kgs. This didn’t feel that “heavy” on my body like last week comparatively. I made sure I had my own straps this time as well. Just trust the process that building to something good here. Reverse band hack squats up next. This one does take time as mentioned last week with having to move the entire machine around to a different spot and orientation to use the bands. There is a lady at the gym the past few weeks that does a ton of leg/lower body exercises and I had moved the hack squat machine to the smith machine since she was using the hip thrusts machine right in the area. But she was using the smith machine today so initially I was waiting until done to move but then I realized I could just use my old setup of the rack right there since not in the way of someone using the hip thrust machine. But that also would alter the band tension. So I’d have to adjust the weights used this time around as I could tell it was more assistance vs last time. But one good thing with the delay is that I found a more comfortable setup so stuff isn’t digging into my traps and this doesn’t take as long to move. So initial plan was to warm up in 5’s and then do 10lbs less than top set last week for 3x10. But this setup felt like more assistance so that felt way too easy and I decided I’d add weight to hopefully get closer to the range I felt would be good. Which ended up being about 40lbs more. Assuming I get to do the same setup next time and the time after that, I think I got a good system figured out. I know these are doing my lower body a great service. Sandbag time. This had a bit of changes to it just based on how I felt recovery was from last week to this week. With the regionals having 2 sandbag events (max distance and carry and loads) trying to work something in for both aspects while building with gym lifts to hopefully get stuff sturdy and strong. The initial plan was to do sandbag bent over rows and then lap and extend as part of a complex. Work on picking up the sandbag and then extensions. However, with how my lower back was feeling on the rdls this week after doing the paused back extensions, I could tell that there would be some recovery issues. So the change was to have these just be roll ups off a box. The additional thing was to see how adding band tension as a reactive neuromuscular training tool. I’ve done the light on rdls on deload sessions and I’ve done roll-ups with and without a box so this would be a first together. Light band was enough to do what I needed here. Plan was 200-255x3x8. Initially, was rough but I felt better and ended up with doing 255lbs for the working weight. The pick up felt strong the first set but definitely was harder after that. Also some changes to the end of the workout. Last week, smooshed three exercises together as part of triset and to try and get the session done sooner. With the exercise at the end here, this wasn’t viable as one of those exercises would require substantial warming up. The being a lying leg curl variation. Up with two legs and down with one leg and accentuated eccentrics. This was going to be a rough one on the hamstrings. Not a lot of weight needed as 50lbs of work becomes 100lbs of work. Aim 3x10 reps (5 reps each leg). 3-5 seconds and I went with 5 seconds. Right side struggled a lot more than the left side on these. Which was expected. Took about 60 seconds rest between right and left and then normal rest after a set was done. Managed to get through these but man was the contraction hard at the start of these. Quite the wake up. Downed my shake at this point in the session. The last bit was initially going to be a superset of quad fall backs and the tib raises on the machine. However, I felt that I was mostly doing the quad fall backs as a mobility thing and not a strength thing. If I was able to keep my hips locked, then sure but I was falling back and bending hips coming up. I have the mobility once warmed up to get head to floor and a stretch is more for after the session. What needs the work at the moment is my calves as I’ve lost a good bit of strength in the right one at some point. So superset here of belt squat donkey calf raises with the tib machine lifts. This seemed to work out well and will keep this pairing I think for the rest of this 8 weeks block for sure. Put stuff away and had a slightly less dangerous ride home. Stretched out much later after done with family stuff.