October 19, 2026 – Week 8, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log High Incline Bench Presses
90x8
120x6
150x4
180x2
200x8
200x8
Add 1 Second Pauses
170x8
170x8

Pause Inverted Rows (1 second)
bwx5
bw+53x8
bw+53x8
bw+53x8
bw+53x11

Lying Chain Triceps Extensions/Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Strap Band Face Pulls
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15
65’sx15/25x15—15/lb+(2)µbx15

Stretching

Comments: I wasn’t feeling that beat considering things after Saturday. Knees were a bit sore but feeling fine at this time. No biceps soreness like last time. Again, not sure if that was from the sandbag roll ups or just really gripping the handles on the lying leg curls hard. Bodyweight seems to be consistent around 120kgs range. Mentioned I looked leaner Saturday despite adding a little bit of weight. So I guess a good sign with off season prep. I do feel like my upper back is “full”. A lot of work stuff so I kind of had to mentally debrief before starting training. I’ve come to realize this session is going to be my shorter session of the week and that this is more accessory work to the Saturday event press rather than doing the pressing all on one day. More control on things when at the strongman gym and not under a time crunch (not as bad I guess with Day 2 as in garage mostly). Foam rolling starting things off. Calves needed it a good bit and I was expecting that. However, I am almost thrilled that I’ve not had to do sessions of intense foam rolling for the calves like I recall in the last few months before doing my own thing. I think the ankle and knee stuff is helping in that regard. Hamstrings fine and quads needing a decent amount (more so the right one). Upper back apparently needed a lot to be good to go. Neck rehab/mobility stuff followed that and that was fine for the most part. My right biceps/shoulder was feeling tight on some of the movements. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. A little longer stretch on these. Dead hang to finish things up and get a little more decompression before starting training. On to training outside. It now is starting to feel like the start of the “winter training arc” as it is getting darker out quicker and weather is now at least consistent for the past few days. That change does seem to be one that makes it a little harder to be motivated after working. Band superset to starting things off with pec flyes and paused pull-aparts. This the last of these as pivot in the training going from purely off season to transitional phase before doing competition prep. These feel fine but I don’t know if they ever feel like they aren’t prefatiguing me. Eventually that feeling goes away it seems on those leg curls I do for Day 2. They at least feel less taxing than the first session I did them. Then time for pressing. This is the thing that I’m stressing/worried about is making sure I’m building and recovering. I was already reconsidering some things with plans after this week with this session and would see how today goes. These higher inclines have been a bit rough and I’ve not really felt “fresh” for them on any days besides the very first week I did them. For today, the plan was to work up to the top set last week for 2x8 and then take off 30lbs for 2x8 with pauses. This ended up being tough and tougher than I would’ve liked. I had gotten quite “hyped” last week for my top set of 10 reps with essentially getting into a cold sweat after the sweat and had been surprised it went as well as it did. I wasn’t able to tap into that this week even if I wanted to. 200lbs felt a bit like last week as in never “feeling” comfortable but somehow managing to get the reps. These 2 sets of 8 felt like I had less RIR compared to the set of 10 reps last week. I was very worried I was going to be stuck here. But I made it through. The pauses felt more like they should but still challenging to get the last rep of the last set. I think next time around, I need to devise more my own progression here than working off past session model, especially if I deviate from that. No missed reps but my thinking here with the next phase is to go back to the normal incline I’ve used for years since I’m going to be doing log press starting next week instead of barbell push press. I had felt really good with how push presses had gone Saturday. But I think this variation has run its course for this prep. Put stuff away outside to go into the garage to continue with the rest of the session. Inverted ring rows up next. These have been feeling surprisingly strong. Like last week, the plan was to do 4x8 and stick to straight weight sets this time. The one little caveat to that was I could rep out on the last set as long as I left 1-2RIR. I wasn’t feeling as strong here at the start with just bodyweight. Maybe a little down on myself for no reason from how high incline log had felt. Initially doing 50lbs but decided I’d rather use chain weight than plates and dumbbells with how they were shifting last week. And felt pretty good. And didn’t take longer than usual rests here (like I’ve been needing to do for the incline stuff) only for the last set as I wanted to see what I could do. Honestly, with how these have been going, I may need to find an alternative later in prep just because loading these with enough weight later could be bothersome. But they seem to feel good and produce results and gauge where some things are at. Finishing up with a triset. Last week of these. After last week, I felt I had found the weight ranges finally. At least that was the hope as having to change/adjust during the rests made them a lot longer than intended. For the triceps, all my chains plus 10lbs added with plates on each pile. That actually seemed to work out pretty well. I’m sure I could push these further but probably become cumbersome if I were to add more than 35lbs per side in plate weight. The leaning laterals were similar to last week with the slight bump up in weight. Left side elbow feels discomfort but it lessens over the sets. At least it did with no flair up on the last set. Oddly enough, these felt smoother as I went and not like I was fatigued. Like I got more efficient as I went. The band face pulls I got them to be how I wanted the movement. This I didn’t adjust from last time’s top tension as I knew it would be plenty by the end of the trisets with fatigue. Put stuff away as I got dinner ready and stretched afterwards.