October 26, 2026 – Week 9, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
90x8
120x6
150x4
180x2
200x1
220x8
200x8
Add 1 Second Pauses
180x8
180x8

Inverted Ring Rows
bw+30x12
bw+35x12
bw+40x12
bw+45x16

Iso Seated Log Pin Presses (5 seconds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Y Raises to Hold (10 seconds)
87x3
87x3/26’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/26’sx10/µb’sx10
87x3/26’sx10/µb’sx10

Strap Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
mbx20
mbx20
mbx20

Stretching

Comments: Sunday evening I was noticing what felt like disc bulge symptoms on the left side lower back and I was struggling to figure what was the culprit. As sometimes it takes a day or two before I feel the effects of the mischief I do to myself. It did provide some distraction from thinking about ankle. I managed to have something shift shortly before I had to wake up on Monday morning and that seemed to do it and not have any issues as it lessened throughout the day. Maybe it was from the sandbag roll ups. Who knows really. Trying to get my walks in this week as I’m going to be off work Friday for a wedding I have to travel a bit too and then back to commuting the following week with the time shift so going to be dark when I get home from work. Wasn’t too sure how today’s training would go with this being the transition period from the “off season” to “competition prep”. I didn’t feel as distracted getting myself to get up to start training despite having been blasted at work with, well, work. Foam rolling starting things off. Calves needed a decent amount but nothing like Wednesday or Saturday last week. My right hamstring needed a ton today. Quads also did. Hell, upper back also in that same boat. Neck rehab/mobility stuff followed that seemed to be ok. I didn’t have anything feeling tight on me in the upper body to the extent I had last week. My biceps weren’t sore like last time after doing similar Day 3 session so either adapted already or just a fluke. No issues with glute activation or lower body mobility. A little longer stretch on these in some spots. Dead hang to finish things up and get a little more decompression before starting training. On to training outside. Right into the pressing this time. No prefatigue stuff needed this time. I had made the execute decision to lower the incline to what I’ve been normally pressing from for incline bench from the high incline benching. My shoulders were telling me it had run its course. I had questions on if this was the right decision. I can emphatically say yes in retrospect. The plan was to work up to a top set of 8 reps, drop 10% for another set and then a further 10% for 2x8 with pauses. Nothing complicated and obviously having something that is easy to make adjustments with works best here. This was where I wasn’t sure what carryover I’d be seeing here as I felt that I should be able to do more weight than the higher incline but I’ve not really been doing this style. So would it feel normal to me or are my shoulders not recovering? My aim was 220lbs for 20lbs more than what I was topping out with on the high incline variation. At the start, wasn’t feeling it but as I did more sets, I knew I’d have to have some kind of fluke to not be using that weight once I got up to 180lbs. Music had me vibing/stimming and I’ve found that I do well when I’m in that kind of state so just went with the wave rather than try to contain or fight it. This was good, didn’t break out into a cold sweat and didn’t need to take as long to rest between sets to recover. No issue with the down set and pauses felt good as well. Having push press session and then this session feel like it was meant to be is a good feeling. I feel my best when things move well. No grinders. I do think the higher incline for the weeks before were a good thing but need to be when light on the other stuff as harder for shoulders to recover. Into the garage after that for the inverted ring rows. These have been with pauses recently and this week was higher reps without pauses. 4x12 leaving 1-2RIR on the last set if repping it out. I initially was looking at doing 20lbs in the back pack before I realized no pauses this time. So added 10lbs. 30lbs was way too easy so I guess not doing straight weight sets today. Never can tell if the pauses going away will result in that much of a limiter being taken off. I had almost considered changing up the style of row for this session with the other stuff planned but I see this is still giving me great training and results. So unlike the past few weeks, I wasn’t sticking to being in the garage. Outside for a triset. It has been like 3yrs since I’ve done this particular one and I feel that at the time I wasn’t appreciative of it and hopefully I can implement it in a good way this time. The triset combines a few things with log press but the main component is the overcoming isometrics. Seated log press with the empty log into pins for triples of 5 second bursts start the madness. Right at the sticking point or so. I’m too tall to do these standing so seated. I had to do some half-hearted attempts to make sure I was feeling okay and able to put full intensity into the actual sets. Wore all my support gear minus knee sleeves just so I had the bracing. Stripped off the gear and went into the second part with dumbbell lateral raises. Light effort stuff here as the isometrics really fry me (only doing them for a few weeks). Just 10 reps here. Thankfully not really bothering my left elbow. The last part was then y-band raises. Upper back and shoulder mobility and then holding at lockout on the last rep. These were quite taxing as well with the hold and I feel like of the things in the triset, these were the thing I was recovering the poorest on. Two more trips through this to finish up. I feel that if I had stuck to high incline in same session, it would’ve taken away from these with how much these hit my shoulders (as well as triceps and upper back). Back into the garage for some light triceps work. This was more to get ROM and blood flow after the more intense stuff. Plan was to do just 2 sets of 12-20 reps with just a mini band anchored away on a dumbbell on the floor. I decided to add the strap I used for the face pulls here as I liked how that felt and I don’t like the tactile sensation of thin rubber bands digging into my hands with tension applied. These were short rests and that first set felt so easy I decided I’d do 3 sets. Second set did get tougher and almost reconsidered the added 3rd set to come. My right triceps felt like it was behind with gassing out easier than my left. Put stuff away as I got dinner ready and stretched afterwards.