November 15, 2025 – Week 11, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

19” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x10
135x8
175x6
225x4
265x2
300x1
331x5
331x5
336x5
341x5
346x5

Log Clean and Push Presses
12” Pitbull 
86x5
116x4
146x3
13” Beast Metals
176.5x2
201.5x1
226.5x4
226.5x4
226.5x4
226.5x4

Yoke
180x50’
180x50’
270x50’
270x50’
360x50’
360x50’
460x50’ in 7.18 seconds
520x50’ in 8.10 seconds
520x50’ in 8.04 seconds
520x50’ in 8.17 seconds
520x50’ in 8.10 seconds
520x50’ in 7.79 seconds

ATG Split Squats (14”)/Ab Walkouts (kneeling)
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8

Concept 2 Rower Power Pulls (10 pulls, 45 seconds rest)
1 – 99m
2 – 101m
3 – 105m
4 – 105m
5 – 111m
6 – 112m

Stretching

Comments: It has been an odd second half of the week. Sciatica stuff still present but seems to be tolerable and improving for the most part. It has not hampered me in any lifting stuff but can feel tension if sitting or standing too long in one spot. A little reminiscent of things back around this time in 2019 when I withdrew from a contest the night before as being at a charity event was just too taxing. It had been the right call but it hurt back then. Thursday was last day for work this week as funeral/celebration of life for my uncle who passed last month was Friday. I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t know most of the people there and Thursday night was a preview of that. I had not expected to have this be so draining on me as I ended up sleeping until close to 12:30 on Saturday. I got up briefly at 9:30ish and just felt like nope, not yet. I felt that the rest was important and I’d figure out the plan once I had my fill of Z’s. There were somethings I had to consider and figure out upon waking to see if it made sense to still train today. Most of the workout could be done at home besides the row stuff but not sure on figuring out that part of things. At issue was potential traffic issues going out to training anywhere beyond immediate vicinity because there were demolition plans for a bridge in route to the two gyms I’d use. However, that wasn’t scheduled until 11:00PM with lane closures starting at 7:00PM so I figured I’d go out to train and not screw up the schedule for the rest of the month to try and get back on track. Driving out was surprisingly smooth considering it was early afternoon. There were people training but not strongman stuff. It would appear other usual suspects that don’t do strongman stuff also trickled in later than expected too. Soft tissue work started things off and wasn’t too bad for anything really. I guess getting over 12hrs of sleep will do that. Neck rehab stuff was ok, was feeling tight in shoulders but seemed to feel better by the end. I didn’t do the knee and ankle warming up I usually do this day. I’ve not been doing it on Day 1 sessions and I’m not really noticing any difference in how I feel warming up or the session in general. So just did the stretching part and then dead hang. From there, on to the weights. Some changes to the session this week. The first time this prep where not doing ssb squats. Notes were to use the cambered squat bar for box squats (parallel) and work up to 5x5 with something that felt like RPE 7.5/8. It has almost been a year since I last did a cambered squat bar box squat and I knew from the last time it can be a little tricky figuring out what I had in the tank as it could wobble back and forth quite a bit. I had to figure I at least maintained what I could do since then as been squatting twice a week and a good bit more volume on various things for the legs but just not sure how things would go with the sciatica stuff and just really doing a typical box squat in so long. I did have to figure out box height. 18” seemed a little under parallel and 20” was too high so went with 19”. The first set with just the bar did not inspire any confidence. It felt ugly and rough. I had only intended to do 5 reps and move on but decided I needed more reps here to get used to things again so do my higher rep plan with dropping 2 reps per set. I was going with the warm ups with the plan of using 315-320lbs here which is about what I had done for sets of 5 reps (3-4x5) last time. Putting on a hard belt for 265lbs felt pretty darn good. But I didn’t feel like a whole other plate added was going to be in that range (would be 10lbs under what had been my top set of 5 from then with 2-3RIR). So I decided I’d do 300lbs for a single and then do 331lbs/150kgs for my working sets and hope I didn’t go too heavy. First set felt fine but I did want to make sure that I could gauge things correctly here so I did keep weigh the same for the second set. After that set felt better, I decided I’d add 5lbs per set. These felt pretty decent and unlike with the ssb squats, there wasn’t a rep where I felt like I’d get lightheaded thankfully. I may have very well been ok with doing 355lbs for the working weight this time around. Just have to see what the plan going forward is going to be. From there, moved on to log. I swapped out a fresh shirt with some decals on it. Plan was to do 4x4 with 215-220lbs this week. So 5lbs more than last week. I had gone a little off script last time with initially doing 211lbs and then adding 5lbs to the last two sets getting it to 221lbs by the end. There had not been much difference really after getting the first rough set out of the way and I think this one is more coming down to confidence and getting used to multiple cleans. Especially with the adjustment to my clean style building back up. So my goal was to do 226lbs for my sets if I felt up to it. I did decide to throw in a wrinkle to this as well for no reason other than I wanted to. Essentially, I wanted to use the big log. The gym has a 176.5lbs Beast Metal log that is about 13” diameter. It is slightly longer than the other logs as well and it is unbalanced due to the distribution of material from front to back. This is equipment by someone who didn’t do strongman essentially. But it makes for a good training apparatus to get used to competition logs at bigger shows that tend to be heavier weight empty. Granted, local shows are usually not going to use this kind of log (the 85lbs empty logs work fine). I think I wanted to just to do a tougher implement and be thinking about lifting this a bigger level show and that it will get me to not panic when the weight is feeling tough and not smooth. But I had to work up to it. So the first three warm up sets were with the usual log and 30lbs jumps. Then the big log. Knees were feeling fine and pleased no issues with my back on these. The big red log was a bear to move and I was maybe reconsidering this choice. The large openings means I didn’t get contact bruises on my forearms but also means more torque needed to roll the log up. I wasn’t feeling 100% confident going for the working weight but I knew from the previous two log sessions that that doesn’t mean I won’t do it. I told myself to get ready for it to not feel great that first clean and just press it anyway. Don’t waste the effort. And I did just that. I took my time with the reps here as I didn’t want to screw up and get my timing down. The issue isn’t the pick or the pressing but making sure that I don’t drain myself on the clean and get out of position. Second press went up better than the first. Just over 60 seconds to get these done. My hope would be that I’d feel better as I go on these and cut that time down. I was not planning to add weights to these sets since this was where I should be and it wasn’t feeling super easy. Second set started out good with the first two reps. I didn’t feel quite comfortable enough to try and do these with my hands on the log and following the weight down. My pace got a little disrupted after the second rep as I was a little off balance on the release. The press on the third rep wasn’t as strong so I was a little concerned going for the fourth rep. The weight rolled out on me on the dip there so that was a tougher rep too. But half way through these. Third set I could tell I was getting fatigued with this style of clean. First rep presses were good, the last one rolled out a little on me even with a slight pause to try and get things stable so that was a tougher rep. Going into the last set, my hope was to get a good three and then know I can press through the last one even if it was a little rough. And if feeling good, try and string them all together. So first rep felt really good and easy on the press so I decided to follow it down to go right into the next one. That was a mistake. This apparently caused my glasses to escape my face. I had to figure out if they were in a somewhat safe spot before continuing. Going from 20/20 to colorful blurs is a bit disorientating so I had to take a second attempt at the dip on the second rep before I felt stable enough to press. I decided I needed to slow down to compensate for the visual impairment. I reflexively went to my face to adjust my nonexistent glasses before going for the third rep. Pick wasn’t the best as got caught on my knee sleeves. Press was just ok. But only one more to go and then done. Had to let it settle before I could feel confident to press. And it didn’t end up being the toughest last rep of the day either so I guess that is good. From there it was on to yoke. A change in intent this time around. Still doing multiple runs at 50’. The change up being that focus was time based effort. So it has been doing many runs with increasing weight on EMOM timer. And that has been good with building back repeatable endurance and strength. But trying to get faster. I’m not very fast and getting older is going to do that. I know that I’m off my times when I used to be obsessive with it. But I think I stopped really tracking it since often I was alone and it was more trying to get in the distance and then I fell out of love with yoke when I kept hitting a wall above 800lbs on it and just felt frustrated. But I’ve been enjoying yoke since I’ve been working with Ms. Funk and I can tell that my mechanics are better. Anyways, the plan here was to work up to a weight that about 8 seconds to complete the 50’ run and then do that 4 more times. I wasn’t too sure what that would be as I was about 10 seconds on my runs at times with the 580lbs last week. I figured 500lbs is what I’d be capable of. Been noticing my last few sets tend to be faster so I figured I should do more sets warming up to get ready as I may be using less weight for the working sets this time around and didn’t want to go too light get my speed focus just because I wasn’t ready for it. I did not do full speed on any of the plate jump warm ups. Just making sure back was good and stuff was moving fluid. I was initially planning on doing 450lbs as my testing set to actually see what I was doing today but decided to go with 460lbs so that it was balanced. I was thankfully able to have someone time these. My back up plan was to use my own EMOM timer to gauge if I was under 9 seconds (which as the slowest I could be). A little bit of hiccup with communicating commands but I adapted to it. I was not expecting to be so far under 8 seconds with this weight. So I decided to add 60lbs to it and see if that slowed be down to be in the time range. This may have actually still been on the lighter end with the times plan as just over 8 seconds here. Could conceivably say with how close times were for the 3 of the 5 runs that within human error of being the same time. Outliers were the third set and then the darn last set. I’ve no idea how I was able to make that one sub 8 seconds by a decent bit. Had me feel like I was sandbagging the entire time. This still a good bit off what my best times speed wise have been but these feel about where I’m at lately and sustainable if that makes sense. After putting that away, I had the superset left (besides rowing). The plan was to do 4 sets of 12 on the split squats with same height as last time (as seemed to be my toleration limits) and then 4 sets of 8 on the new ab walk exercise. But the setup I had got adjusted as the boxes I was planning to use were being used. I had already thought of trying 15” instead of 16” but that was already being used. So 14” was available and I really didn’t want to try and mess with adding mats to it and such that could make things unstable. So just had to hope it was good. And thankfully, it was. No real issues here. I feel I got better with the ab walk too with the ROM. I did these all with essentially no rest back to back because I could and because it was getting late. The rowing stuff was changed up a good bit from what had felt like conditioning. This was more a power based thing. 6 rounds of this where I’d do 10 pulls and then rest 45 seconds and record the distance. This is a lot easier than the conditioning such haha. I figured I’d probably get around 100m per set just based off how it felt doing the longer sets. That ended up being the case here with only my first set being under that. Meant to leave quickly after that as it was after 7PM at this point but a friend walked in and he has been dealing with similar back issues I’ve had so talked a good bit about that before leaving. Dark out but uneventful. Not much traffic so no issues with the lane closures coming home. Started cooking up dinner once home and stretched afterwards.

November 12, 2025 – Week 11, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
143x5
235x3
323x2
373x1
413x1
463x1
Add Holds at Lockout (1 second)
505x1
505x1
505x1
505x1
505x1
505x1
505x1

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (21”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
290x4
290x4
290x4
290x4

Paused Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 2 seconds)/Chest Supported I Flys and T Flys/Lying Band Leg Curls (3-0-3-0 tempo)
255x3
345x10/10’sx12+12/(2)mb+(2)µbx20
345x10/10’sx12+12/(2)mb+(2)µbx20
345x10/10’sx12+12/(2)mb+(2)µbx20

Sandbag Marches
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I did my best to take advantage of the day off Tuesday to get sleep and see about anything I could do for recovery for the sciatica issues. I had not been hampered during training Monday but I know how the symptoms can add stress. Sleep and I did take some antiflammatories to see if that did anything. It did not so not going to push that part of things as rather not have any liver or GI bleed issues if not abating anything. I try to not use that stuff. I did activities such as walking and raking leaves and again tried to see if dip stand decompression helped. It would appear that this is a new flavor of the disc bulge issues and the dip stand isn’t “curing” it like usual. I’ll just have to see if things calm down enough that I can get things to feel good and shift back to how they were. I have to remember that there were other aches and pains that I was worried would be chronic at different points in this off season that has yet to reach third month. But the stuff I’m trying definitely added some tension/stress to body as my upper back, neck and back were feeling tense. More lower body focused day this time and I was a little leery about things with the symptoms but do what I can and modify as needed. Foam rolling was needed for my calves as expected. Quads didn’t need it as much as I was expecting considering the Spanish squats and such. Not much else to say here. Rehab stuff for neck as planned to get things feeling good in the neck, shoulders and upper back. I did alter things slightly here. I did glute activation and some core bracing before moving on to the stretching for hips, ankles, hamstrings and knees. Then I did the tib raises/calf raises. I felt it was best to treat these more like the last warm up and first exercise rather than just toss in the middle of my mobility prep. On to lifting from there. First up being pulls with the bendy bar setup. These had been pretty rough last week. The suggestion this time around was to try and build tension on the pull rather than try and rip it up as that can get me out of position. Slow start seemed a better idea with my back anyways at this point. So plan for the day was to work up to 505lbs for 7 singles, holding lockout for a second before putting it down. As I do these, I feel like I slightly modify the setup each time to try and get closer to how I feel things will be. I know that the pull will feel different enough that I shouldn’t just do straight barbell pull as these feel a good bit longer of a pull to complete with the tension and flex. Warming up wasn’t feeling so bad. Again, I was suffering from the delusion that 505lbs would be “too easy” or something and I’d get it figured out and be needing to do heavier. That obviously didn’t happen and I was going to listen to the plan here. My slight adjustment to things this time around was that after I got to 323lbs that I didn’t use the normal sized 45’s on the bar. The bumper plate and then the smaller 45’s so that the flex point stayed about the same for the pulls after getting to 323lbs. I feel like the weight I’m using with the plates out where they are is going to be about what it is so figured I’d not artificially make it more so until we get to doing stuff in the suit for this one where I will be going a bit heavier. But honestly, I can probably go up to what I expect as max in training using the smaller 45’s and the 35’s or 25’s with suit so things can stay consistent. I was not brimming with confidence for these working singles after my last warm up. I didn’t want to dig into the max hype on these as that felt like it would be a whole thing but I was kind of worried this would be welded to the floor. Thankfully it was not. These felt slow and grindy. Video says they weren’t so bad. I took about 2 minutes rests for these so that is good with the quick repeatability on what kind of feels like RPE 9 at times. The 5th and 6th single the lockout felt more laborious to get to. I took a little longer rest for the last single and that went up more like the first four singles. This is a tricky one to figure out as far as what I can do based on feel vs video. I do feel like 550ish is there now for a single but not sure after that. I’m also not sure if these should be reps with how this bar behaves or if getting more pulls as singles makes the most sense to get used to building up tension to break the inertia. See how this plays out. Put stuff away and got ready for the continuing saga of front box squats with the ssb. Finally and end to the increasing sets of 6 reps with 275lbs. But that meant going up in weight. So the plan was to do 4x4 with 285-295lbs. I wasn’t too sure with jumping up to 20lbs more as knees been a bit rough until recently and not sure how the anterior loading would feel on the lower back. I had been quite surprised no issues on the deadlifts honestly. I did the same warming up as I have been doing on these which would leave how I felt after the last double to determine what I did for the working sets. Working up is always interesting with squat exercises as some sets feel fine and others garbage but it is just to get myself ready for the top set with the last double being the true indicator. Some days all sets feel fine and some days all feel like I’m damaging my body lol. I didn’t feel terrible but I didn’t feel amazing coming into the working weight so I decided I’d split the difference and do 290lbs here. As has been the case, usually that first set is the roughest one and I get better as I got with my breathing and how my body is feeling. I probably could’ve done 295lbs today but I think this was a safe bet considering things. I’m also not sure which way progression will be next week so I think that might also be why I settled where I did. Last set I got a little too ahead of myself with the first rep and I almost lost my balance and had to humble myself a bit after that to make sure I didn’t have any issues. So that was done and then on to the triset after getting another thirsty break. Same as last week but added reps to the rdls and the dumbbell raises and indication to increase the band tension some on the leg curls. These take a bit longer to do with needing to recover from the leg curls before doing the snatch grip rdls. I wasn’t worried about the dumbbells as those felt good and were feeling more like active rest on my body compared to the rdls and the leg curls. I was worried with the snatch grip stuff as far as my back and the increased reps as these are getting challenging and trying to get a solid 2 seconds pauses on these. I feel that went better this week with that intent and focus. I did forget to adjust my camera for the last set so almost 99% out of frame on these. The added reps on the dumbbell raises was noticed. I had been thinking about using two sets of dumbbells this week because the one felt easier but I figured it was too much of a hassle and it was close enough. Honestly, with the increased reps, they were closer to the same difficult compared to previous sessions. Leg curls were tortuous. I felt like I probably couldn’t really move the bands out further in any way that was quantifiable or mattered so I added some band resistance to them. In hindsight, I probably could’ve gotten away with just one micro band added vs two for the training effect. Oh well. I put stuff away but no drinking as I didn’t want to upchuck on the sandbag stuff to finish up. Same as last week with the marches but and added set. I was advised to try and get the bag up higher. I had felt like it was higher on my person than video was indicating. It certainly is higher up than how I’ve usually carried in the past. I biffed my first attempt as I was trying to get it up high but it just didn’t seem to feel right and slid on me and I dropped it to reset and just do what I felt I could do. Of all the things with the sciatica this week, this was the one that it was most noticeable. Mostly because of the extension and lean back as I felt the affected area that is sore/inflamed. Not pain per se but it was noticeable. Feeling like these are fine but I definitely feel like my feet get tired and sloppy by the end of each set. As with last time, put the sandbag away on the last set so I could get to eating dinner sooner rather than later with clean up. Ate dinner and stretched.

November 10, 2025 – Week 11, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
50x8
80x5
110x3
140x2
170x2
200x2
230x3
230x3
230x3
230x3 (2 misses)

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
40’sx8
56’sx6
70’sx4
90’sx6
90’sx6
90’sx6
90’sx6

Alternating + Together Dumbbell Floor Presses
80’sx8(1/1/1) I forgot what I was doing
80’sx8(1/1/1)
80’sx8(1/1/1)

Barbell Z Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
65x3
95x3
125x8 – bwx25
130x8 – bwx25
135x8 – bwx25

Supinated Bent Over Dumbbell Drag Rows/Band Seated Leg Extensions (4-0-4-0 tempo)
40’sx3
70’sx10 – abx15
70’sx10 – abx15
70’sx10 – abx15

Stretching

Comments: Not feeling the best at the moment. Appears something from Saturday has me feeling the disc compression issues/sciatica stuff. It didn’t pop up until I got home really. Usually I’ve been able to mitigate it when it pops up with dip stand decompression and rest but that at this moment hasn’t yielded the results I’d hope. I’ve not had this pop up since middle of July and it did take a few days for things to calm down (being on vacation maybe helped there). I can tell when it is flaring up that I feel a bit more stressed (and that seems to compound it) so it is best to get it to calm down sooner rather than later. But it also seems that sometimes whatever is inflamed needs to calm down enough for decompression actually help. I did that on Sunday and plan was to do that twice on Monday (during lunch break and then during warm ups). Walking felt good on Sunday. Weight is still down a good bit like last week weigh-in. It decided to finally get cold here as temperature dropped 20 degrees from what it was Sunday and windy. Foam rolling to start things off. Left calf needed it more than the right one this time. Probably because the disc issues. Right quad needed it a good bit more than the left one. Upper back and such was fine. Neck rehab stuff followed and that was good. Kind of hoping stuff I was doing warming up would help with the back issue as I went but not to the level of “curing it” as I’d hoped. From there stretches for hips, knees, ankles and hamstrings. Did a dead hang then some dip stand decompression to try and see if this was the one that would get things back on track. Not yet. I’ll keep at it. It was then time to train. Axle again. Rack work. I was a bit surprised that it was only going to be 4x3 with 230lbs. I was fully expecting like sets of 4-5 reps. Indication was to be confident from the start and try to not have the weight go out in front. The temperature drop did have joints feeling achy but thankfully no issues in the knees. I didn’t feel like anything was off working up. I did have to wear my warm up bottoms due to it being close to freezing but was able to warm up enough to shed the top. I got set for what I thought would be comfortable reps. Boy was I wrong. First rep I went to press and it seemed to hit a wall hard. Almost threw me for a loop and then the second rep I stalled even harder and had me really wondering what just happened. I think I wasn’t using as much hip drive initially as I was trying to have the weight on the press not go out in front of me. I reverted to how I was and not over thinking it and that rep went up a lot better. But this was not a good start. I had to double check I didn’t accidentally put 20-30lbs more on there than I thought I did. I took a little longer rest than I was planning to so as to recover from that effort. The second and third set moved a good bit better and had me thinking that first set must have been a fluke. Then I had the last set which played out a lot like how the third set of circus dumbbell went on Saturday. So first rep flew up but I think it went up too fast as I lost my brace and I think that laxity in my core had me worried about my back. I just seemed to have no power in my arms after that first rep as I couldn’t even seem to put in an effort to get a push into that sticking point. After 2 misses, I racked the weight and took a step back. Don’t freak out, this has happened before. You can do this. This is the last set, just space these last two reps out. Went for the second rep again and that was a tough one with a struggle to lockout. As soon as that weight came back down to my shoulders, I knew that I had to rack the bar as I had nothing in the tank to go again. Another rest before mustering up the gumption to go for the last rep. Thankfully, that went up better than the second one had. I checked the weights again after racking the weight to just make sure I wasn’t wrong on the math. Really not sure what the deal was today. Looking at video, even the ones at the start that I thought were not pressing out and away appeared to still be pressing out. I’m really not sure on how to fix that at this point. And I worry that doing so is going to be more apparent with the sticking point with the triceps and work on those in a different way perhaps. So this was not a great start to a late session in darkness and cold. But thankfully off work tomorrow for holiday so I can recover. Into the garage for dumbbell stuff. Incline dumbbell pressing again with the neutral grip. Plan being 4x6 with 90-100lbs. Seeing as how my pressing was not having me feel confident, I elected to just aim for 90lbs this time around as that could be dicey. Notes were to try and keep grip more neutral. I think part of the hand rotation thing happening was trying to get more ROM and kind of doing more of a fly style to engage chest as I feel that with neutral grip I have to tuck my shoulders and the bigger plates do cut the ROM some. So I went with that style of press this time around. I can definitely feel that my arms do want to rotate the handles as I press and for the most part I can control that but as the reps get tougher, the rotation is harder to fight. The good news is that I didn’t have much issues with clean to shoulder. Shoulders were feeling beat up though. With how I was feeling today, 100’s wouldn’t have been doable but I probably could’ve snuck a few lbs here. Hopefully I will be fresher next time or something will be adjusted so I keep going forward. From there more dumbbell pressing with the odd style of floor pressing that I’ve been doing. Same weight as the past two weeks but back to 3 sets but now 8 reps. I don’t know where my head was at on the first set as I seemed to remember about 4 reps in that I was to be doing right, left and then together and I had been doing just right and left. I think my thought process on realizing that was ok, maybe I start over and ignore the reps I just did. Or maybe do another set. That had me lose count. I ended up doing some reps together and then reps as intended and hoped that equaled the total reps per set. I might have done a few extra reps. I got it right for the other two sets. The first set I hadn’t really felt that fatigued but I was feeling it on the two sets I did right. These sets didn’t have me feeling like I had struggled on the other two pressing exercises beforehand. From there it was on to the supersets. A bigger change with the first pairing. Second half still the assisted tempo Spanish squats. The first part was a change in the pressing. Doing barbell z presses. Ms. Funk wants to see about my hips and core when it comes to pressing. I’ve not done any z press variations in 2.5yrs and last time I did a barbell one was 5.5yrs and it had been 5yrs prior to that when I was doing these regularly. I used to do these with log, axle and barbell a good bit when I first started out with strongman stuff. I feel that my long legs tend to help me balance on these a good bit. Plan was to do 3x8 at RPE .5-8. I wasn’t sure what I could do and what things would feel like today so I did start light warming up. I didn’t feel confident with doing 135lbs like I was hoping with how warm ups went. But things did feel better when it came time to working weight. First set was fine and second set I felt like I was not quite leaving enough RIR on the set but that might have been from me not staying focused. I didn’t want to drop weight and I decided I’d add pressure and put 135lbs. I did rush the first rep a tad but otherwise the other reps felt solid and I felt better here vs the 130lbs set. The Spanish squats took up a good chunk of time. It felt like this took longer to get my knees to cooperate with me to finally attempt sets. While only 3 sets this week, it was 25 reps per set with the tempo. So getting close to 3 minutes of effort each set. The setup was a bit unique with doing both exercises so some break between with setup and tear down. The effort on the squats kept me warm. Back into the garage for the final pairing. Again, a bigger change. The rowing exercise changed again. I did ask for clarification on this one and I think I did them right. But essentially a bent over row with dumbbells and keeping a supinated grip and dragging my knuckles up my legs to the hips, maintaining contact. A bit odd. I’m not sure about adding weight for these as I’d have to mess around with the plateloaded handles and find a way that not having the weights of bigger plates hitting thighs and keeping from the close contact. The other half was the new double leg band extensions but now with all the reps being tempo reps. I started with the band tension I ended on last week and tried to have it be a little more tension with setup. These are tricky with getting the feeling right. I may need to add some more band tension as it is hard to get the setup on the feet if I’m further away as well as making sure the bench is secure. I cooked up dinner and while it was cooling I put stuff away. Stretched after eating. Late night but I think I didn’t rush myself knowing I had off tomorrow and could sleep in.

November 8, 2025 – Week 10, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
70x6
100x5
130x4
160x3
190x2
220x1
250x6
250x6
250x6
250x6

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
49x4
72x3
94x2
108x1
125x1
140x1
155x3 (1 miss)
155x3
155x3 (3 misses)
155x3
155x3

Yoke
220x50’
310x50’
400x50’
490x50’
EMOM
580x50’
580x50’
580x50’
580x50’

ATG Split Squats (16”)/Ab Walkouts (kneeling)
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8

Rower (2 minutes rest)
500m in 1 minutes 43.90 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 44.80 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 45.60 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 48.10 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Getting back on the telework schedule again just felt better immediately and almost feels like I’ve been doing it all this time rather just being four days of it. Next week is also going to be a not much at work week with Veterans’ Day and then time off for funeral. With the budget impasses at both state and federal level, work continues to be confusing and hectic. Consistent walks in the daylight have helped with getting a step back to process and decompress rather than just work right through. I didn’t intend for this to be a session where I got out there late or stayed out there late. But it happened. I slept in about an hour from my usual work start time which wasn’t that bad and I knew I needed the sleep. Maybe I spent a little too much time fiddling around before leaving (getting some thoughts together about upcoming year plans) and I was really surprised how little traffic there was. There is going to be demolition happening next weekend in the evening so even that shouldn’t be an issue. Where I got my time ate up was with me apparently being starved of human contact and people that I enjoy talking to and talking about stuff being there and just venting on stuff in regards to the government stuff and strongman ideas. Time before I finished with my warming up, before I did exercises (squats, yoke, superset) and before I left putting stuff away. I don’t regret that as didn’t impact my workout. I can switch on a dime from talking to intense training. Foam rolling needed for both calves at the top section but like not as badly as it has been some days. The other spot really needing it was my right quad and it felt like I was massaging a piece of iron with how tight it was feeling. Neck rehab stuff was fine as per usual. Keeping an eye on things with neck and shoulders. I modified the knee/ankle stuff slightly as my shoes were not having the traction they were giving last week for some reason. My right knee was feeling more sore than I’d have liked doing that stuff. I dropped an exercise as didn’t feel it really was needed to warm up for stuff and that it wasn’t until I’m doing yoke that it would be helpful. Then the stretches for the hips, ankles and knees and dead hang for decompression. I did do a little more of the Cossack stretch this time around as well. On to weights (eventually as I got chatting away). Heel elevated ssb squats to start things off as has been the case. Tempo style again. Not too bad about that. These tend to make my knees feel better it seems as far as the eccentric but these get exhausting and make it so rest periods increase on the working sets. Plan this time around was 4x6 and suggested weight being 235-250lbs. So range being 10lbs less than last time to 5lbs more than last time. My initial plan going into this was to hopefully be better acclimated to this style of squat and use same weight as last time and have that be enough with the extra rep each set. But I got that little voice/feeling saying that 5lbs is not a lot and that it is “only wafer thin” so I just added 5lbs to the start weight with the 30lbs jumps. My right knee was thankfully not feeling like it had last week. Still, the first rep of working weight continues to be one where I seem to get lightheaded and have to catch myself and then no issues after that. It can be tough to find consistency and what works as part of it is keeping track of the count and not wanting the weight to crush you and then also breathing. The rest periods from last week seemed to be ok with the extra rep until the third set. That last rep I had to cut depth slightly as I felt like I was going to get pitched forward from fatigue and not get back up. So I made sure I was recovered a good deal more before I did the last set of these and didn’t have that issue there. I was regretting not bringing more than one fresh shirt as I had thought it would be cooler today. Put stuff away and got ready for circus dumbbell. With the lighter weight on the squats but increased tempo, it is making my legs tired but the joints seemed to be more warmed up so less knee aches when doing leg drive based pressing. I noticed that with log last week. So hopefully that would be true with circus dumbbell and knees wouldn’t feel like crap on the first set. So that did end up being the case where not feeling like crap but it felt like something went in my back slightly just bending over to get the lightest dumbbell so that was a little unnerving. But seemed ok. As has been the case the last two times, still just using my strong side and do it as I would competition style. First session had gone about as well as expected and then I seemed to pull back on the second session here as I wasn’t feeling quite there but did eventually by the end. So My hope was that I should tough it out from the start, be confident and do my thing. So plan for the session was to do 5x3 with 5-10lbs more than last time. Same warm up jumps as last time until I got to the 120lbs dumbbell.  The smallest dumbbell feels fine and then honestly the 94lbs feels the most awkward followed by the 108lbs. So since the potential plan here was to do 150lbs (contest weight) or 155lbs, I needed to set things up for those kind of jumps so I went with 125lbs rather than the empty 120lbs to bridge the gap. I didn’t have any issues this time around with having the dumbbell go out of control and bang my ear so that was already a good sign. 140lbs didn’t feel bad but didn’t feel super easy. But I went with 155lbs. I was nervous and a good bit of time between sets was getting my stomach to settle and stop belching. One thing I noticed this time around is that I had to let the weight settle more before going for the drive. First set the first rep went up like I wanted it to. I’m not entirely sure what happened going for the second rep right after that. But after the miss, I set it down and decided I’d treat this first set as three singles and then hopefully adjust from there for the following sets as I tend to get better on things like this as I go and get more warmed up and confident. Last rep felt the strongest and most powerful of the set and I think helped me get my head right for what was to come. I did get these in about 45 seconds which isn’t a great time but still under a minute. Second set went more like how I expect things to go when I’m on point. Third set was a disaster but I didn’t give up. First attempt at a rep I felt strong and it went up fast but I rushed it and couldn’t stabilize and get lockout. So didn’t count it and kept dumbbell on my shoulder and got the rep like I should. Went for the second right after that but it didn’t feel right in the rack position. So I set it down without attempting the press. Ok, damage control, do singles. Going for the second rep after collecting myself was not good as I really missed that lift. Ok, panic starting to set in. I undid my left wrist wrap because at this point it was starting feel too tight and I needed to get feeling in the hand if this set was going to go into overtime. Rewrapped and went at it again and even worse attempt but I didn’t freak out and let it settle and finally got a rep that I had to commit and work for to finish. Ok, one more and then done with this terrible set. I was feeling tired and it was in the rack position a good bit but it honestly went up as the best rep of the day. I just had to give it some bombastic side-eye after all the dramatics. Noticed afterwards that that I had nicked the right thumb again and had some blood. This took almost 2 minutes to finish so I took a bit longer rest before attempting the fourth set to make sure I was ready to go. Fourth set went up so easily after all that it was baffling. Only a slight bobble on the first rep but these went up. Now hopefully I break the trend of the odd sets sucking here on this last set. This went about as well as the fourth set and I flipped off the camera for good measure while holding the last lift aloft. Overhead can be so dumb. This had been the thing I was most anxious about this workout. Everything else felt like a sure thing. It is good I am doing over contest weight for reps consistently and 13 weeks away from contest day. From there it was on to yoke. Same as last week with it being 4x50’ done EMOM style. Suggested appeared to be 5-15lbs more than last time. I’m not sure if that was based off me doing 560lbs instead of 555lbs so I went with it being 10-20lbs more than last time. Like last time, I went with doing 90lbs jumps instead of 100lbs jumps so that I could do an extra run warming up and could get used to larger plates with my pick and movement as well as gradually pick up pace warming up. First set was like I was just walking and then a more gradual pace after that with essentially a full speed run on my last set before the working weight. I did end up having a good bit of break right before I was to go here talking to a friend but I don’t feel like that really impacted things here. This felt similar to last week at the start with the first set feeling the slowest and worst. And it was. But it did feel like this time that I actually got quicker and smoother as I went and that feeling wasn’t a lie. Last time I had thought my second set was my fastest run. So this went well. Still 170lbs off contest weight at this point but progress is good. It was about that time with it being a lot later than I expected or wanted it to be so I decided I’d move on to the next thing and put away yoke weights and such when I was done with everything. The superset to finish up the lifting was altered slightly. So first half still the split squat regression. Sets of 12 reps this time. I decided I’d lower the box another level to 16” and see how that felt. I’m getting a little more ankle movement in the right side compared to last week so that is something. However, this may be around the limit for “no pain” on my right side at least for today. I know my left side can go lower based on feel. I don’t think that I’m going to be allowed to lower one side vs the other as that may just exacerbate the issue. But now that I’m at this height, I can have options with smaller than 4” changes if necessary. These aren’t so taxing I need a lot of rest between sides or sets. The ab stuff was a new one. Walk outs. Not standing start style but kneeling like I’ve been doing for the ab wheel. Sets of 8 reps walking out hands out and walking them back. A little tricky at first but I think I got it figured out as I went. These weren’t too bad honestly. Rowing to finish up the day. Same plan as las time with intervals of 500m row with 2 minutes rest. But an added set this time. I did figure out how to have the display show the previous time rather than potentially the average (which I may have got last week). I seemed to do better pacing wise here and only adding a second or so the first three sets and then like two seconds to the last set. I didn’t feel that beat from this either. Slammed my shake at this point and ended up hanging around a bit longer and talking more as I put stuff away. With the time shift, it was nearly pitch black darkness though only like 5:30PM. Home to stretch and clean up before getting a later dinner ready. Some aches and such which hopefully calm down with sleep and if not, I can work on them in the morning.

November 5, 2025 – Week 10, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
143x5
235x3
323x2
373x1
413x1
463x1
503x1
533x2
479x3
479x3
479x3

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (21”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
275x6
275x6
275x6
275x6
275x6
275x6

Paused Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 2 seconds)/Chest Supported I Flys and T Flys/Lying Band Leg Curls (3-0-3-0 tempo)
255x3
345x8/10’sx10+10/(2)mbx20
345x8/10’sx10+10/(2)mbx20
345x8/10’sx10+10/(2)mbx20

Sandbag Marches
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Work wears me down as well as just the general unease of everything just being not great. There is joy in my training and being with family. But there feels like a gravity to everything that is wearing me down and I think a lot of people down. And not realizing such until taking a step back to escape from that and breath. The revert to telework is helping at least with giving me more time to sleep and not feel like a crunch to fit in life outside of work. Walking during lunch break also feels better too. Slight bruise on my right shoulder from I believe incline presses with dumbbell from having to clean the weights to shoulder and possibly from contact. Foam rolling was needed for my calves and quads. Rehab stuff for neck as planned to get things feeling good in the neck, shoulders and upper back. I did the tib raises/calf raises like I did last time going back and forth each rep. Seemed a little more sure of myself and what I was doing here. Also glute activation stuff. Some added time to some stretching after that and then it was on to the session. So surprise, no axle deadlifts. Moving to the last block of the off-season prep and bring back in the bendy bar. So plan here was work up to a top double with the as close as I can get to contest setup and then take 10% off to do 3x3. So power bar with the bar extenders. I’ve been fussing with these about each session trying to get things to feel and look like how the setup will be on a 10’ bar. Not spending over a grand on a bar that I can’t even store in my garage that is essentially a novelty. Got enough of those. The sleeves are longer than normal on top of the bar gripping section. I think I have about as close as I can get with what I got. Most I’ve worked up on this variation has been 415lbs and that has been for EMOM doubles for many sets. When things aren’t in the groove, this feels like a lot of back and when it gets it just right, it can feel almost weightless. So the new tweak to the setup was to have the 25lbs bumper plates and my super thin 45lbs steel plates on first and then the bar sleeve extenders. So whippy immediately still and not having the flex come into play until 323lbs (where I use a 45lbs bumper plates). So plate jumps to that point (which isn’t many jumps) and then going 40-50lbs jumps with quarter-plate. Worst case I was seeing 503lbs for my top double with my hope being that I did 553lbs. It is an odd pull and it feels like it is a long pull to get to lock out and just have to keep pulling and not let it stop. 503lbs didn’t feel like my limit so a single there but I didn’t feel 100% sure that I’d get a double if I tried 553lbs with how things felt. I was also having a hard time digging into the max hype aggression but I feel that is kind of the general vibe and this would be a first heavy session. I’ve not pulled more than 501lbs from the floor in any fashion since March 1st this year. Adding 30lbs felt like a gamble even. Told myself that I got to keep pulling on this setup. These felt slow with the second one taking even longer it felt to lock out. Ugh. Now video says it wasn’t that bad. Honestly, I probably had 553lbs in me for a double today but it would’ve been RPE 10 if it went. I got to and will get used to this. I meant to have 480lbs on for the triples but I forgot to put the one fractional plate on the one side so a little shy of that. Oh well. These triples didn’t feel much easier after the heavy double. These felt much the same. I’d say the first set felt the best of these and fatigue was present after that. My usual rest period of pacing my house for squats and pulls wasn’t really cutting it today. Second set felt a good bit tougher. Last set was an odd one. The first and last rep almost seemed to be like pause reps when the full weight broke the floor whereas the second rep went up fairly easy. I do wonder if in competition prep will have a bit more drastic of intensity peak and drop vs offseason. Deads seem to feel tougher grinding week to week compared to things like squats that seem to be fine with that and improve week to week. Speaking of which, after putting the setup away and getting fluids, it was time for more front box squats with the ssb. I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve adding yet another set of 6 reps with these but here we are. Same weight as it has been for the past 3 proceeding weeks. Thankfully, my knees were feeling better so I was hopefully not going to have issues with these and be in doubt of getting the reps. I don’t know if these were moving better because I did less deadlift volume or if they just like to feel better every other week. I did feel a bit fatigued 3 sets in and did make my rests slightly longer from there. I was doing these a bit quicker compared to how gingerly I was moving with these last week. But I handled these like a champ with only the very last rep of the last set having me grunt out in exertion to finish things off. That’s a lot of front box squatting. More time putting stuff away and getting more fluids down. The triset followed. Again, some slight changes. The first part still being snatch grip rdls. Pauses were added last time so that still present and same weight suggested. But two more reps on these. I did want to try and make my pauses more in the two seconds range as I think I counted fast for my tastes last time. I think part of that was the worry I’d not get the reps and rushing as that combined effort here gets draining. I feel like I did improve on that this time around but more so in the second half of the set when I knew I was finishing. I need to try and get that consistency from the start. The second part was the newly added I and T raises. 10 reps for each and I stuck to the 10’s for weights for both of them. I’s easier than the T’s here still. As far as the fatigue went, more noticeable on the T style raises. The biggest change to the triple threat was the leg curls. Still lying style with bands but instead of pauses and not pauses, this was tempo style like the Spanish squats this week. I’ve done eccentric style tempo on these but I don’t think I’ve done tempo on concentric. Also for 20 rep sets. I lowered the band tension to make sure I survived these. I was walking like a newborn fawn after getting up from that first set and made the executive decision to increase the rest period between the completion of the set to make sure I didn’t stagger around trying to do the rdls. That was needed as those leg curls were taking about 2 minutes to finish. But I got them done without incident. Sandbag for the last thing. Now I don’t know if the change was made because of the darkness or if this is just the change being done as planned but these weren’t runs today. I was to do the sandbag for timed marches of 20 seconds. Which would be a bit over twice the time it takes me to go from a pick to 50’ run. So doing 4 sets of this would be pretty big increase in the time under tension if not the intensity of movement. I’m not going to put as much forward pressure on my knees/feet marching in place as fast as I can. This change actually was a good call as my luck with training outside in the dark after work was bound to hit a snag and I happened to miss the passing storms that were blowing branches and stuff down. So this was the safe option. Sand it was more fatiguing then I thought it would be. I got a little stich in my right side on the first set. Didn’t happen after that as I knew what to expect. Trying my best have this up high on my person and moving fast and holding tight. Kind of easy to put stuff away when done as well. Dinner, stretching and then clean up for bed.

November 3, 2025 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
32x10
62x8
92x5
122x3
152x2
182x2
212x2
242x2
242x2
242x2
242x2
242x2

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
40’sx8
56’sx6
70’sx4
87’sx8
87’sx8
87’sx8
87’sx8

Alternating + Together Dumbbell Floor Presses
80’sx6(1/1/1)
80’sx6(1/1/1)
80’sx6(1/1/1)
80’sx6(1/1/1)

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Bottoms Up Kettlebell Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats (3-0-3-0 tempo)
20x15/15 – bwx20
20x15/15 – bwx20
20x15/15 – bwx20
20x15/15 – bwx20

Single Arm Dumbbell Rows/Band Seated Leg Extensions (first 10 with 0-1-0-2 tempo)
112x4/4 – mmbx4 (no tempo)
140x12/12 – lbx10+10
140x12/12 – lb+(2)µbx10+10
140x12/12 – abx10+10

Stretching

Comments: One of the few days I schedule off with work is the day after time is adjusted from standard to daylight savings and back. I need more than a day to adjust to the nonsense. And I needed to have a day to decompress a from the in office month. Weight went down a good bit from last weigh-in so close to my lightest I’ve been since I started keeping track of it in late 2023. But I’ve not noticed a strength decrease from pretty much the start of this year. I just stay where I’m comfortable. Finally got in a walk after not really doing so last week. I was kind of hoping that it would help with my right knee feeling better before training. That had me concerned with how it had been feeling. With taking off work, I could workout at a time and not really be rushed with things. Foam rolling to start things off. Lower legs needed it but not nearly as bad as it had been on Saturday. Neck rehab stuff followed and that was good. As was the case last week, I didn’t do the mobility stuff I have been doing. I didn’t really want to put stress on the knees as a little leery and hoping to keep that for the actual workout. I did end up doing double the amount of stretching for my hips and knees and that seemed to be helpful. It was then time to train. Axle again. Out of the rack again and dropping reps but increasing weight. Plan being 5x2 with 240-245lbs. I decided to go with about midway there at 242lbs or 110kgs. I probably could’ve just done 245lbs anyways. But this seemed more odd/fun to me. And that can be a good motivator. I was told to be confident from the start. I didn’t want to have the jitters like last week. So a good thing was my knees weren’t bothering me a lick. But the not great was that lifting during the early afternoon meant sun in my eyes. So needed to wear my polarized lens to not have it so intense. But it did have me not able to see at times. A positive is that I didn’t feel like I wasn’t going to do this and I had power on these. I am grateful that we’ve been working stuff like upper back so that things that may jostle me about don’t sap me so much. Only set that felt off was the fourth set which just felt like lockout took a while for both reps. Held lockout for a beat on the last set. Still long ways from where I want these to be but if I can keep building I can eventually get there. Triceps felt strong. So some changes to the usual stuff here at this point in offseason as into the garage early. Still incline stuff but not log this time. Dumbbells. Plan being 4x8 with something about RPE 8. It isn’t like I’ve not done dumbbell incline pressing recently but it was more a different style with them being pressed together and for time rather than reps before switching to reps. I was still to do neutral grip pressing but aim was more of ROM on these. I’ve mentioned before that if I’m to be going up above 70lbs, I can do two handles with smaller diameter plates. But above that, I do have to use the 25’s to have enough weights. This wasn’t conducive to the close together style but could work with a more normal style of pressing. I had an idea of what I should be able to handle here. Important to get that figured out as time moving between stuff will be a factor when I do this session after work rather than in the early afternoon to start. My shoulders didn’t feel great initially working up but thankfully felt fine when it was time for the working weight. I wore my knee sleeves to pad my legs for the dumbbells resting on them. The collars I use to secure weights are quite harsh and I think that may be where this one bruise on my left quad came from with doing the dumbbell floor presses last week with the plateloaded handles. It would appear that I called these about right. The fatigue as I do the reps does make it tricky to know RIR. The clean to shoulder did get tougher as I went. This was not the end of the dumbbells as I also had those aforementioned alternating floor presses. Same as last with 80’s and doing just 6 reps but increasing the sets to 4. These were a little harder to get into position to start this time around (probably from the heavier dumbbells for incline) but pressing was fine. Didn’t feel like my right shoulder started off as wonky as it has felt with starting these after the other pressing. Not much to say here on these but done with the regular pressing. On to the supersets. A slight change again to the first pairing. Still bottoms up kettlebell for sets of 15 reps with 20lbs but now a fourth set here. The tempo Spanish squats also for four sets but all assisted reps rather than any unassisted. Feeling is this seemed to be the best course of action with the knees and I feel like this is the right call. My form is not great unassisted. I did need to spend some time getting my knees to “open up” and I’m realizing shouldn’t be seen as trying to force the movement but to ease my knees into moving properly and not with discomfort. I think reframing that helped me make the getting ready quicker and less confusing. I also did the kettlebell pressing outside as it was light out and because the weight was light enough to move around and would make the rest between exercises shorter. Right side is easier on these but gap doesn’t feel as wide. Had one rep I had to reset with the left side. I needed the welcome mat for the Spanish squats to keep my feet from slipping. The movement got less rigid and was able to get deeper as I went. My legs were starting to seize up a little by the end of the last set after doing about 8 minutes of tempo squats. Final also had some adjustments. First half still one arm dumbbell rows. Same weight and sets but now 12 reps. Those added reps were going to be tough. The other half was still banded leg extensions but not single leg. Still doing half the reps paused reps. I had to figure out a different setup as I felt what I was doing wasn’t going to really work with setup for both legs going. I found a different setup online and I gave it a shot. It feels way better on my knees compared to what I was doing but still need to troubleshoot it a little with tension as I had to increase the band tension each set. I’m hopeful that my knees will be good for the rest of this week. Not really looking forward to work on Tuesday though. Put stuff away and ate a late lunch before stretching.

November 1, 2025 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
65x6
95x5
125x4
155x3
185x2
215x1
245x5
245x5
245x5
245x5

12” Log Clean and Push Presses
86x5
111x4
136x3
161x2
186x1
211x0 (didn’t attempt press, clean felt off)
211x4
211x4
216x4
221x4

Yoke
200x50’
290x50’
380x50’
470x50’
EMOM
560x50’
560x50’
560x50’
560x50’

ATG Split Squats (20”)/Ab Wheel
bwx10/10 – bwx12
bwx10/10 – bwx12
bwx10/10 – bwx11 (miscounted)

Rower (2 minutes rest)
500m in 1 minutes 45.00 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 48.60 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 47.80 seconds

Stretching

Comments: I could’ve gone for a walk after work Thursday as the storms went through quicker than predictions had. They could’ve had Trick or Treat stay the same date. But I had kind of already committed to the idea of making sure I got stuff done that I had been behind on doing outside of work and aim for recovery with sleep. Friday was much the same as the last day in office before going back to homebase for the next four weeks. It does look like they intend to keep this going beyond this year from the e-mail provided but nothing confirmed if I’m approved for that. There were a lot of strangers in the neighborhood for Halloween stuff so I also felt it wasn’t good idea for a walk after work. I had two encounters with people ringing and pounding on my door that night despite not having lights on or decorations. Never happened in the 9yrs I’ve lived in this house. It was a bit tough to get myself to fall asleep and I stayed up and woke up only 30 minutes past my early wake up time for in office stuff. I figured that was way too early and not enough rest as I was anxious about my right knee being achy. Used restroom and back in bed and zonked out for about another 2hrs. Ok, so now I’ve had enough. I had caught up on the Rogue Invitational the night before and caught the first event of Day 2 before heading out to train. This was going to be an after noon start time for stuff. Drive out wasn’t bad. I was surprised there were still people doing stuff when I got there today. I did help with moving some sandbags around (just on to cart to be put back) and my left hamstring was feeling pretty tight. Foam rolling was really needed on my right calf and once that eventually calmed down, did about the normal amount of stuff for everything else. Neck rehab stuff was fine. I made some adjustments to the movements with my knees, hips, ankles and abs that seemed to be a good change up. Then the stretches for the hips, ankles and knees and dead hang for decompression. I was tempted to put on fans but again, I didn’t want to freeze anyone out. Heel elevated ssb squats to start things off. But adjustment to what I’ve been doing. Similar to how tempo work popped up for the Spanish squats, that was the name of the game here as well. Advised to do 4x5 with 4-0-4-0 tempo. Hope that would feel better with knees. I’ve not done tempo style squats in quite some time so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. The controlled eccentric is one thing, the controlled concentric is were things get tough as no point where I got full power. I figured that what would make the most sense from past experience was lower reps and smaller jumps working up and adjust how I feel on whether I’d be doing really light weight or just light weight here. My right knee was grumpy with things today like it had been with front box squats on Wednesday. Specifically the left side of the knee cap. My potential working weight was 215lbs here if I was not feeling like I could handle the fatigue of the tempo work but my hope had been to do 245lbs here. I felt comfortable enough with 215lbs that I stopped at t single and added 30lbs for 245lbs. First rep I did get a little light headed from the strain on the concentric and had to get my bearings before doing the remaining reps. I did take a longer rest period than I usually do with the squats just to make sure that I was recovered enough as I know that tempo work really takes it out of me recovery wise. A slight tweak in form was to push up on the handles during the lift. I’ve seen both cues used with pulling in/down and pushing up. The idea with the pushing up was to treat as having a log or similar implement in the rack position and be active. Squats are being done for leg drive here for overhead and deadlift in most cases for training. At times, there were reps where this weight felt effortless and comfortable and I felt solid. The controlled concentrics were killers here. It was going to be tricky to gauge some things needing my legs later in the session. Well I guess not much later as pressing was next. Log this time around. It is a good alternative to the circus dumbbell on the opposite weeks I think. I swapped out a fresh shirt with some decals on it for log. Plan was to do 4x4 with 205-215lbs this week after last time. The last session I had been a bit off with my knees aching at the start but seemed to finally get myself feeling ok despite maybe not having the strongest pressing. I’m quite a bit off the mark with log but my hope was that I’d be moving better this time around. At least that was the hope before doing a bunch of tempo squats beforehand. The other thing was trying to change the form up with my lap and clean. Ms. Funk felt I was doing extra movement that didn’t really translate to any benefit with going into such a deep squat position and then rolling up as I was still carrying the log pretty low on my person standing up with it. After that comment, I had to think on why I was doing all that. I came to the realization that it had to do with working around injuries that required me to change up my form from 8-10yrs ago and never really going back. I had pulled my left biceps in prep for 2015 SC Nats and I had to find a way to keep training and not make things worse and this style seemed to be the way to go as not using as much biceps. This ended up being reinforced about 2yrs later when I pulled the right one a bit more severely. The other part of it was the belt I was wearing at the time was thicker and I needed to get the log past that or I was screwed. I don’t have as thick a belt (well not using that thicker belt right now) so the suggestion was to go from a higher position. With the warming up this time, I did 25lbs jumps rather than use the kilogram plates. I’ll likely stick to the lbs here going forward. It felt a bit weird with the clean but fine enough I guess. My knees weren’t killing me immediately this time around and I felt a bit more comfortable with my pressing on the log. Not as many reps warming up. I got to my proposed working weight and my first attempt I didn’t feel great. The clean didn’t feel right and I bailed on attempting the press with how it felt. Like last time, I didn’t freak out but I reset and got my thoughts under control. I figured that I should revert to my old clean style if I wasn’t feeling like the new one was going to cut it. That one didn’t feel great or confidence building. I made a poor decision in choice of shorts for today as they were feeling quite slick so I wasn’t really getting any help in the deep lap here. The press didn’t feel so strong. I spaced out these reps to make sure I wasn’t missing or getting in my head. I decided to do the new style the second rep. It felt like how the first attempt where I just bailed on the press did but I let weight settle for a good bit and then went for the press. While it had felt off to me with the clean, the press was stronger that second rep. Third rep I did the same thing but the log did roll a little in front of me initially on the dip but still went up. Then finally willing myself to get on with it to get the fourth rep in about 75 seconds start to finish. Seeing as how things were going to feel today, I committed to that that. Now I didn’t keep my hands on the log like I had by the end of the session last time as I kind of felt I had to reset reps a bit with the new style of clean and commit to it but I did increase my pace by doing the second set in about half the time of the first. My legs weren’t as impacted as I had thought but I was really nervous and having bad indigestion from said nerves so it was pretty much waiting between sets until I stopped belching that I was got back to pressing. With how the second set went, I decided to add weight. This had kind of been my plan from the start if stuff was feeling good. Just little bit of weight added and lie to myself that it was the same weight as I tend to go better as I go on multiple sets with things like these. So added 5lbs for the third set. First two reps went fine, third rep a little tougher so a slight pause going for the fourth but that went up well enough. So why not add another 5lbs? Just telling myself this is only 211lbs and not 221lbs and I’ve already done 3 sets of it. The 216lbs set had been slightly slower pacing (about 6 seconds slower) than my fast 211lbs set was and if I deduct the time I spent on the last rep with it overhead doing the light march in place for dominance, I’d say it was same time. I’ve never really had many times where working on my reps with log clean and press every rep has been worked on since most times the weight has been such it was a near max or above effort. I’m feeling more comfortable with the press but I am about 50lbs off what my best on this would be. But I’m glad it is feeling comfortable again in some regard after taking so much time away from it. From there it was on to yoke. Dropping 2 sets from the previous week and still sticking to EMOM rests. But adjusted here with the weight. Suggested was 20-30lbs more than last time’s runs. I decided I’d do something different. I’ve been doing 100lbs jumps here and keeping it 25’s on the yoke. But I figured that I needed to use bigger plates as likely what is going to be the case at the show and I need to see how my low clearance runs handle with larger plates potentially clipping the ground. Likely doing plate jumps in warm ups as well. So with doing 90lbs jumps, that meant I had an extra set working up. That was needed as I was definitely not feeling like I could go into top gear right off the bat. I did the first run as a walk at casual pace and then went a little bit faster the next set and then started to try to actually go fast by my last warm up set. So top weight being 35lbs more than last time at 560lbs. The setup with going more push forward didn’t quite feel like it was clicking last time. But it seemed to feel better with this week. If I went by feel, second set felt the best and I would’ve sworn that was my fastest run of the day. Also felt like my first set was really slow and about the same as my last set with fatigue. But that feeling is a lie. Apparently, I actually got faster as I went and the time of my faster and slowest is less than half a second. I’m feeling more comfortable with the slight staggered stance for start on yoke so pleased with that. As I had started training late with getting out to train late, it was getting close to 5pm and that would mean eating dinner late and going to bed even later. Which may be beneficial with tomorrow being the time shift back an hour. But I decided I’d move on to the next thing and put away yoke weights and such when I was done with everything. So from there was the same superset as last week with atg split squat regression and ab wheel. No changes to ab wheel but plan being more reps with the split squats. It was suggested I could adjust the box height if I was feeling good and no pain but to also try and get up on my toes a bit on the forward foot at end of ROM. I did elect to lower the box by 4” and this did seem a little risky considering how the right knee was feeling and how these had felt last time. But it does appear to be a good call. There is definitely a mobility discrepancy between my left and right here. It was a struggle to get any kind of ankle movement in my right side whereas my left side was nice and limber. It could also be the left side hip flexors are tight and fighting me on the right leg forward. Ab wheel felt the best it has so far this training prep. I did apparently miscount the last set by one rep but not a big deal. A slight change with the rowing to finish things up. Instead of just straight rowing a distance for time, I was to do sets. 3 sets of 500m row with 2 minutes rest and keep track of the times for each interval. I was prepared to do it that way with recording on my phone but the machine appeared to have a setup for this specifically. I’m not 100% sure if it gave me the times for each interval or it did an average unfortunately. But trying to go fast each set certainly felt more taxing than rowing the entire time. It wasn’t like I was fully recovering with 2 minutes anyways so it was kind of extending the set with elevated heart rate. Adding up the times would be about 10 seconds faster than my total time last week. Downed my shake and put away the weights before driving home to stretch, catch up on the Rogue Invitational and just decompress.