I competed in NPC Junior Nationals on June 12-13. I came in with a much bigger and leaner package than years past. Moving into the off season I will be working on my raw strength and putting on size in my upper body. Competition plans are still to be determined with the possibility of some powerlifting in the late fall. I will continue to work with Amit Sapir on my off-season dieting, gradually increasing food and working to put on some good muscle. Scott Paltos will be doing my training, reworking some strength work in with some volume work for the added muscle during the rebound dieting phase.
This past week has been a rough one... on a few different fronts. Training is always a constant and usually an outlet for me as well. I've been talking a lot about stress lately and I don't mean to be vague, but I've learned that there are only a few people in my life that I can share my story with. Those that give support, unconditional love and strength. Those people are hard to find in life. Many say they will be there, but in the end aren't.
I read something the other day about a 6 year old girl on a paddle boat with her mom. They were feeding stale bread to the ducks, paddling slowly, sitting in the sun. The young girl stopped paddling, tipped her head back, piece of bread in hand and closed her eyes. After a minute her mother looked over and got worried.
"Are you ok, sweetie?"
"Yeah, mom, I'm just creating a picture memory."
"What's that?"
"Oh, a picture memory is a picture I take in my mind when I'm really really happy. I close my eyes and take a picture, so when I'm feeling sad or scared or lonely, I can look at my picture memories."
Life brings a lot of stress and hecticness. For myself, I have learned to stop and take more of those picture memories. Pause the world around me and take in the details. The moments are not grandiose moments... no trophies or championships. No exotic places. Nothing fancy. Usually just a moment in which complete peace and joy rushes over me. And so I stop and take in every small detail. I don't know about you, but I can use more of that in my life.
Enough sappy... on to training. Here is a full week. Back usually gets hit twice a week. Shoulders too. Squat and bench work are coming along REALLY well. Scott has been tweaking a few things here and there and we had some big technical break thrus this week on both. Things are clicking well. Lat tightness in the squat (withOUT over arching) and foot position and leg drive in the bench (completely different than what I'm used to in a bench shirt). I have about 4 or 5 things on each that need to be worked on and while I may not be able to change them all at once, I can do like 2 at a time now. Haha.
SUNDAY - Squats and legs
A. Narrow stance high bar squats to just above parallel - 5x7
(worked up to 225)
B. Stiff leg snatch grip deads - 4x8
(worked up to 205)
C1. Leg press close foot stance - 4x50-40-30-20 (Scott said focus on blood flow... yeah, no worries, dude.)
C2. Quad stretch - 4x30 secs each
D1. Leg extensions single leg - 3xpump
D2. Quad stretch 3x20 sec each
E. Lying hamstring - 4x12
F. Piston air squats 60 secs on 2mins off x3 rounds
MONDAY - Back and Bis
A. Bent over Rows from ground 5x15-12-10-8-8
B. Single arm DB rows - 4x15ea
C1. Pull-ups 5x3 weighted
C2. Pull-ups 5x3 as fast as possible!!
(Gotta work on the FAST part, haha)
D. Straight bar stiff arm pulldowns - 4x12-12-10-20
E. Seated Rows - 3x15 with stretches mixed in
F. Ez bar standing curls - 4x10
G. Concentration curls - 3x12
H. Rope curls - 2x12
WEDNESDAY - Bench and Shoulders
A. Bench press - 5x3
(2 sets @ 165, 3 sets @ 170)
B. Close grip floor press - 4x10 @ 125
C. Seated Laterals 3 position - 4x8-12
D. Plate loaded shoulder press - 5x15-12-10-12-15
E1. Cable laterals - 4x12
E2. Cable rear delt - 4x12
F. DB seated cleans -3x20
G. Push-ups- Super wide/wide/shoulder/close
10's, 8's, and fail
I was extremely happy with today's session. To hit good FAST sets at 170 for triples is solid for me. We are slowly building and leg drive is coming along. Right trap/shoulder still gets a little funky sometimes but it is 10x better. Hips are mostly staying down and lats are staying engaged. Foot placement is just about set too (we've been playing with exactly where I need to be). Walked away from today feeling really confident about my bench and where it's headed. Especially considering some personal things going down. So now I know, as long as I can stay focused, I can have a solid session... stay focused on the good and what's going right, I can overcome a lot. 🙂
THURSDAY - Squats, Rack pulls and legs
A. Squats 8x3 @~60%
(2@165, 2@175, 2@185, 2@200)
All felt good, nothing heavy and speed was there.
B. Rack pulls mid shin - 6x6 @ 265
C1. Leg press -4x15 close stance
C2. Banded hamstrings -4x30 secs
D. Deficit Reverse Lunges - 4x8ea
E. Leg extensions - 3x15 with tempo'ed reps mixed in
F. Single leg hamstring curl - 3x15-12-20
G. Abs 10mins
This leg day was GREAT! Felt really good about where I'm at technically. Remember that raw squatting is very different than geared squatting. Even when I lifted in gear, my raw squats were done like I was in gear. So lots of incorrect motor patterns and weaknesses. Light loads allowed me to fix what I need to work on but still push the weight with some speed. Rack pulls felt good too. Getting lats more engaged.
FRIDAY - Back and Bi's
A1. Lat pull downs - 2x20
A2. DB pullovers - 2x12
B. Chin-ups with hold at top - 6x2 minimal rest
C. Seated Plate loaded row, Single arm - 3x12 then 4th set rest pause
D. Lat pulldowns - 3x10 4th set rest pause
E. Cable single arm row - 2x12 with tempos mixed in
F. DB rack attack curls, 1 set
G. Preacher close grips curls - 3x12-15
SATURDAY - Shoulders!
A. Seated around the worlds - 2x15
B. Standing shoulder press - 4x15-12-10-8
(Worked up to 45's)
C1. Plate Bus drivers -4x20 turns
C2. Standing single arm lateral raise - 4x8
C3. Reverse incline rear raises - 4x12
D. Double impact cable shrugs - 4x15
E. Reverse pec deck - 2x25
F. Rope pushdowns - 3x20