December proved to be an amazing meet for me! I hit my first 800+ lb. total, and went 9/9. My goal now is to beat my previous numbers by a 5-10% increase, and out-perform my last meet in every area. I am prepping for the XPC Finals in Columbus, OH. following the Minimalist/M2 Method by Brian Schwab. Brian has been my coach for just over a year now. The following logs are documenting my progress utilizing his training methods.
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As I have mentioned in previous competition preps...if it doesn't feel horrible and heavy at 5 weeks out from a meet, I'm probably doing something wrong!
The last two weeks have definitely been challenging for me mentally, as the time leading up to meets usually is. It's around this point where everything really starts to feel heavier than usual, and it's also where I (unfortunately) miss lifts in training.
My endurance tends to be very high especially when it comes to benching, but my CNS just seems to fry out with the intensity of my workouts and the duration of the training cycle. My squat sessions thankfully usually go according to plan, but I can never say the same thing about my bench and deadlift. But as long as I am strong on the platform, I try not to concern myself too much with what I am hitting in the gym. All you can do is your best, and not beat yourself up for the days where you don't do so hot.
That being said though, I may need to adjust things a little bit following the XPC Finals so that I don't burn out quite so quickly leading up to a meet. How I perform at this competition will largely determine what needs to be altered (if anything). Maybe I will just have to accept feeling junky at the 5-week mark? Who knows!
BENCH:
barx15
75x5
95x3
115x1
130x1
140x3 (My left shoulder did something really weird after the 3rd rep and gave out on the way down with my 4th. I dropped my percentage right away and just focused on getting a little bit of volume in since I didn't want to push it this close to a meet)
115x12 (Remember what I said about my endurance being better than my max effort? Um. Yeah.)
DB Floor Press:
50's x 6 (x2)
DB Shoulder Press:
15's x 15
20's x 15
DB Tricep Press:
30's x 10
35's x 8
+ Lots of push-ups and stretching.