After coming off my best meet performance of my career, I am now taking some time to focus on competing in bodybuilding over the spring of 2017. My nutrition coaching is through Cliff Wilson, and I have not yet determined the shows I'm competing in at this time.

For programming and coaching inquires, please email SmitleyPerformanceSystems@gmail.com or visit brandonsmitley.com

After a busy Saturday of coaching my training partners at the RPS Strength Haven meet, Sunday called for me to begin to get back into the swing of things. I still wanted to bench press, but opted to keep things at a top set of 10 to limit intensity and to begin to build some volume. I also had no interest in using a straight bar yet, but hopefully next week I'll have a little more interest in it. Essentially this is going to be a max effort day for benching, and blasting the triceps away. I wouldn't really say there is much true chest work involved, as that's saved for Wednesdays. Regardless, it was a pretty solid day's training nonetheless.

I'm also incredibly proud of my training partners Demetrius and Taylor. The competed in their first meets, and both walked away with some PR's.

Taylor went 9/9 hitting all-time bests on all his lifts, going 474/270/451 @ 148.

Demetrius went 7/9 hitting an all-time best on deadlift, going 585/424/617 as a super light 308 (think he weighted in at 280).

CJ who has also been training with us on Saturday's (driving down from Indy mind you), put up some big numbers in sleeves only. He was just shy of a 750 squat and 755 deadlift @ 275, falling backwards with the pull and just stalling out at the top on his squat. This meet was just a "training day" for him, as he's already qualified for XPC's. I'm hoping in the mean time I can help him finish that huge pull and bring his bench up.

It's been a great couple weeks, but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things for a bit before Turkey Day hits.

Items Used in this Training Session
Swiss Bar
EZ Loaders
Chains
Spud Ab Strap

Warm Up
Cats & Camels - 10
Quadraped T-Spine Ext - 10 each
Band Dislocations - 10
Alternating Band Dislocations - 10 each
Band Pressdowns - 15
Band Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns - 15
Band Face Pulls - 15
Single Arm Band Fly - 15 each
Band Rows - 15
Band Curls - 15

A1) Swiss Bar Bench Press vs 2 Chains Per Side
sets of 10 up to 185x10
175x2x10

B1) Close Grip Swiss Bar Bench Press
185x12
175x2x12

C1) Swiss Bar Skull Crushers vs 2 Chains Per Side
3x10

D1) Cross Body Tricep Extensions
3x15

E1) Spud Strap Cable Pressdowns
100 total reps

F1) Reverse Hyper Face Pulls
4x25
*This was a really interesting contraction....going to have to remember this one*

G1) 1/2 TGU
3x8 per side