I'm currently in a off season style of training, trying to bring up weak points and improve body composition for the duration of the summer. At the end of summer I will reevaluate where I stand, and decide whether I would like to compete in the late fall, or wait until the XPC Finals in March of 2016.

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Saturday I traveled over to Elitefts to get in my first day back to some off season powerlifting training. I had orginially planned to train in the garage with the crew, but due to Memorial weekend, many of my guys were out of town. I didn't really have any plans, so I drove over to Elitefts so I could still train rather heavy, and also catch up with some people. It was great to see Bruce, Sheri, Ken, John Meadows, Ted, Molly, and many others. It was also great to meet Steve Diel for the first time. It was a long day, but well worth the trip.

I had originally planned to use the Yoke Bar, but considering I was at Elitefts I went with the Spider Bar. This bar is a monster, and it will humble you very quickly. It challenges the stability and forces you to stay tight, but the SSB aspect of it also shoves you forward. These are things I can always improve upon, and I think this bar showed me I have some work to do in that department. Needless to say, I know what my next investment will be. But at the end of the day, coming in and hitting 440 for a triple with that bar after no real heavy squatting for what seems like a month, makes me pleased to see where I can take my squat strength over the course of the summer.

Speaking of which, here is what I am planning to get from this summer of off season work:

  • Improve body composition - Before this training block, I got my body fat tested with the Bod Pod. I'm happy with where I am, but man I have some improving to do. I can tell that me going 148 and focusing time to develop my bench for the bench only meet got to me. I was much less restrictive with my food choices for that meet than I normally am, and my body composition verified that. I have already devised my plan of attack nutritionally, and here is loosely what it looks like:
  • Off Days
    • 2000 calories
    • Fat - 110 grams
    • Carbs - 50 grams or less (from trace sources only)
    • Protein - 200 grams
  • Moderate Training Days (3 days per week)
    • 2200 calories
    • Fat - 100 grams
    • Carbs - 150 grams
    • Protein - 175 grams
  • Hard Training Days/Refeed (1 day per week)
    • 2400 calories
    • Fat - 66 grams
    • Carbs - 300 grams
    • Protein - 150 grams

A photo posted by Brandon Smitley (@bsmitley) on

  • Improve GPP and conditioning - I will be doing much more walking, sled work, metabolic conditioning, and Prowler work over the summer. This kind of goes in hand with me working on my nutrition, but this work will be done on off days only, and kept rather light. I certainly am not out of shape, but I think I am not in as good as shape as I need or would like to be. My resting heart rate and blood pressure are excellent, but many days during training I felt like I was getting winded easier than normal. Right now I am planning on walking twice a week (about 30-40 minutes, on Monday's and Fridays) to just promote better recovery and get in some good movement. Then on Wednesdays if the weather is nice enough I will do about 20-30 minutes of various sled work. This works great as it's still 72 hours away from my heavier lower body work. If the weather is not making this possible, I will just either do more walking on the treadmill or some type of very light circuit. Again, this is nothing too crazy, it's just stuff that I've been slacking on.
  • For each lift, my emphasis will be as follows:
    • Squat - Upper back without a doubt. My leg strength is there, but my upper back folds way too easily. This has always been a problem, and could just be part of my mechanics. It's gotten better, but still a point of emphasis.
    • Bench Press - I'm going to keep hammering my triceps like I did in the bench only meet. This worked well for me, and I'm going to keep up on that. The extra back work for my squat should also translate well here, as well.
    • Deadlift - I'm going to keep at my grip work. I kind of let that slip a little bit for the bench only meet, but that will be back into full swing. I will also be working on building my hips up while slowly widening my stance. On my speed days you will likely see the biggest difference in my stance for now, and once my hips get used to that, I will slowly add this to my heavier work.

That pretty much wraps up my plan of attack for the summer. After this I will see how I have done by reassessing everything. I'm making some better changes that I think will pay off greatly for me in the long run. If I decide to do a meet in the fall, I'll at least know that this off season was by far the best one from a planning standpoint. I'm tracking my weight, calories/macros, and making sure I'm doing the little things much more than normal. But I will certainly make sure I am going to enjoy the summer, and time with friends and family.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av40gqlHyM0]

Items Used in this Training Session
Rackable Cambered Spider Bar
Spud Squat Belt
Spud Ab Strap (short)

Warm Up
Reverse Hyper - 210x3x20

A1) Spider Bar Squats
80x10
130x5
170x5
220x3
260x3
310x3
350x3
380x3
410x3
440x3
375x6
330x10

B1) Spider Bar Pause Squats (beltless)
220x10
240x10
260x10

C1) Wide Stance Belt Squats
Multiple sets of 15 ramping up to...
3x15

D1) Close Stance Hack Squat
3x20

E1) Leg Extensions
60 reps in as little time as possible
E2) Seated Leg Curls
60 reps in as little time as possible

F1) Chest Supported Row Shrug
2x20
F2) Seated Cable Crunches
4x12