After an abysmal showing at APF Equipped Nationals, I'm now in an off season mode of training. Currently, I am in a hypertrophy block focusing on quality of movement and time under tension. This will build the foundation for my strength phases to prepare for WPC World's in November.
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After the fun day at Elitefts, it was back to training in the garage. Just another chest and shoulder day, but a very good one fueled with some carbs from Saturday. While my carb consumption was a bit higher than I would have liked, all my nutrition stats were in good shape. Some measurements were already down, weight was down, and the pictures show a VERY minor improvement. From the front, you can't really see much of a difference (matter of fact, I think I actually look to be holding more water - even though weighing less!). I think the biggest difference noticed is the side shot at my waist currently. It's only a week, so I'm surprised to even see anything. I am guessing I will see more of a progress on week 3 of this.
Here are the comparison pics. Week 1 is on the left and Week 2 is on the right for all pics. (And for those of you wondering, this is what I like to see from all my nutrition clients - so I literally practicing what I preach here as well).
As for training...a crazy day of pumps and finally back to some form of bench pressing - albeit the Swiss bar and an incline. My chest and shoulders were destroyed the next day, so the added volume is really starting to kick in. This is a sign that I really need to focus more on my pecs and shoulders in the off season during my strength phase as I'm clearly not getting much activation while training heavy, and increasing this mind muscle connection should help be develop some better strength in the long run. I suspect that this will have some huge dividends come world's.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ZkYgt5wGU]
Items Used in this Training Session
Swiss Bar
Mini Band
Grenades
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) Decline Prone DB Flys
3x15
A2) Decline DB Flys
3x15
A3) Deficit Push Ups
3 sets, max reps
B1) Incline Swiss Bar Bench Press
65x10
135x8
165x5x8-10
C1) DB Bench Press
4x8-10 + drop set on last set
D1) Band Lateral Raises
4x15-20
E1) Band Reverse Pec Dec (with Grenades)
3x25
F1) Cambered Bar Bradford Press
4x10