I’m currently in meet prep for the 2015 IPA Grand Prix Nationals at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on October 24th, in Columbus, Ohio. I will be competing at 132 pounds, raw with knee wraps.

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Sunday was my first day on bench pressing for the meet. Just like with my squat and deadlift, things were a bit lighter in terms of weight, but overall volume we moderately high. I pushed it a little bit on my close grip work with the foam board. I was stuck in terms of a programming standpoint whether I wanted to run with a 1 or 2 board, but went with the foam board so I could get the benefit of the 1 board, but have a little bit of assistance and really work on the lock out (so a bit of a hybrid between the two). It ended up working out pretty well. I did better than my 1 board PR with this weight, so that's a good sign considering I'm looking at around 300 pounds at lock out with a close grip. I continued to hammer my triceps with the JM Press and pressdowns, and then followed things up with a little shoulder and pec work. During the course of prep, majority of my back work will fall on my speed/rep day, so I can really hammer it. I've just found that in terms of recovery for the meet, this has worked much better. This day is all about the press, and I've realized that hammering my triceps is what really keeps things moving along.

As I mentioned in the video, I wore my heart rate monitor for this day to track my caloric expendature. I'm going to have a separate write up on my nutrition progress later in the week, but I just wanted to see where things were. I have been on a good track, so I'm excited to report these findings in the next coming days.

Another good first step for week 1!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJTtXUUyV6c]

Items Used in this Training Session
Chains
EZ Loaders
Mini Band

Warm Up
DB Bench Press - 55's x3x15
Mini Band Face Pulls - 4x25
Overhead Band Side Bends - 3x15/side

A1) Bench Press
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x4
205x3
225x2
255x2x4
270x4x3

B1) Close Grip Foam Board vs 2 Chains/Side
185x5
225x5
245x4

C1) JM Press
165x10
185x10
205x8

D1) Cable Pressdowns
50 total reps

E1) DB Lateral Raises
2x20
E2) Cable Face Pulls
3x20

F1) DB Flys
50 total reps