After finally getting an off season training cycle in, I am now in meet prep for WPC World's where I will be competing raw with knee wraps in the 132 pound weight class in Baton Rouge, LA on November 7th, 2016. My goal is to earn my first world championship.

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

Saturday morning I got up at the crack of dawn to make the travels over to EliteFTS for the Wendler UGSS Seminar. This seminar was awesome, and it was a very cool format. I really got to give some love to Joe and Alycia for putting together a great event. It was great to catch up with all my teammates and also some of the attendees that I had known from previous ones and other events.

I jumped into training as planned with what I had for the day, but as with any time I'm at EliteFTS for these seminars, I deviate a bit and go off the hook. Turns out I ended up taking 430 for a set of 4 (two more than I was supposed to), and then got in the knee wraps to have a little lovin' from Mario. I got up to a pretty easy 510 and shut it down there. I was already 80 pounds heavier than I was supposed to be that day, so I figured it was the smart call. I felt good for so much more, but just knew that the following weekend I would be back in the wraps again, so it wasn't really worth it to go heavier. Now had I been in an off season, I think I would have tried to creep this up to 550 or so. My squat felt better than it had in a LONG time, so this has me very excited for world's and shows my squat training is on a great path thus far.

After all the training (which was really short on accessory work), I had Dani give my left hip a look. It turns out my pelvis is really messed up, and my left obliques are just a weak pile of crap. She showed me three breathing correctives that I need to start implementing to help with this, and they helped immediately that day. I may end up making a minor video of what I'm doing and why, but we'll see how my time goes with being able to try to cram that in. But the gist is, that she doesn't want me spending all day doing this stuff, just the bare minimum that she thinks is going to help me, and then make a better effort as I have the time after the meet. But if these three things help fix me up a bit, and I keep going to my chiro and get a little bit of soft tissue work I should be in a much better place than I have been. I believe this issue is what caused my low back to be a little bitch before the Arnold, so to be at the root of the problem finally is a good feeling. But for now, keep pressing forward and doing what Dani says, I think I'll be in a good spot.

It was an awesome weekend, and unfortunately I had to drive back that evening to get home, but I'm very thankful for the opportunity to give back via EliteFTS and all the attendees. If we managed to catch up and chat, thanks so much for coming to talk and introduce yourself, I really appreciate it!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OjQZteJ9nk]

Items Used in this Training Session
Mastodon Squat Bar
Mystical Knee Wraps

Warm Up
Hip Flexor Stretch - 30 sec per leg
Leg Swings (forward and side to side) - 10 each
Single Leg RDL - 10 per leg
Bulgarian Split Squat - 10 per leg
Goblet Squat - 10
Standing Band Crunch - 15

A1) Squat
60x10
150x5
240x3
290x2
330x1
380x1
410x3
440x2
440x4
480x1 - add Mystical Knee Wraps
510x1

B1) Pit Shark Belt Squats
5x15

C1) True Squat
4x12

PRI Oblique Stuff with Dani 🙂