I’m currently in meet prep for the 2016 XPC Finals at the Arnold Sports Festival on March 5th, in Columbus, Ohio. I will be competing at 132 pounds, raw with knee wraps.

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

Sunday was a bit of a feeler in terms of training. Based upon the low back injury, my goal for this session switched to finding out how bench pressing would make me feel. Luckily, I have no issue getting into an arch to bench, but I wanted to still bench flat footed to give my back some rest and make sure that I would still be able to bench press at the meet this way, if I need it. The good news, I have no issue with this style of bench pressing.

On the rehab front, I continued with the good ole ice, and only one stim session. Dave recommended that I hold off on pushing this until Monday, so that's what I'm going to do. Therefore, I worked more on the active front of doing my odds and ends exercises after the main bench work was done.

As an update, I'm back to a pain of 5/10, which is drastically better than Sunday. Basically my low back just feels super tight. My training partner, Trey, helped me with some leg distraction, and this got me to have a HUGE SI joint pop, which felt amazing, and immediately caused my erectors to relax much more. So I think all things considered, I'm on a very good road thus far. I just got to stay on top of it.

My training schedule will be a bit mixed up this week to allow for the recovery that I need, so we'll just be playing thing by ear. Looking forward to what the chiropractor has to say on Monday morning.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRH3CO0yiok]

Items Used in this Training Session
Mini Bands

Warm Up
DB Bench Press - 2x15
Band Face Pulls - 2x20
Band Pressdowns - 2x20
Band Curls - 2x15

A1) Bench Press
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
275x1
300x1
320x1 - add reverse mini bands

B1) JM Press
45x10
95x10
115x4x10

C1) Decline DB Skull Crushers
4x10

D1) Band Pressdowns
5x20

E1) Band Pull Aparts
300 total reps

F1) Standing Band Oblique Rotations
5x25 per side

REHAB

3, 30 min ice sessions
60 min stim session
Reverse Hyper Toe Pushes - 3x20
BW RDL - 3x20
PRI Breathing Drills - 90/90 Hip Lift, Left Internal Rotation, Right External Rotation
Partner Assisted Leg Distraction