Disclosure: I am currently trained by Swede Burns and my program is tailored to my needs, in fact the only thing that has really changed over the years is the weights i'm using! He is compensated fully for his services, usually I cook and clean and do things he's too busy for, but don't worry some of these are billable services.

I do and always have ascribed to the 5thSet Methodology. I only train 3 days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 5thSet runs on a 4 session microcycle over the course of 9 days, so every week is different. I have officially started my meet prep. I'm currently in prep for Boss of Bosses 2 on August 20, 2016 and it will be my first meet competing at 165.
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Why the title, New Adventures?  Hm.  A number of reasons, actually. Let's start with the first, which I'm most excited about, of course.  I think I've made it quite clear for a while now that I have been working with Jenn "Streaky" Yates for my nutrition over the past couple of months.  I've talked a lot about diet and all of the progress I have made with my relationship with food.  So, I have decided that it is time for me to fly from the nest.  I'm ready.  I'm extremely grateful for the friendship I've formed with her.  She continues to be a main support in my life, and a really giant part of shaping me into the person I want to be.  She's just an amazing person, and if you ever have the pleasure of working with her, you will see for yourself.

Where I'm really at with food...

I got back from Columbus late Sunday night and I just kept telling myself "okay, just gotta make it through Monday and then I can meal prep and start back on my plan."  Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went, a package of Reese's eggs came and went, lol.  The point is, I was kind of just feeling lost and with no guidance and wanting to switch things up a little bit.  Then it occurred to me that I can do this.  I have learned the tools to be able to do this for myself.  It also occurred to me that I was in what I like to call "pre-diet mode", you know, that time where you stuff your face with all of the foods before you start this diet, because god forbid if you can't eat like garbage every day.  Everything that I preach about not doing, I was doing.  I'm happy to say I'm out of the binging stage, FINALLY.  I'm now in a place where I'm just making smart/healthy choices and being mindful of what I put in my mouth.  I'm holding steady at 183, and it seems that's where my body is happy.  In the past I would just keep telling myself "you're not ready to go back on your diet."  I can't lie, I've had a couple of outside sources get on me about it, and that's fine.  In the end, though, I don't have to validate my diet/journey with food to anyone.  I'm ready when I'm ready.  I'm not going to let other people and their opinions cause me to become resistant towards dieting, nor push me into my diet plan when I'm simply not ready.  I realized when I picked a day to start, it just went downhill and I would be in denial or cheat and then say, well, I'll try again tomorrow.  Nope.  I'm ready, now.  It's literally just a matter of prepping the food, which I will get around to either tonight or tomorrow.

Anyway, I spent Wednesday evening working up my own diet plan, which is a little bit of Streaky, a little bit of Tarra, and a little bit of Swede all mixed into one.  It has the things I like and have learned help keep me satisfied, it has foods that I've had while on Streaky's Plan, and lastly, it has the macros/calories that Swede and I collaboratively decided would be best to start with. I'm proud of this, and I built this, according to me, for me.  It's freeing, really.  I'm making all of these changes in my life to be more independent, and it is seriously the most freeing thing.  It's so important to recognize when you need help and when you are ready to go off on your own.  Don't be afraid to venture off and do your own thing, you can always come back if you get lost or fall off.  I feel like that's where I'm at with a lot of things in my life.  I'm grateful I have such an amazing support system to be able to venture off, and come back if I ever feel like I'm struggling with something.  It's just going to help shape me into the person I want to be.

Now onto training & the other adventure...

So, last night started my new mesocycle, which I'm really excited about.  I started off with bench, which I took 75% of my training max, in order to calculate my weight for my working sets.  This ended up being around 190.  I actually don't think I've started with a number this low for my training cycle in about a year, so I was a little skeptical/feelin some type of way.  NEVERTHELESS, I totally killed it.  I did 4 sets of 3 and then an AMRAP of 15. Yes, 15 reps, with what is actually 195 (50lb bar).  I was really pleased with this.

Saturday night I will be training squats.  I call this an adventure because well, for me, it is.  I'm very excited about it.  Usually I will switch between box squats and squats w/ wraps for training.  This time, however, I asked Swede if I could focus on my raw squat without the box.  This is an area I've been wanting to work on for quite a long time, to be honest.  When I train in wraps I warm up to 275 for 1-3 reps (just depends what I'm feeling like that day honestly) then, usually my sets are anywhere from 315+, so I'll go into that. My point is, very rarely do I go over 275 without wraps.  Even when I train box squats I stay around 285-310.  I think it's also safe to say squats are an area I can still show much improvement in, in regards to numbers.  My 420-435 squat certainly is not something I should be ashamed of, but I think Swede would agree 450+ is necessary for the goals we have in mind.  Yay for gains and new PR's and being super uncomfortable (I hate being in the hole with heavy weights, with no support for my knees.)

And now my training from Thursday:

Bench: barx2x8, 65x5, 95x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 195x4x3 & 195x15

Pause Press: 175x3x5 (5 second holds 1 inch off of chest)

Side Raise: 10x10 & 15x10

Rear Raise: 10x12 & 15x12

All done 🙂