For my last meet in June, I barely trained more then 2 days per week, since I was coming off a 6 month layoff from all lower body work. I had a surprisingly good meet, but I knew I needed to start ramping my volume up in order to get back to pro-level competition.
Since I'm now starting to get ready for a November meet, I'm trying to consistently get 4 real training days per week in. Sunday and Monday are my two main days where I will use gear (when my programming calls for it) and I am adding an additional two days where I will always be raw, and use more of a rep-based scheme.
I don't have anything set in stone yet, and am going primarily by feel, to avoid letting my back flare up again.
Thursday was a squat day and I did it at the local commercial gym because I can leave my kid at childcare and train in the middle of the day.
Last week I worked up to 3 sets of 5 at 365. the weight was easy but my conditioning is off-the-charts bad. This week, I went up to 365 for 1 set of 5, followed by 2 more at 385. Once again, weight was easy, but the reps kicked my ass real bad. next time, i will do a set at 365, a set at 385 and one at 405. I'm probably good for about 50lbs more for 5, but I'm taking it slow, especially with the crappy commercial gym equipment I'm using.
As my conditioning improves, I will also start doing all three main sets with the top weight, but my current plan is good for now just to get used to the increased volume.
Did some back extensions and band pulldown abs to finish up.
Friday was a raw bench day. For this session, I usually change the exercise each week, because I train along with my strength class, and will do whatever they're doing for the day (they're on a conjugate program and will change exercises weekly).
This time it was floor press with one chain, and I worked up to 3 sets of 5 at 255. Again, not a ton of weight, but i'm just trying to get the volume up before I really push anything.
Did 4 sets of 12 fat-guy pull-ups on the rings and that was all.
I especially want to use these days to help get my bodyweight up (along with eating like a fat kid at a state fair). I did my last meet in the 220 class but I didn't need to cut to make it. For this next one, I'd like to get to around 230-235 and cut to 220.
So far, so good!