10 weeks out from the Iron Rebel Classic in San Diego. Training has started to get a little more real, and Paul has me building volume with some decent weight. He’s also decided to come to the meet as well as Tucker so that’ll be cool, always fun to see some of the other guys in person.

I’m really happy with the way my training has been going lately and I have ten times more momentum than I did at the same point getting ready for the last meet. As far as the lifts, I’ve really dialed in my bracing and set up on squats and deadlifts and I’m finishing sessions with way more intensity without feeling anything in my lower back which is somewhat normal for me. Last prep my protein staple was chicken with steak a few times a week. This time I’m doing mostly grass fed 90/10 ground beef and that seems to have made a huge difference in the way I feel, I’m also not hungry as frequently. I also had almost zero cheat food last prep which I think was a mistake, I got too lean and my strength suffered from it. This time I’m having a couple cheeseburgers and a pizza almost every week, my weight is in check and I feel way stronger.

Another massive revelation was I figured out that taking my allergy medication at night was preventing my brain from entering into deep sleep from a podcast I was listening to (apparently this is common knowledge now that I’m telling people).  Right around the time I got sober and started training again just under two years ago, I developed allergies for the first time in my life and started taking Zyrtec every night before bed never thinking much of it. I also felt constantly tired and like shit for the last year. My bloodwork was perfect, my set was on, I was in better shape than I’d been in years and I constantly had to nap and was almost always trying to find time to sleep more. My schedule is pretty full on so it literally got to the point where I was starting to think I just wasn’t genetically cut out to train competitively and work a full schedule. It’s been two weeks since I started taking my medication in the morning and I feel like a different person. I have way more energy throughout the day and weights that were kicking my ass two months ago feel light. I’m on track to best my total by a decent amount just on better sleep I think. This reinforces what I always tell people, the outside stuff is almost more important than the training itself. And to reinforce the importance of sleep, on deadlifts this week I went into the workout on 5 hours sleep and pretty tired. I PR’d my deficit but not before I almost blacked out and fell backwards.

Squats

Comp Squat 70% (445) 3×5

Paused SSB 70% Sleeved (385) 3×5

Banded Hack Squat 10×10 60s Rest

SA Bulgarians 3×12

Slow Eccentric GHR 3×10

Ab Wheel 4×12

Warm Up

Big 3

PRI  Left Reach

Couch Stretch

Pigeon Stretch

Hurdle Step

Walking Lunges

Gastroc PNF