9 weeks out from the Iron Rebel Classic in San Diego, CA. This week squat and dead are steadily climbing, bench not so much. In my experience, and observing clients, when you’re in a strong training groove and take a sudden extended break, shit starts to hurt. My bench was the strongest it had ever been in September, I was hitting 365 for multiple sets of 5 easily, where my last meet I opened with  363. I took time off in October both planned and then I got sick and attended SWIS, and I wasn’t diligent about mobility or accessory work and when I started back my left shoulder was all screwy again.

With the help of PT Locatelli Rao, we figured out my left scapular stabilizers are weak, and I just really don’t have great control of them, this is partially due to my left ribcage flair which we are using correctives from PRI to restore ribcage symmetry. The first vide is the main corrective I’m using at the beginning of each session, the goal is basically to use breath work to expand the right upper rear of the ribcage and pull the left side in using the left oblique, I typically have to do several sets of this to get a decent contraction in my left lat. Last Friday I came down on a rep and my lat wasn’t ‘on’ enough and the jarring it caused in my shoulder made a lot of the supporting muscles spasm, and I’m pretty sure I made some good contact on a rotator tendon because I have tenderness no matter what that is slowly subsiding each day. Luckily we have a small taper for bench press the next two weeks before we ramp up and I feel that if I stay on top of it I should be able to salvage it in that time.

As far as squats and leads, these couldn’t be going any better, the weights are moving so well I’m tempted to increase my projected max but we all know that’s a terrible idea. If I can time the peak well, I should be able to surpass the goal by a fair bit, my legs and core have never felt stronger, and as I’ve mentioned the low back stress I used to always get training deals is gone for the first time in my life. Either way I’m just trying to have fun with this meet, I feel like I took the last one too seriously and it burned me out. You can see in the video how much I struggled with the bench, I had to over tuck just to keep it from hurting and this set ultimately made it spasm more.

Bench

Bench 80% AMRAP (315 for 8)

CG Spoto Bench 80% AMRAP (295 for 10)

DB OH Press 3×20

Dips 3×12

Pressdowns 4×25

UH Band Pull Aparts 100

Stir Pot 200

Squats

Comp Squat Wrapped 75% 3×5 (475)

Paused SSB 75% sleeved 3×5 (405)

Hack Squats 10×10 Banded

Single Arm Bulgarians 3×12

Slow ECC GHR 3×12

Ab Wheel 4×12

Deadlifts 

Paused Deadlift 1×24 e30s (455)

Snatch Grip RDL 5×6 (395)

Barbell Row 4×6

Facepull 4×25

One Arm Suitcase Hold 5min