It’s that time again. After a much needed off season, I am now in prep for a meet January 27^th in Newark, NJ. The off season gave me a chance to hit my weak points and rebuild my raw strength, which had taken a fall after being in gear for about a year straight without a proper off season. This past week marked 10 weeks out. It is an equipped only meet run by Mike Skiba, and there should be plenty of guys there to have some fun with. It will be broken down into 2 weight classes, Lightweight (220lbs and under) and Heavyweight (242+) for some prize money set aside by each of the lifters on top of our entry fee. This made it easy for me to just plan on lifting at 220 without a weight cut, which helps when traveling for meets. The only downfall here is that none of my new equipment fits at the moment, so I’ll have to tighten up my very relaxed diet if I want to be able to fit in my briefs or new SDP at all.

Monday Deadlift Day

This first week called for 70% for 3 top sets of triples. After finding out my new briefs weren’t going to be fitting anytime soon and that my old ones would be too tight for deadlifts, I opted to use the Leviathan Ultra Pro by itself. It worked out well, is a great suit to pull in, and think it is going to benefit me during this prep.

135×10

225×5

315×3

405×1 (Suit on)

495×1

Top Sets : 505x3x3

Friday Squat and Bench Day

Although the oldest pair of double ply briefs I own will fit, I opted to use only my white Leviathan for squats. I’m pretty sure that the suit wouldn’t fit over a pair of briefs at this bodyweight, so I ran with it. It seems like it is going to work out in my favor right now. Using a suit only, I am able to sit back a lot better than usual and still get a lot of stopping power in the hole.

Empty Bar x 20

145×5

235×3

325×1

415×1

505×1 (Suit on)

595x3x3

Bench

Empty Bar x 20

135×10

185×5

225×3

275×1

315×1

365×1 (Shirt On)

405x3x3 to a 3 board

By this time I had been in the gym for about 3 hours so I hit a few light tricep pump exercises and got on my way. Next week should be a fun week for training. I’ll be visiting home back in Ohio and have plans to get my squats and benches in at Old School Iron in Brook Park, OH. Check back next week for an updated log from Ohio.