Currently I am finishing up a 10 week off season in preparation for a meet at the end of January. This being the last week of off season work, the plan was to try and hit a raw PR on all three lifts. I think the extra work and focus on raw training proved to be worthwhile, as I hit PR’s on both raw squats and deadlifts. This will carry over well into my next 10 weeks of precontest training for the upcoming meet.

Monday Deadlift Day

Birddogs, Rolling Planks, McGill Curl Ups

Dynamic Frog w/internal rotation warm up

135×5

225×5

315×3

405×2

495×1

Top Sets: 585×1, 635×1

Honestly I wasn’t really feeling like I could hit any kind of PR on deadlifts that day. It all felt heavy and out of place. I threw 635 on and figured if I miss it, I miss it and oh well. Things came together and the pull worked out in my favor.

Thursday Squat Day

Birddogs, Rolling Planks, McGill Curl Ups

Dynamic Frog w/internal rotation warm up

Empty Bar x 20

145×10

235×5

325×3

415×1

505×1`

Top Sets : 575×1, 625×1, 640×1

Squat day went much better than I had anticipated. The goal for the end of the off season was to hit about 625 in wraps. 625 moved very easy and I wanted to push a little harder, so I threw 640 on the bar. Again, 640 moved pretty fast for never having tried it before. There were a few technical breakdowns that happened but all in all it was a good lift and I was happy to be walking out of there with that done.

Saturday Bench Day

McGill Big 3

Banded shoulder warmups

Empty Bar x 20

135×10

185×5

225×3

275×2

Top Sets : 325×1, 345×1

Bench was the lift I have been most worried about. Even though I have increased my workload plenty with upper body assistance movements, my bench press has not improved at all. The week prior I didn’t even have it in me to double 315, which is a pretty low point for me. Going into this day I would have been happy to come out of there with 325 or so to make a 1600+ training total on the week. 325 moved easy and I found a good max effort with 345 on the set afterwards.

Wrapping up my raw offseason training, I am excited to get back into the gear. I have built a solid foundation on which I can build better lifts the next 10 weeks as I push through meet prep. I’m happy with where I ended up and am looking forward to throwing on my new Inzer Gear (if it still fits).