So naturally, after bombing out at a meet and not getting to find out what I was capable of, I came into the gym the same day as my flight home. Still pretty upset about it, and coming home with a new piece of gear made for an impromptu deadlift session the day of my flight home. I returned with a single ply Inzer Fusion Deadlift suit, and I can understand why guys out there swear by this suit. Unlike the Leviathan Ultra Pro I have been deadlifting in, this one is a lot thinner and gives me plenty of room to breathe in the hole. Although I really liked the way the suit felt, the deadlift sets were not as optimistic. I guess it was a good thing that I didn’t get to deadlift at the meet. I felt sloppy, slow, and my tremors/shakes were still pretty present during all my sets. I worked up to 585, pulled a slow single, and unfortunately decided to cut it there. I realized that I would be even more unhappy with myself if I were to get hurt doing stupid shit the day after a meet, things I really had no business doing in the first place. I settled on taking it down to 405 and learning how to properly pull in the Fusion suit.

Thursday marked day one of my soon to be long and arduous off season.

Thursday Bench Day

1 mile on bike

Comp Grip Bench 255x5x3

DB Flat Bench 75lbs x 10×3

DB Flys

Lateral Raises

Tricep Pressdowns

Saturday is normally a day where I come in for a training session, but I decided to take the weekend off, having only been 6 days post meet. I haven’t taken any time off from competing in the last 5 years at all, so deciding to set aside the rest of 2019 at minimum will test my patience. Getting back into that off season mindset is going to take a lot of work for me mentally. Setting aside my ego and trying to work with lower numbers will be tough, but as long as I am getting work done and progressing in strength or work capacity I’ll be in good shape. Next week I will start to incorporate more cardio, with at least a solid bike warmup to start off the sessions. I’ll plan on increasing the distance or time on the bike week by week in hopes of getting some endurance that I haven’t had in a long time. Mobility will also be a focal point. I need my shoulders, hips, and ankles to become more mobile if I want to make any progress later down the line. Mentally and physically I will take it day by day, but still outline a plan for what I need to be accomplishing while I am there.