The shirt in my featured image is one of our newest!

I want to give a shoutout to Inzernet.com and CaptainJacked.com for their support and backing. Support the companies that support our sport!

I just finished a 10-week training cycle where I accomplished my goals of getting back to competition strength and shape and will be entering into a long offseason for the upcoming WPO in Nov of this year. Like many other TeamPRS athletes, our very own Tucker Loken is handling my diet.

I did something wonky to my pec about 4 weeks ago as I was warming up before squat/DL day. It was bizarre. Nothing ripped off but more of a strain and a cramp. None the less it was very tight and locked up for a couple of weeks. It happens when I start getting too lean, too quick. I will be more prepared from here on out.

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My plan for week 2 was to go a little heavier than the prior week and knock off some rust.

I’m doing a lot of rehab and prehab for some shoulder issues (super tight and weak rotators) that have been building for a long time. As a powerlifter, we are always teetering on the brink of epic failure or disaster. Or, sometimes just a small strain :).

My good friends Dr. Amy and Dr. Mary D have worked on me off and on for about ten years. Jamie is my massage therapist there. They are my go-tos locally for fine-tuning my mobility, prehab and rehab and helping me brainstorm and think outside the box. Admittedly, when I moved 4-years ago, it was much harder for me to see them often. I regret this but have made the changes necessary.

Dr. Crosby is and has been my weekly maintaince guy as he is much closer to my house; we work well together and have been friends since elementary school. He does my regular ART, Graston, manipulation, and any soft tissue usually and is always extremely helpful. Danielle is my massage therapist there.

It takes time, money and a lot of planning to spend all the time going to and having rehab/prehab sessions 2x a week, not counting your homework they assign you.

I guess, in ways, I’m going the extra mile in every direction. The little things I’d overlook before like “Oh, once a week is good enough, you’re busy.” The problem is once a week is good enough until it isn’t. Your body tends to let you know.

I want to sufficiently address this (i.e., why I think it happened) in an article soon with more depth.

Anyway, training:

Normal warm-up: 

Band fly

McGill Big 3

BW squat/Goblet squat

Squats w/SSB:

165x3x3

255x3x3

300x1x3

345x3x2

400×1

Belt squat with pause: 

4×6

Leg Extension Leg Curl: 4×8

Stir the pot: 60

Monster walks with sled backward: 50ydx3

It was good to get back under the bar, again. A little tight, working on perfect form and depth with the SSB for another couple of weeks. My form is not as good as it needs to be. But when it’s time, I am looking forward to getting back to the straight bar soon.

I’ll be going a little heavier this weekend, maybe to the 500s on squat, possibly a couple of deadlifts too.

Piggy-backing off of the top of this blog post, I am having Tucker handle my nutrition. I need it to be mindless for me. I have always done my diet for the most part and had some help from time to time. But, I’ve always preferred to do my own.

The point to the diet change is taking my bodyweight down into the 250s, then recomping back up to the high 250’s and staying there. I am over huge cuts, plain and simple.

So, I’m starting much sooner, five months plus, and getting my bodyfat down, and will be monitoring every aspect of my weight, macros, micros while tracking how I feel the entire time for the entire offseason, vs just turning it on the final ten weeks.

Tucker has me following a very reasonable approach to the diet with a great combination of carbs, fat, and protein. I am drinking 2 shakes a day and enjoy it! It’s Chicken, Fish, Beef with the regular rice, potatoes, and veggies. Not too much different than I usually do, other than far fewer cheerios and Oreos.