I recently lifted at the Arnold XPC Finals. This was my first meet at 220 since 2010 where I managed a 955 squat, 675 bench and 675 deadlift for a 2305 total and lightweight best lifter win. Taking some time to get leaner, look better and accomplish a few other physical goals. 

Had a good bench session this week. Kept it pretty light, undershot the RPE limit a fair bit, purposefully.

Bench- 5 x 3, RPE 7

Worked up to 315 and kept it there. It was very easy, well under RPE 7 but I wanted to keep it lighter. My body is really feeling the effects of hard dieting and daily cardio. I was feeling pretty run down and knew that pushing hard through this session was tempting fate with injury so I stayed light. Even just backing off a little for the one session has me feeling better.

The other change I made was adding another meal to my day. I didn’t change macros, rather changed my strategy and broke up a couple meals. On off days, I am eating 6 times and training days are 7 meals. This has helped tremendously with energy. Eating every couple hours, even tiny meals, is proving very useful to me.

Banded, long pause Bench – 5 x 5

Light band + 225 straight weight

Incline Press – 5 x 5

Machine Press – 12, 12, 10, 8

Did a leg super set of extensions and hamstring curls: 12, 12, 10, 10 each

Finished out with an arm super set of EZ bar curls and dips: 5×20 each

Running

I know that I can finish the 5k. Earlier this week we had a 2.5 mile run planned and at the end of 2.5 miles, I still felt really good so I kept going to 3.1. It was slow, but I ran the whole thing and felt great after. Tons of progress considering in the first week we were only running 60 seconds at a time and I hated it.

New Cardio Tool

I hate doing cardio at the gym. Super boring. I’ve come to like running, but don’t want to just run. I do like biking quite a bit and had been thinking about a nice bike for awhile now. Picked up an entry level Cannondale road bike this week and put some miles in. Super fun and well worth the money! This feels like something I can do even when prepping for a powerlifting meet since it doesn’t beat up my joints like running does. Happy with the purchase.