02 Nov Lab Rat – Back to the Grind

I recently competed in the RPS Chalk & Iron September 28thwhere I tied my best total of 1653.4 lbs (squat – 633.8 lbs, bench 435.4 x lbs. deadlift – 584.2 lbs) at a bodyweight of 241.6 lbs vs. 268 lbs.  I’m currently in an off-season with plans for a February meet.

Travel. Work. Vacation.  The Monday following my competition I stepped on a plane heading towards London for work, a trip I’ve become all too familiar with.  This actually worked quite well as I always take the week following the meet off.  As I was flying out the following Thursday and work was fairly demanding I ended up extending my time away from the gym a few extra days.

Thursday, October 12th I flew back to the states landing in Nashville.  My good friend Pat got a VIP pass for the Talladega 500 as a birthday present from his girlfriend and mom.  Little to his knowledge I decided to join the fun and grabbed one as well.  Being in the middle of the action was a MUCH different experience than just sitting in the stands, looking forward to doing it again!  I spent the following week in Nashville exploring the city, shooting, eating, drinking and getting back into the swing of things training wise.  I took things really easy keeping the compound movements light and added more fluff and buff style work.

Squat / Deadlift – Monday October 16th, 2017

I kept things really light and just got some blood flowing.  I worked up to a whopping 225 on squats and deadlifts for a couple sets of 5.  I followed this up with some goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats and a good amount of core work (McGill Big 3 and stir the pots).

Bench – Wednesday October 18th, 2017

My bench work was very similar to the squat and deadlift work Monday.  185 for a couple sets of 5 followed by the same weight for 3 sets of 8 close grip.  After my flat bench work I focused on tricep work incorporating some higher rep (4 sets of 15) single arm push downs, bench dips and ez bar skulls.  During pre-contest training Brian had me incorporate stir the pots after every training session and I’m going to continue following this, 100 ‘stirs’ done.

Lower Body / Back Accessory – Friday October 20th, 2017

Much more emphasis was placed on my upper back.  I started things off with a few rounds of the McGill Big 3 followed by piston squats (4 sets of 6) followed by a few sets on the leg press with a drop set at the end.  Upper back work entailed barbell rows, db rows superset with db shrugs and barbell shrugs all 4 sets of 12.  The training session was wrapped up with McGill chins then stir the pots.

Week of October 23rd, 2017

Mirror image of last week with a slight increase of weight on all compound movements.