I competed in my first meet after a year break on November 24^th, 2018. It was a big momentum boost and I am 100% healthy and looking forward to a productive off-season.  I’ll be looking to compete at some point in the summer, but haven’t decided when or where.  In the short-term, work and my family will be my number 1 priority with the launch of a long awaited project and a cross-country move to Calgary, Alberta with my wife Pam and our pups Meatloaf and Beefcake.

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If you haven’t yet, check out my most recent articles:

Silence Your Inner Eeyore

A Coach’s Guide to Handling Multiple Lifters on Meet Day

Rethinking Progressive Overload: A strong spin on Escalating Density

Exercise Spotlight – Pushups

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So, the bench press… If you’ve followed my training for any length of time you’ll know that I have mixed emotions about the bench.  I have never been able to find “my” technique.  Something will feel good for a few weeks and then it will go to shit for a few weeks and I have not been able to truly address the issues because they are always changing.  One week it is one thing, the next it is something else.  That being said, I truly don’t enjoy benching, which is part of the reason it hasn’t progressed.  I am going to change that last part and learn to love benching.

There are two focuses for now that I can pin-point.  First, I don’t do a good job staying tight to the chest and second, I tend to protract and over-press at lockout.  To address this, I am overloading my lockout with chains (and other modalities as off-season progresses) and I am working on pausing all my reps, and including some extended pause work.  So far, it seems to be helping.  That being said, it’s only been a couple weeks and I still have no idea where my feet feel best.  I think the long pauses will help with this because they let me time the leg drive properly.

Bench

1. Bench with 60lbs chain – 295x5x3sets (I have added a set each week)
2. add 2 board – 5x3sets (I have added a set each week) *notice how much better I am at pressing from boards when that last 2″ is eliminated?
3. Long Pause – 275x5x3sets
4. Neurogrip Push-ups – 3xfail (75 total reps)
5. Ring Dips – 3×10
6. Superset
   1. DB Front Raise – 3x12ea
   2. Rope Pressdowns – 3×30
   3. Deadbug – 4x10ea

Warm-up

1. Daily
   1. Walk – 10minutes
   2. McGill Big-3
   3. Full Body CARs
2. Upper
   1. ShoulderRok – 4x10ea
   2. McGill T-Spine – 10reps
   3. Pushups – 3-5×10-15
   4. Band Pull Apart series – 2x10ea x5 positions