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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Continuing to work with the same weights and just adding volume on the squat.  This was the peak of the volume, completing 8 sets of squatting in total.  I was pretty unhappy with my positioning on the set I videoed, but the rest of the sets were much better.  Bracing and staying tall into the hole were my focus on the tempo work.  On the CAT squats, I was sitting back too far until the last rep of the video.  I need to do a better job of feeling even foot pressure throughout the eccentric.  I am getting better, but I wasn’t really happy with this day.  Stiff legs continue to move well, again just adding 1 set at the same weight each week.  I’ll continue this for 1-2 more weeks (after a deload) and then reset my top set.

I got the bench assistance day done at 6:30am because I had a lot of work to get done.  Lucky for me the old guy who punched me doesn’t train at this gym.  All in all a solid session and I am definitely improving on these two movements.  I will likely work up to a top set of 8 after a deload and add volume that way instead of just peaking the loading for the same # of reps.  Undecided as of now, but both are great ways to progress – either drop the volume and add weight before tapering up, or continue adding weight within the prescribed volume.  I am pretty close to the top end for 8’s, so I am leaning towards option 1.

Squat

1. Tempo High Bar Squat 4211 – 405x5x4sets
2. CAT High Bar Squat – 405x5x4sets
3. Stiff Leg DL – 405x8x3sets
4. BB Row – 4×6
5. SA Bulgarian w TKE bias – 3x12ea
6. GHR – 3×8

Bench Assistance

1. Feet Up – 285x8x4sets
2. Spoto – 285x8x4sets
3. Banded Floor Press – 4×12
4. Superset
   1. Seated DB OHP (unsupported) – 3×12
   2. Lateral raise – 3×20
   3. Banded Pressdowns – 5×20
   4. Stir the Pot – 200reps

Warm-up

1. Daily
   1. Walk – 10minutes
   2. McGill Big-3
   3. Full Body CARs
2. Lower
   1. 90/90 Hip Transfers – 6ea way
   2. Multi directional lunges – 2x10ea
   3. Tactical Frog with internal rotations – 2x10ea
   4. Goblet Squats – 3-5×10
3. Upper
   1. ShoulderRok – 4x10ea
   2. McGill T-Spine – 10reps
   3. Pushups – 3-5×10-15
   4. Band Pull Apart series – 2x10ea x5 positions