I am in the thick of a long off-season.  My next meet will be at the end of November, raw with wraps at 220lbs.  For now, my focus remains on my professional endeavors, but I will continue to work diligently to improve as a lifter while enjoying a lower stress approach to training.

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It’s been about 2 weeks since I backed things off and that has given me some time to re-evaluate a few of the lingering issues that I was running into, namely my hips and knees were accumulating a lot of inflammation.  First, I stopped squatting 2x a week.  This helped, but I had a feeling there was something more to it.  If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I recently launched a seminar series with my friends Jay Nera and Jordan Shallow called Barbell Technician Level 1.  Our next one will be August 18th in Maine.  If you’re interested, the registration page is HERE (shameless Plug, fight me).  Anyway, in speaking with Jordan, which is a Dr. of Chiropractic, we discussed structure and function and how this relates to movement.  His paradigm is that what you lack in function, you must make up for in structure to create stability in movements and vice versa.  Jordan wears orthotics, which baffled me because he own a business based on corrective exercise.  His reasoning was that he lacks structure because of a past surgery (meniscus) and if he wants to push maximal weights, there isn’t enough function in the world to compensate for a missing body part.  Consequently, I also have had both my lateral menisci removed and have been hammering corrective exercise with limited success.

Well, the week after the seminar, I went to see my friend Rebecca Hemmerick at Ottawa Orthotic Lab and had my feet looked at.  Turns out my foot is oddly shaped and I would be a good candidate for orthotics.  So, I will keep you all posted on how things go while squatting in orthotics!  The session posted below was my first go and I definitely felt more stable and there was less knee tracking issues.  It will take some time to adjust and the weights are light right now, so it is a good time.

On the bench press side of things, I just added 10lbs to last week.  Things moved about the same and the session went by quickly.  I got a great pump and things are feeling good.  Nothing ground breaking to report there.  On the squat, I used the orthotics for the first time and it did feel different.  I felt like I have something to brace my foot against in the bottom and as mentioned, my knees seemed to track better.  A “drawback” is that my ankles are more mobile with the orthotic, so I had to focus much harder on keeping tension in my posterior chain.  Like I mentioned above, it will be an adjustment.  In general, keeping rests short and increasing density of the training.

Bench

1. Bench – 305x5x5sets RPE 7 (3 minutes rest)
2. 3sec Pause vs. 60 chains – 255x5x4sets RPE 7 (3 minutes rest)
3. Dips – 45x20x3sets
4. Band Flies – 3×20
5. Hammer Curls /ss DB Extensions – 5x20ea
6. Dynamic Resisted Deadbugs – 4x10ea

Squat

1. SSB paused – 365x5x5sets (3 minutes rest)
2. CAT SSB vs. 60 chains – 335x5x5sets (2 minutes rest)
3. Goblet Bulgarians /ss SL RDL /ss Lateral Lunge – 3x10ea
4. Stir the pot – 2×80, 1×100

Warm-Up

1. Daily
   1. Bottoms-Up Carry – 5 trips/arm
   2. McGill Big-3
2. Lower
   1. Sprinter Pose to RDL to Hip Airplane – 2x10ea
   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