Playing Catch Up

A lot of stuff happens in December doesn't it? Here's a quick recap of the past month's training sessions:

Wed Nov 30: Deadlift assistance work


Thurs Dec 1: Push Press up to 200x1. Back and triceps work.

Sat Dec 3: Box Squat (suit bottoms) up to 390x1, then down sets with 350. Deadlift up to 425x1 standing on 4inch mats.

Mon Dec 5: Bench (shirted) up to 265x3. Lots of problems occurred on this day.

Wed Dec 7: Deadlift assistance work.

Thurs Dec 8: Close grip floor press up to 155x5x5. Then back, triceps, and even some curls.

Sun Dec 11: Full gear squat up to 425x1. Then deadlift up to 430x1. This was done at Eastside Barbell.

Mon Dec 12: Reverse green band bench to a 2board up to 365x1.

Wed Dec 14: Speed pulls standing on 3.5 inch mat, no belt, up to 275x 3reps x6sets.

Thurs Dec 15: Close grip floor press up to 175x3x5. Back, triceps, curls.

Sat Dec 17: Speed box squat with 1 chain/side (suit bottoms).

Mon Dec 19: Close grip bench to 2 board up to 235x1.

Wed Dec 21: Speed pulls against green bands layed over up to 225x3x4.

Thurs Dec 22: Close grip floor press up to 200x1x5.

Sat Dec 24: Reverse purple band squat up to 455x1. Then deadlift with weight on 2inch mats up to 430x1.

Mon Dec 26: Shirted Bench up to 275 for 3 singles and 295 for 2 singles.

Wed Dec 28: Deadlift assistance work.

Thurs Dec 29: Close grip bench with 1 chain/side to a 3 board up to 175x3x3.

Sat Dec 31: Full gear squat up to 415x1 (projected 2nd attempt). Deadlift up to 440x1 (projected 2nd attempt)

Mon Jan 2: Floor press up to 215x1 (10lb PR).

Wed Jan 4: Speed pulls with chain. 225x3x3 w/ 1 chain/side. 225x3x3 w/ 2 chains/side.

Thurs Jan 5: Light upper body assistance work.

Sat Jan 7: Speed box squats. Did this at Gaglione Strength in Syosset, NY.

I'm now just 2 weeks and 5 days out from my first geared powerlifting meet. I have a good idea of all my attempts at the meet and I'm feeling good. My bench has jumped around the last 2 months, but I've settled into a Titan F6 shirt and really love it. My squat feels good too, and when I remember to take my head out of my ass, my pull doesn't feel awful. Bodyweight is around 194lbs, so I'm going to keep eating the same and lift in the 198lb class. Gear feels great at this weight, and I'll try to bloat to about 200lbs on meet day. If the training sessions I just outlined don't make too much sense, don't worry. Basically my main bench days were programmed by Mr. John Bott (we tweaked this last 3 week cycle a bit). Anthony Ditillo wrote my sqaut cycle leading up to the meet, and we worked deadlift training around that. We decided I should get used to pulling heavy after squatting heavy, which is why max effort pulling follows max effort squatting on Saturdays. On weeks where speed was done on Saturdays, I did not do a max effort pull. Depending on what the past and future Saturdays' sessions were like, I either did speed pulls on Wednesdays (normally a heavy deadlift day) or just deadlift assistance work which mainly consisted of hypers, reverse hypers, vertical pulling (pulldowns or pull ups), and lots of abdominal work.