Today started my meet prep for the 2017 Arnold. I haven't been able to go heavy due to a minor injury to an erector I messed up three weeks ago competing. Everything is feeling pretty good, well at least good as a 36-year-old can feel. It will take a couple of weeks for things to get back to full speed. The night went as follows
Warm-ups
I use Swedes bracing protocol before every training session and even on off days.
Light band work such as dislocates, band pull apart's, and some light tricep push downs. I like to do these to get things firing before I get under the bar.
Bar - 10 reps x 2
135 - 10
225 - 8
315 - 4
405 - 2
Working Sets
440 x 2 x4 which felt like shit. I was all over the place. I'm confident that after a couple more weeks under heavier load everything will tighten up and balance out
Fifth Set
The fifth set is always an amrap. I got five reps chump change. Again give me a couple of weeks, and I'll hit some better numbers.
Accessory Work
1" pause presses, with 5-second, pauses using my competition grip for two sets of 5 reps. I did these with 360 lbs.
Side raises two progressive sets of 10 with 40lbs. Focusing on slowing down the negative portion of the lift.
Rear delt raises for two progressive sets of 12. For these, I used 20 lbs.
Mood: It felt good to get back under some decent weight finally
Energy: Shit I had three weeks off , energy was plenty
Feeling's: Things went pretty much as planned. I'm looking forward to the next couple of mesocycles.
