It's Friday night, I am benching tomorrow and it's dawned on me that next week is my last week of prep before Nationals. Where did that supposed 12 week cycle go.....?

Last night I visited the old gym and used the occasion to work on my form in the monolift. Much like deadlifts I didn't feel that ready to go but simply got on with it. I really focused on the warm up but was surprised just how tight and sore my quads were from the deadlift session two days prior.

I hit my heaviest set thus far with a good double at 88%. I felt more confident given both spotter indicated I was way below on my depth. I loaded the bar to 93% 1RM which would be a rep record and proceeded to grind out a double.

This set more than any has given me a lot of confidence for Nationals. Firstly, I only had a back spotter and just felt in the zone going that weight with minimal spotters. Second, it was 7% off my 1RM and I still have next weeks session to go. Finally I just feel much stronger in the hole, much deeper and more at ease grinding out the tough sets.

Despite the shitty prep, missed sessions and average diet I am still going to PB at Nats. The squat was the missing piece of my puzzle and I wasn't comfortable really until those two top sets yesterday.

I have to give plenty of credit to Greg Nuckols who got me on a nice base building routine and though circumstances let to me cutting it short 6 weeks early I still learned plenty. Similarly using paused squats out of the hole for long long pauses has built more tightness in my squat. There are plenty of views as to whether a pause squat carrys over to a raw squat but its worked for me.

Next week I am going to double a PB then I should be good to go for the Nationals platform.

Stay Strong
Thomo