Journey to the XPC Arnold Bench Qualifier

[ckcrown84]

Alright all,

I am a Full Power lifter, but my goal right now is to qualify for the Arnold Bench Bash, compete with the best power lifters around at the Arnold in the bench. This does NOT mean I am not going to be training full power, it just means I have an opportunity to Qualify for the Arnold for the bench, why the fuck wouldn't I go for it?!?

The qualifier for Pro at 198 is 445 and at 220 495. I am probably going to cut to 198 and smash the 445. I hope to be close to a 500 bench by the end of this year.

[ckcrown84]

Today (Saturday) is an accessory day.

We started off with Goodmornings, then did 3x8 speed pulls


After the speed pulls i did some GHR work then abs.

[DaMaster]

What are you weighing now? Will that be a big drop in weight for you?

[ckcrown84]

What are you weighing now? Will that be a big drop in weight for you?

This morning I was 216lbs.

I am not at all worried about the weight, I traditionally walk around at 200 and I ate my ass off to get to where I am now. I am going to organize my diet as follows

Current: maintenance phase (keep weight the same, neither gaining nor loosing for at least a month or more)

September: Cut the calories a bit and begin working my weight down a little (not too much)

October: pre-meet begin water loading, then manipulate the water and hit the sauna for weigh in. Then after I make weight eat my ass off

October: compete for the qualifier, if I fail. Then shoot for December 7th (another qualifier).

[DaMaster]

I'm comfortably hovering around 235. I've thought about trying to cut weight to make the 220 class, but dieting down isn't easy for me. I can do it but I think it would severely affect my strength training. So my plan is to make sure I stay in the 242 class and just get stronger.

Best of luck to you brother. Looking forward to see you make the Arnold

[Usealittle]

This morning I was 216lbs.

I am not at all worried about the weight, I traditionally walk around at 200 and I ate my ass off to get to where I am now. I am going to organize my diet as follows

Current: maintenance phase (keep weight the same, neither gaining nor loosing for at least a month or more)

September: Cut the calories a bit and begin working my weight down a little (not too much)

October: pre-meet begin water loading, then manipulate the water and hit the sauna for weigh in. Then after I make weight eat my ass off

October: compete for the qualifier, if I fail. Then shoot for December 7th (another qualifier).

You won't.

[ckcrown84]

You won't.

Thank you man, I have high hopes. Sucks I can only do bench at this time, but the rest will just have to play catch up.

[ckcrown84]

315x17 reps


Sunday is an accessory day. Do either volume or speed work, opted for volume. Kept it simple 1 set at 315 for reps

After that, did a bunch of accessory work.

3x5 3board press (315)
3x10 hanging kettle bell presses (working on my horrid stabilizers)
Bunch of rear delt work
Dips
Lat work

[Usealittle]

Do your elbows always shake like that?

[ckcrown84]

Do your elbows always shake like that?

I've always had stability issues. going to be doing a lot of stability work over the next six months to try to correct

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Usealittle]

Cool, how do you go about fixing something like that?

[ckcrown84]

Cool, how do you go about fixing something like that?

Work with the bamboo bar,
stabilizer work (think TRX pushups)

[ckcrown84]

Max Effort Buffalo bar work

[ckcrown84]

Getting some blood flow. 230 for 31 reps.

[ckcrown84]

accessory work day

suspended good mornings