Strong Man Chip

Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Dass es einmal so weit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons?

With the wrap up of the fall GGC theres only a handful of weeks left in the year. Although performance in the competition went overall well it still caused a problem with my shoulder, but the other one this time. Luckily I already dealt with this between the spring GGC and now so I already had the protocol written so I can plug in the exercises and numbers that work for my perfomrqnce level and we work our way out again.
Board press replacing competition bench has been a useful tool by just cutting ROM to make the lift comfortable and keep intensity high. Progress will come from lowering and then removing the board height. If weight on the bar stays the same I’ll be in awesome a shape hopefully right at the end of the year.

2025 Fall Garage Gym Competition

Squat - 500 (tied meet PR and all time best)(+15 lbs from spring GGC)
Bench - 280 (not a PR) (+20 lbs from spring GGC)
Halloween Deadlift - 585 (meet PR/tied with all time best)(+40 lbs from spring GGC)
Total: 1365 (all time best)

I would say all of these are the most I have lifted this year and squat and deadlift are tied for some all time bests from as far back as 2021. Bench is nothing special still but getting better and successfully went 3/3 with almost no shoulder pain! Very glad I got into this fun event.

Was away for the weekend for a little family vacation but still got the work in to finish off the week. was a super fun and accommodating place to get in a strength training session while in the DE beach area. Deficit work went smoothly and everything felt almost too easy. Saturday morning rain cut the sandbag session a little short but it was all additional work for fun while out of town. Already feeling recovers abd ready to peak in the coming weeks.

Comp bench press 1@8 and 3@9 moving pretty well given how my shoulder is feeling. These are some of the better feeling pressed in the last couple weeks. Fortunately, this is the only thing that’s not going extremely well in these last couple weeks. I’m confident I will be able to put up something I’m happy with at the end of the month. Let’s keep good sessions trending this week.
*t

Crushed some looong reps today with the first week of everything deficit as we start to peak for the GGC. For the most part I really like where things are at and how weight is moving. 4 weeks out
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Back in the homestead this weekend for the MD Microbrewery Festival so we’re in the garage for end of week secondary volume.
Pause squats moving clean and s/o for the lift session and the assist on heavy bench Wooohhh!! Now let’s go drink some of MDs finest beers.
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Hit heavy singles of the big 3 this week before a quick gym hiatus and then back for a deload. After that just six weeks until the Fall GGC and things are looking good, just gotta keep up with the sessions.
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I have not used accommodating resistance a whole lot in the past. I couldn’t remember how I had set up the squat and I have never used bands for bench so his post is more for posterity.
Banded squat work is a great developmental exercise and played a big role last time I ran this block. I think I got it figured out and I’m ready to push it, I already like how much more lower body work I get to do through the week compared to the last bench-focused shoulder rehab programming.
Check the last slide for a bit BTS of figuring it out. (Thought I’d save it for a later “how it started vs. how it’s going” but we all know I’m going to forget).

Some say I don’t know how to properly load the bar. I just don’t want to do math more than once. Also forgot my belt today. Should I go belt-less until my prize from comes in? Today felt like it would be more of an accessory anyway.
💀 *t

Starting MDW with an early deadlift session and a relaxing evening with Double IPA. Good way to end this roller coaster of a day and kick off summer with something refreshing, yet potent. If you didn’t know Wissahickon brew opened a new location on American st, what are you doing??? Go check it out!!! Cheers!