I felt pretty good going into the gym today. Nothing hurt, no tightness anywhere, so the results were, eh, you'll see in a bit.
Back Squat
2x365 @ 9
These felt pretty good. The second rep was pretty slow, but it didn't feel that bad, so I felt justified in doing...
1x375 @ 10 (PR + 10)
This was a hard rep. My form broke down about half-way up, and I felt like I lost pressure in my core, but I managed to grind it out. Still, I was pretty tired, so I racked the bar, rested for about 20 seconds, then...
1x375 @ F
Bah. I must have struggled for about 10 seconds a few inches above the hole. So, back down to.
2x365 @ 10
These were damned ugly. I definitely broke parallel, but the concentric portion was more like an ugly good morning/half squat, especially the second one.
2x365 @ 10
Slightly better than the last set.
2x365 @ 10
I felt obligated to do this. The plan was 4x2, but the scheduled 375 double was a failure. This last set was, again, terrible.
Final thoughts: I'm not sure why I'm so weak on squats. With the belt, I no longer have the problem where my chest caves on heavy sets. My deadlift is very strong, and since I'm doing deficit deadlifts, I'm pretty sure that my hamstrings/glutes/lower back are up to par. The only things I can think of are weak quads, especially since I failed a little under half way up, or crappy technique (not maintaining enough pressure). I don't have a solution to this off the top of my head. I think I will just continue to squat more.
Deficit Deadlifts (Red, Green, and Black, ~4.5")
2x435 @ 10
2x435 @ 9
2x435 @ 9.5
2x435 @ 10
The first set was brutal, probably because of the squats. The rest were not too bad, but this was definitely hard. I attribute only being able to do doubles when I did triples last week to the extra half-inch and the fatigue from a week of high intensity. I added an extra black to the red and the green this time because having "YORK USA" branded onto the bottom of my feet every weekend hurts like hell, and the back of the blacks are perfectly flat.
Pistols: 4x8
Ab Rollouts: 3x6
I'm not terribly happy about today's performance, but hopefully the rest and food I'll get over the holidays will allow me to put up another PR in a week and a half. I'm fairly confident about hitting 385. not so confident about hitting 405.
I'll be out for all of Thanksgiving, so next next Tuesday (12/1) will be the time for squat singles. I'll still be in this Sunday and Tuesday, regular hours.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
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We need to chat. Planning ahead of time to do 4x2 with a 10 lb PR is a little unrealistic. From what I can tell, you are heading towards way too much volume in this intensity cycle, and you were doing way too much intensity in the volume cycle. Then again, if you can handle it, why not?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the regular hours? Tomorrow is a day when I don't have to work, so I can finally train with you guys.
ReplyDelete@ Aaron: Regular hours for me are ~7PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays and ~4PM on Saturdays and Sundays. If you want, you can also wait until later (~8PM on weekdays and ~6PM on weekends) for Gordon, Rene, and the rest of the troupe to arrive.
ReplyDelete@ Nate: Yeah, leave it to me not to take my own advice. I keep telling JC that there's no need to rush to heavy weights, and here I go. Maybe I can post my thoughts here and you can critique them?
The original plan was to do triples (3x3), doubles (4x2) and singles in weeks 1, 2, and 3. The last triple at 365 felt hard, but not eye-popping hard, so I figured I could probably double something a little heavier than 365 this time around. I will probably avoid going all out every week next cycle.