Kik - 11/14/2009 - Intensity - Lower

Today was a great day for fans of bars not coming off the ground during deadlifts or bars sinking into the safety pins during squats. For people who like to see lots of attempts going nowhere, this day must have been like birthday and Thanksgiving at once (usually I use x-mas as a reference, but I have the feeling that Danny is still an avid reader and he and Santa have some beef since Danny squeezed Santa's hands.)

Besides numerous fails from Brian, Pat, Jon, and me, today was also characterized by reversals and persistence.

Deads:

315x1 @7

/* belt on */

365x1 @8 - suddenly, the belt feels more comfortable.

405x1 @8.5

425x1 @9.5

In comparison to last week, things felt much better. The belt feels natural now, maybe not the biggest helper, but I actually like it. 425 are my old PR from way back then, and they came up without much discomfort. Given the 435 from last week, it seemed that 445 would be easily in the realm of possibilities.

Hence,

445 FAIL - WTF? Can I ever get a tiny little slice from the success cake? No? Oh wait...

445 FAIL - Ok, too heavy, usually I would go home. But not with PBJ, who failed several weights tonight, sometimes twice in a row, only to come back and finally nail their lifts.

Hence,

445x1 @10 (10 lbs PR)

Thanks to Pat, Brian, Jon, and Gordon for sticking around and making me pull this. Brian detected that during all warm ups and lifts up to 425, I would just hop onto the platform, take one breath and pull the weight. For my failed attempts with 445 however, I would slowly go onto the platform, take several deep breaths, overthink the lift, and then fail.

It was this piece of analysis that made me jump onto the platform for my last pull, getting one big breather and just pull right up without all that settling-in behavior. An interesting difference that I will try to observe in the future.

Boxsquats (6 elements and the green 10kg plate - slightly below parallel)

225x1 @7

315x1 @8

365 FAIL (there it was again, that uncomfortable feeling when one is pressed into the pins)

365 @9 - came up 'easy' considering what happened right before.

In between my squats, I did numerous excentric-only squats with 225 from the low pins; i.e. first a seated good morning on the box, then finding balance and squatting out. Thanks to Pat and Brian for parking the par on the pins...

1 set of Russian twist, no more time. Then off to Fire & Ice, where I did 3 plates once more, this time however right into my belly .