Today started out very slow. I got into the gym, and took forever to get warmed up - I swear, I must have spent close to 10 minutes putting my shoes on. HOWEVER, once I finally started, the weight moved really fast. I warmed up a little bit differently - normally for speed work I'll warm up the same as i do for heavy work, but instead I warmed up only with doubles today ( 2 doubles with the bar, 2 with 95, 2 with 135) and it felt good. I worked the weight up to 175, and hit it for my ten sets of 2, and it moved really nicely. I'm starting to get more comfortable with the slight tweaks to my form, and today I felt as though I could really sit back onto the box while still keeping my torso very vertical. It felt a lot better than last week.
Next it was time to squat heavy. I did 185 x 2, 225 x 2. and 275 x 1 without the belt. 275 felt a little slow, and I didn't want to risk missing the next rep, so I went to 295 and hit it for a tough single with the belt. Even though that wasn't an easy rep, I decided to go for 315 - I got my head focused, psyched up a bit, and hit it without much trouble. It was definitely a max for the day, but it wasn't significantly harder than the 295, which is very good. It's good that I'm able to hit that weight after speed work; I think my goal over the next two weeks is going to be to try and start smoothing the jump to 315 from 275. I think (for today) it was good to do that 295 in the middle, but in general now that I am hitting 315 with some constancy I want to get used to going 225 - 275 -315. It will be a lot harder when my speedwork is at 185 and especially 195, but I'll work at it.
"Why use the little change when you could have the big dollars?"
Thirdly, I decided to tweak the way I do my good morning/front squat assistance work on these days. Up till now, I've been doing a 5 x 8 good morning or 5 x 5 front squat (alternating weeks), and adding 5 lbs a month. It's a stupid linear progression and it makes me hate doing both of those movements. SO, instead I've decided to still alternate good mornings and front squats every week, but to basically do whatever the fuck I want as far as sets and reps. Maybe one week I feel like shit, and i'll just do a 5 x 10 of GM's at 95 lbs. And maybe the next week I feel great, so I decide to go a heavy triple of front squats. Whatever. So today being a pretty good day, what with the speed work and the 315, I felt like pushing my GM's a little bit. I started with the bar to get my nerves working, then started to work up: 95 for 15, 135 for 10, 185 for 5, 225 for 5, then back down to 185 for 8.
Searched "heavy good mornings" and this came up. Not sure why, but it's AWESOME.
This was pretty awesome and not really expected. My old 5rm good morning was 205, so hitting 225 for 5 is great. And overall, doing the assistance work like this is not only more fun, but it's gonna make me stronger too - hitting 225 for 5 is a lot better than doing a bunch of miserable sets of 8 at 160. I think thursdays are going to be a lot better and more useful with this change.
And finally, for core work today I wanted to try and hit my lower back (I'm a little bit nervous still about it rounding too much on heavy deads, so I want to try and start nailing it at least one day a week). However, I had a really hard time hitting it well. I started with round-back back extensions with a 25 lb plate, but my hamstrings gave out well before my low back felt anything. Then, I switched to a 45, but still it hurt my legs way more than my back. Next, I tried a very limited range of motion, only moving enough to round/tighten my lower back, and finally I started to feel it, but still not very much. So then, I tried the same ROM, but with a 45 lb dumbell, hoping the worse leverage would make it harder - but it just felt like I was gonna snap my hamstrings up, so I stopped. I still want to find a way to work those muscles better, but it's going to take some experimentation I think.
ANYWAYS, powerful day. Had a lot of fun, kicked a lot of ass. Lets do the same tomorrow.
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