Started with 5/3/1 squats. Felt really good warming up, hit the bar for a few sets, then 125 for a set of 10 and a set of 5. Then work sets. 210 x 5 and 240 x 5 both moved nicely. Then I went after 275. Problem is, I psyched up a little too much, and went past the point of intense focus and into the realm of sloppiness. It's a problem I've faced many times before, especially on 5 week. I know I can hit the weight for a lot of reps, which makes me amped up, but I also know it's going to hurt to do that, which makes me scared and more amped up, so I hit the reps hard and fast and a little sloppy. Don't get me wrong, the set wasn't horrible by any means, I got probably 5 really nice reps, 6 and 7 were especially sloppy, and then I slowed down and took some big breaths before hitting a pretty nice 8th rep. But I honestly think I probably would have gotten 9 or maybe even a 10th rep if I could have eliminated the wasted energy from those sloppy reps. It's really tough to do, but on the rep outs I really need to keep all the intensity and focus, but eliminate the sloppiness. I had my mind set on going all out on this set, getting a ton of reps - but If I had relaxed a little bit and just taken it one rep at a time, I think I would have done better. I just need to eliminate the tiny bit of depth cutting, the small drops of the chest, the slight caving of the knees, all of which take away from my power and make the set worse. STILL though, 8 reps at 275 is very nice, and I'm very happy with that. It's just frustrating to know that IF I focused on making my reps nicer and NOT on how many I get, I probably would get more reps anyways hahaha. Oh well, that's a task for next monday.
Side note: Clarence is the man
Speed pulls were 245 from a big deficit today, 12 x 1 on the minute. First pull was WEIRD haha, haven't pulled from this big of a deficit in a long time. Overall, however, moved pretty fast. It's hard to get my hips low enough, and my legs were tired from the higher-rep squatting, but hopefully this week will get me adjusted, and then 265 and 285 will move like lightning.
Finally, hit my 5 x 5 at 235. At first, some of the weirdness was lingering from my heavy set, but after set 2 I really focused up and worked on making my sets EXACTLY like the sets at 125. I thought about keeping my chest high and sinking nice and low into the squat. That's what made thursday and saturday's workouts so good. And those final 3 sets felt really nice - so good that I even did 2 extra reps on the last set.
Ended with 3 sets of 12 HLR's and 15 back extensions.
SO, overall, a very good day. I just need to remember to FOCUS without letting myself be sloppy. I need to take each set 1 rep at a time, worry about quality, and quantity will take care of itself. Hopefully on thursday I'll be able to attack this weight again with nicer form, and get in a ton of heavy quality reps.
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