Started with Chaos and Pain squat. Warmed up plenty, hit the bar for some reps, then 135 for a couple sets and 225 for a set of 5. Then up to 255. I tried to move pretty quick with my 10 sets of 3 at this weight, which is probably part of the reason they were tough. But overall, this went very well. I am finally starting to get the feel for the high bar squat. It's still not "natural" to me yet, and there is some slowness and hesitation that is holding me back, but Im starting to feel good reps vs. bad reps, and getting the hang of sitting all the way down with my chest up. One thing I am definitely getting is full depth - every single rep today was veryyyy deep. Also, I didn't really lose tension on any rep (except one, which was horrible), which is good. I still need to work on moving swiftly through my reps and catching that stretch reflex, and fighting to lead with my chest up, because on a few of the harder reps I definitely shot my butt back and let my chest drop on the way up. But overall, Even though this was crazy hard I really feel like I'm getting the hang of it. Hopefully next week will be better.
Afterwards, I did 5/3/1 front squat. Doing these in the shoes, and after warming up with my new style of squatting (which has much better carryover) felt really good. hit 140 for 5, 160 for 5, then 180 for 6. Those 6 reps were nice and not incredibly hard, but it's tough to really push myself to a max after all that back squatting. Front squatting hurts. I'm not going to limit myself by saying "only do the prescribed reps," but probably I will tend to only do a rep or two extra, if any, on my front squat work. I did do a few more singles, however, at 180, which felt awesome. I do a really good job catching my stretch reflex with front squats, something that I need to figure out how to do in my back squat as well.
Next, put on 225 and threw the bar on the ground. Pulled 225 for 2 singles, then 275 for 2 singles, and finally 315 for 2 singles. I fought to keep my back as flat as possible, but it's tough for me at that weight. The first rep was pretty smooth, but definitely a little bit of rounding. Second rep I REALLY fought to keep my back flat, which made breaking it from the floor MUCH harder, and in the end my back still gave a tiny bit. However, considering what a tough day today was, I'm not too bummed about it. I'm just gonna keep lifting up to heavy single at the end of thursday, till I can do it with my back pretty fucking solid and with a bit of speed.
Finally, did 3 sets of hanging leg raises supersetted with round back back extensions. Didn't push too hard on either of these, just used my core a bit.
Overall, an exhausting day, but good. I'm getting the hang of high bar back squatting - it's still hard for me, but hopefully it will begin to feel more and more natural, and my strength will begin growing in the new ranges of motion and in the new muscles I'm using. Front squatting for reps is horrible, but I think even doing just the minimum 5/3/1 work with good form and the singles after is going to help greatly improve my front squat. And hopefully the heavier single deads will help grow my back and make heavy pulls easier next time I max out with the belt.
Gotta keep working hard. Peace.
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