Today was a great day, hit a huge PR and played the workout smart.
Basically, the end of last week was pretty horrendous, and I think it has to do with the fact that I am reaching the end of these 9 weeks. I am walking the line between PR's every workout and being overtrained. SO, in order to make it through this final week unscathed, I am going to work really hard to essentially do the bare minimum - go in, work my ass off on the stuff that matters, then get out of there so I can recover. Today, the plan was to just hit 335 squat for the single necessary, do my speed deads, and then probably skip snatch grip deadlifts altogether.
So, started warming up on squats, and I felt really good. I worked hard to rest up after olympic lifting saturday, and I definitely was feeling a hundred times better today. Hit the bar for a few sets as I warmed up. Went to 125 and hit it for 10 and then 5 reps. It was moving nice and my form felt very solid. Then, went up to 205 and hit that for a set of 10, to get the blood flowing. Form still felt very good. Went up to 265 and hit it for 5 - pretty easy, felt like I could have gotten 10 no problem. Went up to 300 and hit it for a triple, with plenty of rest. First two reps were very solid. Third I got out in front a tiny bit, BUT it still went up really well, which showed me that it was definitely a good day. So, I loaded up 335 and rested up. When I went after it, I did so without making the same mistakes I made last monday - getting too psyched up, worrying about getting a lot of reps, getting distracted. I kept myself I kept myself calm, imagined it was 125, pulled under it really tight, focused on getting a big breath in, and took it one rep at a time. Crushed the first rep, then the second and third. On the fourth, I got a little out of position - either a little soft, or a little out in front. But it still moved very well so at the top I took a long rest and a lot of breaths and then hit a 5th rep - my chest dropped a little, but it was still a VERY solid rep. 5 reps at that weight is an insane PR - 2 more than my old PR, and the best set of 5 I have ever done by like 20 lbs. Really happy with that. And it just goes to show that you don;t have to be crushing every single workout in order to make progress - this huge PR is coming after 3 shitty leg workouts in a row. Just goes to show that all you can do is your best for the day. If you work hard and keep at it, you are going to make some serious gains over time.
Next, speed deadlifts went really well. Loaded up 315 from 2-plate deficit, and tried to go after it in the style of Pete Rubish - really focused and intense, with a REALLY fast setup. They went really well, some of the best speed deadlifts I have done lately. Definitely better than last week, although the setup is still a little inconsistent - there were some reps that were awesome, but some others where the bar got a little out in front, or I yanked it a little too hard instead of taking the slack out of the bar. But I think that also has to do with the deficit. Anyways, these pulls were very fast and smooth overall. I'm excited to both move the weight up, and pull from the ground again.
Finally, skipped the snatch grip deads for a few reasons. 1) avoiding overtraining this final week is very smart, and pulling 365 for a few reps is going to be very taxing on my body. 2) I'm testing my max next week anyways, so what I do today probably won't be super important. 3) My thumb is REALLY fucked up still from olympic lifting, and I want to give it some time to heal up, before I oly lift again or max out my snatch grip dead next week. So I think it was a good move to just get out of the gym after this awesome workout. did 3 sets of crunches - 40, 30, and 20. Man that felt like shit, my abs don't know how to work like that haha. I need to do that more often.
Anyways, awesome workout overall. Really happy with that PR. Really excited to both bench tomorrow AND do a heavy double squat on thursday (lets hope I feel good after leaving early today). AND I'm really excited to do my"Other" meet next week. Lets keep at it.
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