Started with my squats. I wasn't feeling great this morning. I have this nasty cold/flu thing that isn't bad yet, but I am afraid is about to get worse. Aside from that, squats thurs just didn't feel amazing, so I was a little unsure/tentative about squatting today. However, I was honest;y feeling really good. Got nice and warm, got my attitude and my focus right, then started hitting the weights. Hit the bar x 2 sets of 5, 135 x 5, and 225 x 3, all focusing on speed and form, all easy. Went to 315 and hit it for a really beautiful rep, although it was slower than ideal. But I was feeling strong and confident, so I loaded up 335. Threw on the belt, a notch lower than I normally do because I knew I was gonna need to breathe, and went at the weight. First thing I will say, is form was far from perfect. First rep I was quite a bit forward, which made the rep significantly harder than it should have been. I don't really remember reps 2-5, but I'm willing to bet at least one of them was forward too, and none of them were quite as fast as they should have been. I know that reps 6, 7, and 8 I speed up the descent (out of necessity). However, at that point form wasn't ideal either because I was tired, and form always breaks down on the last reps of a set. So, technique wasn't great on this set - I think simply a result of nerves, of knowing that I had a lot of reps to do, and therefore not treating each rep as a single, with real focus on precision and speed. However, that being said 8 reps at 335 is still a 2-rep PR. It's pretty fucking cool I could PR with my technique less than perfect. However, I really need to crack down on myself, focus on each rep as a single. I honestly believe I might have had 9-10 reps today if I had been better. The mental toughness was there, the strength was there, but I wasn't efficient enough and all that leaking energy results in lost reps. HOWEVER, I honestly believe I can squat 365 for 5 or 6 reps, without a doubt next monday. Yes, that is a high goal, but I think with my technique being perfect, I can hit a set of 6 so I'm making that the goal. I just need to focus on each rep as a single, and just breathe at the top.
Next, decided to go a little heavier on deads than normal, cause it's the beginning of a cycle and I have time to recover. Started of doing 5's, and hit 125-165-205-245-265-285-305-325, all for sets of 5. I'm pretty happy with that! Yes, 325 x 5 is nothing monumental, but it was a lot of volume, and I was pulling that first rep "Bryce Lewis" style, without my normal dynamic start, and it was feeling solid and great. And, I definitely had 2-3 reps in the tank at 325. Good stuff.
So, solid day! Getting stronger, I just need to keep focusing on speed and technique, and REALLY focus on thinking of my heavy sets as a bunch of singles strung together. I always just get afraid that I am not going to hit my goal, so I get all worried about the reps, and then each individual rep suffers. What I need is to think about each rep alone, and then I will almost certainly get more reps overall.
Also, one more small thought: I might play around on thursday with not only trying to squat each rep as fast as possible, but also squatting each set fast as well (i.e. not necessarily pausing at the top to breathe, but rather dropping back down immediately). I have had a bit of success with this technique on benching - it teaches me to better stabilize, and to make each rep consistent and precise, even without a moments pause at the top. I think that squatting like this might be really weird at first, but might ultimately teach me how to make every rep more in the groove/precise, because I will have to learn how to stabilize/stay in the groove with this much less stable technique. I might not stick with it - honestly, I think speed into/out of the hole is more important, so if the "fast reps" is affecting my rep speed, I might drop it. However, if I can train speed into and out of the hole at the same time as training myself to better stabilize/make my reps consistently straight up and down, I think it might be a really useful tool for me. We will see. Lets keep at it.
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