Squat Gainz: 315 x 13

Had a good couple workouts since my last post. Right now, I'm feeling absolutely demolished, so I think I need to take the next couple days off and rest up. But overall I'm doing really well.

Saturday I probably should have rested, but I got into benching with some friends. I focused mainly on doing some close pushups and biceps work, but I also hit some bench - I took my first real crack at 225 in a long time, and it moved REAL nicely. I hit it for 2 very solid (I hesitate to say easy, so I'll stick with solid) sets of 5. That is indicative of serious gains, especially considering that I had just hit a ton of reps at 185 the day before.

Sunday, I crushed a squat workout. I was supposed to work in the 4-6 rep range, and the plan was to go up to 315 for the first time in a long time. I figured I would belt up, hit it for a set of 4 at the very least, and if I was feeling good hit it for a few sets, or a few sets of 6 before dropping back. Well, The first set moved like a joke and I hit 6, second set same deal. So I got my buddy to film me on set 3 and just kept squatting. Ended up hitting an easy 13 reps, which is an all time PR. I could barely believe it - I have been squatting with extremely moderate weights, not pushing myself very hard, and just focusing on lots of volume at moderate weights, with back off sets where I changed stance width, paused reps, etc. I didn't expect to hit a PR at all, but clearly what I'm doing has been working really well. So, I need to keep doing what I'm doing - moderation. Moderate weights, don't push too hard, but hit a lot of volume and a lot of squat variations, maintaining speed and athleticism. My only criticism of the video is that I'm not going as deep as I would like - I think all the reps are to parallel, but I prefer depth to be unquestionable. So I'm going to try and sink the reps a little more in the future. Still, that set of 13 was cake, I definitely left some in the tank. I am getting much stronger.

Finally, today I hit about 8 sets of 30 pushups, all different variations. Pushups are what got my bench moving, so I am going to continue to devote a lot of training time and energy to pushup variations. I feel like they are building strength, size, pressing power, and athleticism in all different positions. Also hit some rear delt flyes and biceps. Overall, however, I felt awful today. No motivation, sore, exhausted. Still, made it through the workout. So, time to rest up a bit and feel better.

What I'm doing is working very well. Lets keep the focus and not lose sight of what is working. And, lets keep at it.