Heh
Thursday
This is the tale of how my 6-7 month squat PR drought ended. Today was a deload bench day. That may not make sense, it doesn't to me
But I don't care. I don't give a s*** if it was stupid or I shouldn't have loaded those plates on, but hey I did and it happened. Anyway enough rambling, here it is:
Flat bench 3x3-60, 62.5, 65kg-Light and boring. Yawn.
Incline bench-1x5-45kg-Did this on a steeper incline than I have ever done before. Felt very strange, had to concentrate to maintain the bar path which usually comes naturally to me. Wasn't heavy though. The bench in the gym is awful, I may just do the lowest incline but I'll see.
Military press-2x5-35kg-Yawn.
D.b. rows-2x6-30kg-Yawn.
Chinups 1x5-Going to fall asleep.
Abs-Tryed out this lat variation on abs and didn't like it. Think I will just to heavy weighted sit ups in the next cycle.
By this point I was really bored. The usual excitement of pushing hard and trying to set PR's seemed a distant memory by this stage (slight exaggeration
). Note that by this stage I wasn't really intending on doing what happened next.
Decided I'd figure out the setup/height for box squat on the next phase. Really wasn't doing much here. Got to a height I thought was agreeable and started loading on some plates, just to get a feel for what kind of weight I'd be aiming for. Got a feel for it and that was that.
Now, for whatever reason I stripped the bar off to 90kg. I had been doing heavier for the high box squats, obviously because of the shorter ROM. I just wanted to see how 90 felt.
Did a rep. Light as hell. Did another one. What's going on??? Kept going, did 90kgx8. Holy s*** it felt right again. I felt like I was squatting the way I should be. The way it used to be. I hit that groove that I had been missing. I needed more. The adrenaline wouldn't let me back down...
100kgx6 (PR)-I don't understand it. It felt SOO much lighter than it had in a longggg time. Had more in me. This was a one rep PR.
110kgx3(PR)-Whoa. 5kg PR out of nowhere. This weight would have pinned me 3 weeks ago. Another rep wasn't far off, may have got it or a greater weight. The problems are over. Time for reflection...
Now. What could have caused such madness. Considering I'd be lucky to get 100kgx3 3 weeks ago. What have I done differently. What muscle group play a crucial role in the squat, only really coming into play after parallel where all my problems have been happening. ...HAMSTRINGS. GLUTE HAM RAISES. The wall that seemed so large and obstructive has been blown apart. It seems so simple now. I feel ready, I feel like my squat is going to take off. Basically because my hamstrings came into play again, the movement worked properly and I was able to do it and use the muscles all in conjunction.
Here is another part of the story. I got 4 hours sleep last night. I didn't warm up. Didn't take my usual 150mg+ of caffeine+taurine etc. Madness. Absolute madness. What will happen when I do things properly. And please note, usually I warm up impeccably, I was only intending on repping the 90kg once. I got carried away though.
Another note for future reference. I CANNOT solely rely on box squats for hamstrings. This may seem obvious. Hamstrings are definitely a problem area for me, I must always remember to be hitting them in one way or another. And that means direct work. The only exercises I REALLY feel the hammies come into play is GHRs, hypers and the ham machine. I also felt them in squats today after I used them properly in the lift.
Well, I'll say it again. Whether or not that was a good idea is redundant to me at this moment in time. Only good has come of it. Time to move on, I have goals to achieve. By the end of March. They were:
Deads 182.5kgx1(401.5lbs) -Looking good.
Squats 140kgx1(308lbs)-May be too late, will see how the next few weeks go. May still happen. If hammies can adapt then I can see it happening, I feel everything else can handle it.
Bench 100kgx1(220lbs)-Not sure about this. My mind is mostly on the squat and dead, and I my main focus is to hit 92.5kgx1. Will still go for it though.
My overall focus is too hit 2/3/4 in the big three. Hopefully by the end of March, but definitely before June when I am 18. Only injury will stop me from attaining that. Well I have rambled on long enough. Don't know that anyone will have bothered to read down to here but ach well, I needed to let out some energy.
Until next time...
Quagmire
