Had a good mental breakthough today.

“Week 2”

• “3 reps” – Squat (working max: 250T#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x100
  • 1x5x125
  • 1x3x150
  • 1x3x175 (work)
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x7x230 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Leg Press
  • 5 x 10 x 275
• Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
  • 5 x 10 x 75
• GPP – Elliptical
  • Tabata style (20 sec. 100-110 spm, 10 sec. 150-160 spm)
  • incline “10”, resistance “12”
  • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
  • 1 Tabata set
  • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

Today was cool. In fact, I didn’t realize I set a new PR until I got home.

Squats are a big deal to me — a big mental problem to me. Not going to rehash it, it’s documented in other logs, but just know I have a big mental hurdle with squatting. Today’s work weight was 230. That’s a significant number for me because it’s the number where I’ve kinda stalled at for a while; not a true stall, but if you look over my log history it’s kinda loomed over me for far too long and I’ve hovered in this area for various reasons for far too long. So the number kinda has some intimidation factor for me. But then, there’s acknowledgement that this isn’t the most weight to move this cycle: this is just week 2! This is just a weight along the road now, not the weight at the end of the road. That’s something kinda cool, and motivating.

After the 205 set, I felt “gee, this is heavy… how many can I do with 230??” but I put that quickly out of my head. Just do what I do. If it’s only 1 rep, then it is. I just kept my head clear after that set and before my last set, think nothing, just be clear. As I belted up, just reminded myself of a few cues like to keep my chest up, to drive with my feet (heels) not like I’m trying to push the weight up but like I’m trying to push the floor and the whole Earth down. And just do. In a way, taking cues from my deadlifting.

When I got to rep 5, I knew I was nearing the end. Rep 6 felt like my usual “ok, time to stop”. But I said to myself that I’m going to press on. If I make it, I do; if I dump the bar, then I dump it. So what? I pressed on and the 7th rep came with some work but not a struggle. Was good, and I felt that I pushed myself a little harder mentally today. I needed that in this context. And then I saw that compared to last cycle well… last cycle my week 3 was 1x6x230. Today I did 1x7x230. So there’s a PR for ya. And frankly, it’s a little more meaningful to me because it was more a mental win than a physical one.

Next week’s squat PR should be good. 🙂 I’ll be doing 240 and I know I’ll be fine.

Leg pressing. Finding a better foot position on the platform. 275 was no problem, but I am going to hold here for a bit. You know how on the machine there’s a “upper” position for the sled, then there are stops at the bottom so the sled won’t come crashing down and flatten you? I touched those lower stops a few times today and said to myself “there, that’s the range of motion I want”. So I worked to get to almost touching — don’t want to touch, that loses tension, but I want to get just a gnat’s hair away from the lower stops. That’s the range of motion I want. So I’m going to stick at 275 for now so I can ensure I’m getting that range consistently… I was generally there, but I didn’t feel consistent enough today. So stick at 275, improve range consistency, then certainly next cycle I’ll jump to 315. Another side-effect here is that I’m moving significantly larger weights and there’s a bit of a mental boost… not the ego rub, but more that sort of mental prep and feel of it. Kinda like doing board presses, where it can help you get the feel of heavier weights, get you mentally and your CNS and such prepped for that feeling? I reckon that’ll be good to help me.

Curls. They are curls. Felt uber strong with it tho, like 75 really isn’t giving me enough. I reckon with the change in workload that I probably could jump to 85, and probably will next cycle.

Elliptical continues to be good. I like the settings, and actually bumped up my “strides per minute” today over Monday, just slightly (about 10 spm in both slow and fast). That felt a lot more comfortable and natural in terms of my slow speed, and I had to ensure I kept cranking on fast to keep that rate up. I like. One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m using my arms on the machine’s support structure to hold myself up. This has the consequence of relieving a bit of the weight/resistance. I will work to minimize this, so that my hand holds are only there to help with balance, no “resting” or any such thing (this mostly is happening the last rep or two, and certainly during the cooldown). So this groove should stay, work to fix the “arm resting”, and just keep chugging here. And yes, my right knee is happier.

I didn’t do a full Agile 8, but I did foam roll the heck out of everything today. The more I do it, the more it feels good.

Can’t wait for the coming week. PR week!! 🙂