I’m glad I listened to my body.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x5x185 (work)
  • 1x5x215
  • 1x7x240

• 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x5x170
  • 1x9x195
• Asst. #1 – Lat pulldowns (pronated grip, hands just wider than shoulder-width apart)
  • 3 x 10 x 130
• Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
  • 3 x 15 x BW
• Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
  • 3 x 10 x 120
• Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 80/70/70

My body was feeling beat up, so I took last week off. I’m glad I did. I figured since I had already completed 1 week of cycle 12, I’d just start over, still call it cycle 12, and do week 1 again. I figure as long as I can meet what I did, I’m happy.

I actually could have done more this week. My squats felt good. Yes I was falling forward a bit on the last set, but I was moving fast and using a lot of power. I really felt good, went deep, etc.. I made no conscious decision nor thought before the workout, but as soon as I started getting under the bar I found myself working to make my entire upper body tight: grip the hell out of the bar, flare my lats, tighten the torso, everything upstairs got tight as hell. I didn’t manage to keep it 100%, but I tried my best and boy it made a difference. I also thought about things like raising my butt first (not my knees), pressing with the arms, press my head back into the bar… all these things just happened, maybe not together, maybe not in the best of ways, but I didn’t think about lifting all last week (other than the sled drags) and I think the time away let some things sink into my head. Good stuff.

Bench… heck, that just flew. I could have done more, but opted to stay fresh. Again another case of really working on form, staying tight, squeeze the hell out of the bar with my hands — that really helps cue the whole body to be tight.

Assistance work was whatever it was. no fuss, no muss.

Felt good. Well, mostly good. Years ago I blew out my left ankle doing some martial arts stuff. This past weekend it started to flare up on me and it still kinda hurts. I opted to drive to the gym instead of walk today, just to avoid any extra wear and tear — save it for squats. Glad I did. Move Aleve for me today….