Hmmmm….

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle X, week X

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 285#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x5x150
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x3x210 (work)
  • 1x3x240
  • 1x4x270
• Assistance – Squat
  • 2 x 20/10 x 135
• Assistance – Leg Curls
  • 3 x 12 x 65

Hrm.

I’m not sure what to make of today.

No progress vs. this same place last cycle. I opted to stay at the same weight, go up in reps. If I got 5 reps I would have been happy, but #4 almost didn’t make it up.

But I can say a few things.

1. I know I’m not fully engaging my upper body. I am losing tightness and arm drive.

2. Given how I “hinge” when I go up and down, I’ve started to lean a little forward always to keep a straight path. Well, instead today, I opted to start with the bar a little lower on my back/shoulders. That felt more like where it should be, but of course, threw everything off. I think if nothing else, I was so mentally focused on that positioning that I forgot all else.

3. To that same end, I kept fiddling with my foot positioning to get the most natural movement for myself.

So I probably threw something out of whack… but this is how it goes. I have to find my right groove, and whenever I think I have it, I realize I don’t. Just a long process.

Alas, due to time constraints, I didn’t do a full workout, but came close. I’ve always wanted to try a 20-rep program. Granted today was nothing like that, but I thought why not… just throw 135 on the bar and go for 20 reps and see what happens. Dang… that’s tough. The 135 didn’t kill me, but it was taxing, especially to my lower back muscles. I went for a second set, striving for 20, but 10 was as far as my body would go (I didn’t rest very long between sets, just enough to catch my breath, maybe 90 seconds).

Sometimes I wonder if doing higher reps like this, at least for a while, might help me again on technique work. Because instead of finding the groove then you hit your rep max and so you stop, find the groove and now you have to stay in it for a long while… able to focus more on that groove than anything else.

Yeah, sometimes I think I fiddle too much as well. But hey… it’s how I am. My brain’s always thinking, tho perhaps sometimes too much. 🙂