Ugh. The hole sucks.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 19, week 1

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 305#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x125
  • 1x5x155
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x5x200 (work)
  • 1x5x230
  • 1x6x265
• Assistance – Squat
  • 5 x 15/10/8 x 135
• Assistance – Pulldown abs (standing)
  • 3 x 25/25/25 x 50/60/60
• Foam Rolling

The squats were going well. Were.

I’ve been putting the bar a little lower on my back/shoulders. Really, it’s where it should be. It fits my body leverages a bit better because I find myself moving around less, dealing with bar path shifting less — there’s just a straighter bar path. But of course, you move it down your back an inch, it changes leverages.

I’ve also been focusing on the cue “tight”. I grab the bar, squeeze it with my hands. I get under it, lock everything up in my upper body. Deep breath in, and really inflate my diaphragm and press out into the belt. Bar comes out of the rack and it feels light as a feather (that plays HUGE into the mental game). Walk it out, readjust — this is probably place #1 where I lose the tightness because I need to take another breath. But I’m aware, try to retighten, but I don’t think I get as tight as I was. I go down… then I get into the hole, and I lose it. It was most evident on my final work set. My abs felt like jelly and I fell forward every time. I was just not supporting things well enough with my abs.

I got 6.

Now getting 6×265 felt shitty to me. I wanted at least 7-8 but fell short. I probably could have ground out a 7th, but that’s not the goal so I racked it. But here now at home, I look over my logs and well, 6×265 isn’t too bad. Last cycle’s week 1 did 5×255 and 4×270. When you do some 1RM calculations to try to compare the workload, 6×265 is actually better than both, and statistically about the same as my PR of 4×285 from the same prior cycle. So I shouldn’t be so hard on myself because apparently I’m stronger.

Still, it’s not what I wanted.

So my assistance squats changed. I just put 135 on the bar and worked to be as strict as I could, tight all the way through. Push out with the abs on my belt throughout, and really be tighttighttight. As you can see, I didn’t get far, but that’s fine. It was killer. I was hurting, bad (but in a good way). I could feel it in my abs, I could really feel it in my lower back. The only reason I stopped each set was because my lower back said “no mas” (and I pushed through some pain to get there — I wanted “true failure” not “wussing out early”, if you will). All the breath holding and pressing hard? That winded me too. After set #2 I was looking around, plotting the best course to somewhere I could throw up if it came to that (almost did).

Then no leg curls. Ab work. Now in the past when I’ve done pulldown abs, I did it off the cable crossover machine, kneeling on the ground. This worked differently due to “2 pulleys” so there was mechanical changes and distance traveled of the weight. Well, I’m going back to standing pulldown abs from the lat pulldown machine, using rope handles, and when I face “out” and straddle the bench, squeezing the bench with my legs — seems to activate a lot more. Plus, I want at least 25 reps per set to yes, work on the endurance factor. I think on deadlift days I’m going to do side-bends. I have to stop skimping on ab work.

Anyways, there we go. I thought it sucked, but really the weights didn’t suck as much as my technique and abs did. I’ll work on it.