1 good is better than any bad, right?

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 3

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 300#)
  • 45 x 5 x 2 sets (warmup)
  • 120 x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 180 x 3
  • 230 x 5 (work)
  • 260 x 3
  • 290 x 1
• Assistance – Front Squat
  • 95 x 8 x 5 sets
• Assistance – Crunches
  • BW x 20 (alternating sides)
  • BW x 10
• Farmer’s Walk
  • 60# dumbbell per hand
  • 3 50 yard trips
  • 10 breath rest between trips
• Foam Rolling… a LOT

I only did 1 rep with 290. I’m pretty sure I hit depth, but I may not have — I didn’t stay down there long and wasn’t focused on where my hip crease was relative to my knee, I was focused on going back up.

My cue for today was “explode”. I wanted to ensure the speed of my descent was fast on every rep. Not a free-fall drop, but I didn’t want to go slow either. And of course, weight gets heavier and you want to slow down more. No. I wanted to go at a decent speed down and really get that stretch reflex rebound. I know for certain I was hitting depth as I worked up (in fact, I think I was below parallel), but I was paying attention to that. On the last set, I just wanted to ensure I got back up… and I may not have hit depth, but I know I went down pretty darn low.

The cue was “explode”. Drop down, and just before I hit bottom tell myself “explode” and really drive drive drive up. It worked well, but I may have just fired off a hair too fast on the last one… yes, out of fear of not getting back up.

And I got 1 rep, and left it alone. I wasn’t sure about getting 2, to be honest, and I opted to stick with making 1 rep instead of missing any. I already knew I was going to repeat these same weights next cycle, going for more reps. So…meh.

Oh, and when I did the farmers walk, instead of a 45# plate in each hand, I grabbed 60# dumbbells. Why 60? Because the dumbbell rack is 2 tiers with the heavier stuff on top. The lightest dumbbell on the top rack was 60, so that’s what I grabbed. 🙂 but what a difference it made. I actually felt the weight as I moved. I felt it pulling on my whole body, and everything having to work! All this time I was skeptical, wondering gee, is this how it’s supposed to work? Everyone says it’s such a killer exercise…. now I’m able to see. 3 trips was enough after all the other work I did. I’ll probably stick with the 60’s work up to something like 5 or 10 trips… then bump up the weight. We’ll see, but yeah, this is better. 🙂