On.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 25, week 1

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 310#)
  • 45 x 5 x 2 sets (warmup)
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 220 x 3 (work)
  • 250 x 3
  • 285 x 4 (rep PR?)
• Assistance – Leg Press
  • 135 x 12
  • 225 x 12
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 135 x 15
• Assistance – Leg Curls (really emphasize the negative)
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 10
• Assistance – Crunches
  • 15 x bw
  • 15 x bw
  • 10 x bw
• Foam Rolling

Wow. Today I just felt “on”. I didn’t go in expect that, giving myself permission to “jack shit” it today. I had a VERY long day yesterday, got home much later than expected, didn’t get enough sleep, and just didn’t feel solid. But something kicked in alright. Maybe it’s the new “preworkout” (25g whey isolate in water, 400 mg caffeine). Maybe it’s the dedication to being “tight”…. but I don’t know about that, because I felt so sloppy today.

But I’m just hell bent on depth, especially on the heaviest set. Again, I’m overcoming mental barriers here: fear of going down and not getting back up. That if I go too deep, I won’t get out of the hole. Whatever. What’s the worst? I’ll dump it. So? Yeah it’ll suck both in ego and the physical pain of dumping it over my head (due to the fixed half-rack), but whatever. In fact, the weights won’t be so heavy at this point that I should have a problem — these should be challenging weights, but not at the edge of my capability, so certainly after the first rep I should know if it’ll happen or not, right?

I told myself: you’re doing 4 reps. Just that plain. No wiggle room, no doing 5, no doing 3, 6 was right out. 4. And I nailed 4 pretty good. I was focused on depth, on being tight. I also took my time. It might have been a few seconds of “resetting” myself at the top before I went again, but fine. And I got the 4 and was damn happy of it.

I do think that’s a rep PR, as I look back over my logs. Where 230# was a big roadblock for me at one time, this 270-280-290 was as well, because I got up into that weight and knew my form was horrible — I was not hitting depth, I was sloppy as hell. But now, I’m hitting these weights, I know I’m getting depth, and I’m nailing reps. 285 for 4 is pretty good. I actually am thinking that I could legit attempt 315 for a single before the end of the year. That would rock to hit 3 wheels — big big big milestone in my book. I’m motivated.

Oddly, I wonder if leg pressing might be a blessing in disguise for me. I know weak-ass quads is part of my problem, due to where I’m having failure. I also wonder how much my adductors are playing in here. And the deep leg presses are killing my quads and adductors (and being nice to my shoulders and elbows). I almost didn’t do them today — with the lack of rest and such, I felt I didn’t want to push myself beyond recovery, but I felt so good after the 285×4 I couldn’t resist.

We’ll see what benefits things bring.