What an ass-kicker that was.

It’s pretty clear that my problem is work capacity — I just don’t have any. Lack of food does that. 😉 All is to be expected at this stage of things.

I started out not wanting to squat. The time change is messing with my body-clock, so I was dragging into the gym and had a “do I have to?” moment, but yes you have to. I felt better after a few sets of squats. I actually am getting a better position and groove to my squats, which I’m appreciating. Then the AMRAP is where I start to find my work capacity needs… work. One thing it makes me think of is those true 20-rep sessions where you use a 10RM weight… so I would use this 210, and yes, I can see exactly why around maybe rep 15 or so you’d have a “come to Jesus” moment. That’s not in the cards for me right now, but one of these days I have to try a true 20-rep workout

Then the high-bar. This is where it becomes evident my work capacity is crap. The weight isn’t much, but the work is. That said, it’s better than last week. Last week I felt I ran out of gas before my body really was worked. Today it was about the same. So things are improving. I told myself to just keep repping, 1 rep at a time, until I came close enough to a failure point where it’d be unsafe (e.g. too wobbly), then rack it. Yeah, I still feel wussy. But the high-bars are getting better.

The stiff-legs… btw, I realize that I’m not doing true stiff-leg deadlifts but actually Romanian deadlifts. Just keep forgetting to update that. Dropped the weight because the high-bars add enough work, and I wanted to get enough reps. But still, once I got to set 3, I was spent.

One change on calf raises. Paul Carter suggests a 5 second pause at the bottom to really get a stretch. Then power up, really get a peak contraction, hold it for a second, then repeat. I tried that. Gah…. gonna have to drop weight to really take advantage of that, but I can see it. One interesting thing is after my first couple sets, well… every do that thing where you press your hands out in a doorway for a minute, then when you relax your arms float up? I felt like that, but with my whole body after I was finished. It was a weird but funny sensation. 🙂

But it was an ass-kicker today. Had numerous points towards the end of dizzy and nauseous feeling. I don’t strive for that, but it shows me, I worked today. And work is needed to support Defattening. So, onwards.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 170 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 245 x 1
  • 210 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 210 x 5 (50%)
• High Bar, close-stance Squat
  • 115 x 12
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 9
  • 115 x 8
• Deficit (1″) RDL
  • 215 x 8
  • 215 x 8
  • 215 x 5
• Leg Extensions
  • 40 x 15
  • 50 x 14
  • 50 x 12
  • 40 x 12
• Leg Curls (superset with Extensions)
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 8
  • 40 x 8
  • 30 x 8
• Standing Calf Raises (5 second pause/stretch)
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 8
  • 100 x 7