Good day, but short day.

I spent all weekend teaching at KR Training. Two days, three classes, 100º heat, 110% humidity — yeah, I’m beat. If it had been any other time, I might have wanted to take Monday (today) off to recover, but I actually don’t feel as beat up as I normally would after an intensive weekend like that. Still, I know I’m down so I opted to make today a “jack shit” day: just get in, do the work, set a PR, leave. It’s all about recovery, and my hole’s dug a little deeper due to the weekend so no need to dig it further.

While I am trying to avoid reminding myself of how I did “last time” and thus set expectations for how to perform today, I did know how I had done and did set expectations for myself. I’m finding if I just go in and crank without preconceived notions, I tend to do not just well but better because I don’t have a mental frame that might actually hold me back. Just keep doing “continuous 1 rep sets” and when it’s time to stop, I’ll know and THEN I can assess how it compares out. But I knew going into it that I wanted to hit at least 8 reps today because that would keep the forward progress going. It’s 5/3/1 week after all and of all weeks, this is the week to kick it.

And sure enough that’s what I did. I actually felt like I could have done a 9th just fine (and still left the 1-2 in the tank), but again, I knew what to hit, I hit it, I don’t want to dig the hole deeper, so that was that. And really, hitting 8 is great because it’s continued progress compared to all prior squat sessions. I am happy.

I did a set of hypers, a set of crunches, then spent about 25 minutes on the elliptical.

And now… to go take a nap.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 110 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 3
  • 205 x 5
  • 235 x 3
  • 260 x 8 (8RM PR)
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 15