That was good.

I must be liking squats. 🙂 Last night before bed I looked up what I was to do today. “OK, 305 for reps. How many do I need to set a rep PR? 6 will work.” And went to bed.

Worked up, and 6 came pretty easy. I knew I could go for more and thought about it, but no, I set the goal of 6, met the goal, and left a couple in the tank, which is the smarter way to go. Very happy.

While you cannot use 1RM formulas to know what your 1RM actually would be, it is a fair way to compare progress over time. Right now my 1RM is calculating out to 365, and that calculation’s been pretty steady. Again, it doesn’t necessarily mean I could squat 365 right now, but it’s cool to see I’m now flirting in that realm — 3.5 wheels. I do 325 next week, which I expect I should do for 3-4 reps just fine. That’s my old 1RM. Then 2 more cycles and I’ll be doing 345, which is my current 1RM, for reps. Progress is good.

I am very happy with my choice for pause squats. Today I wasn’t sure how many reps I’d do, since the script is 3 sets of 3-5 reps. Being 3-week, do I still go for 5? 4? I figured to just wing it: if I can get 5, take it. And so I did. What was nice about this set was not just the same focus on technique, but in the hole I paused for longer. I found myself not just letting momentum dissipate, but then settling into the bottom position, and found a little stretch happening. Then having to come out of the hole was tougher, but better in terms of muscles recruited. I really dug it. Good good stuff.

One thing I found myself being reminded of throughout squatting today was the importance of WHOLE body tightness on the descent. I get the upper body tight, but the lower body doesn’t have that strict tightness. I found myself happier when I did, especially my knees.

As for everything else, it’s just a slow work-up for being good to my legs and making my knees happy. I’ll probably continue one more week of “ramp up” on the lunges and extensions, then afterwards up the volume with just 1 more set, etc. Again, slow ramp up, to help with my knees.

Good day.

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 205 x 3
  • 240 x 3
  • 270 x 3
  • 305 x 3 (6 rep PR)
• Pause Squat
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 5
• Lunges
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
• Leg Extensions
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 16
  • BW x 14