One must learn from pain.

That reverse hyper? Yeah…

First, squats were great. Worked up to a nice single at 320 lb. I am liking this work-up to a few ascending singles because it’s helping me with technique under heavier weights, confidence, and making 300’s just a normal thing. I’ll stay here for a bit as I work up the AMRAP set, either to 15 or maybe even 20 if I really am feeling it. Then up the weights 5-10 lb. And that’s one appeal because next I’ll do 330 as a normal thing. Then 340. With 345 as my all-time best 1RM, I’m not too far off from it, and this is just work – not trying to max out. So, like all things, just keep at it and it will come.

Stiff-legs were fine. I forgot to stand on a plate today, but I’ll do that next time. No big loss.

Couldn’t do walking lunges — too many people on the turf. So I just did split squats in place. No biggie.

Last thing tho. That reverse hyper. It didn’t work out. Now, part of the reason I want to try it is because I hear about all the awesomeness of it for the lower back, because there’s traction and so on. So I got on it today, with a little coaching. No weight; just to try to get the motion down first. When I went into extension (i.e. feet under my torso, swinging “forward” due to the momenum), my back screamed at me. I’ve got some nerve thing down there. Like flutter kicks? I can’t do them — some nerve in my lower back screams at me; been that way for a LONG time. It felt like that, but I only did the hyper twice and that was enough to say “not going to happen”.

But it intrigues me.

Why that pain?

I’ve been feeling some stuff in my back lately, some stiffness, some aches. Could that be what’s in play? Could it just be I need more flexibility in my glutes and hams? I don’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time analyzing the pain. 😉 However, I’m going to do some work this week in the area, then try the reverse hyper again. Now that I know what pain I’m in for, I will think about it and analyze it. Basically, I want to figure out why I can’t do this and work to overcome it. I can’t see this being anything but good for me.

So, time will tell.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 305 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 285 x 3
  • 225 x 13 (AMRAP)
• Stiff-Leg Deadlift
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
  • 235 x 8
• Split Squats
  • BW x 50e (aiming for non-stop but breaking it up if I have to)