That was painful. 🙂

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how today would go. Scheduled for a top set of 5 reps @ 300 lb, and honestly I wasn’t sure about it. In recent times I did do 295 for reps, and this is more. Of course on paper there was every reason for me to hit it — my actual 1RM, the fact the 295 was “a cycle ago” so the small increment should work out just fine, etc. So there’s no reason for me to have doubted.

But I did — because of my knee.

Today I’ll be seeing an orthopedic doc about it to start to figure out what’s going on.

That said tho, the squats themselves went pretty well. I’m thinking about changing how I squat tho: turning around. I think facing the mirrors is causing me to well… to look at them more than I should. I’m wanting to check form, check depth, etc., when I really need to just squat. I squat facing the mirror because of spacing issues, but maybe who knows — maybe I should just close my eyes. I’ll see.

BBB sets – gah. Slay me. It’s a deceptive amount of work. 🙂 I am happy with my appproach tho (taking a cue from my RP experiences) of incrementing the work over time. It’s 5/3/1-philosophy-consistent tho: start light. Since it’s a 6-week run, first 2 weeks get 3 sets, second 2 get 4, third 2 get 5 sets.

And what really gets me is the supersetting. No the front plate raises aren’t killer, but what it does is adds to the exhaustion. The torso and everything is already tired from the squats, then you need the torso for all this stability. Couple that with breathing heavy and well, it adds up. But I am happy to stick with it, because I do feel my work capacity is increasing here.

Anyways, things are as they are.

We’ll see what the doc says today.

5/3/1 (Based on: Forever, BBB, 5’s PRO

• Squat (superset with band pullaparts)
  • bar x 5
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 235 x 5
  • 270 x 5
  • 300 x 5
• Band Pullaparts
  • Not tracked
• Squat (superset with front plate raises)
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 10
• Front Plate Raises (all the way overhead)
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 13
  • 25 x 12
• Leg Extensions
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 12
• Stair Calves
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12