It wasn’t great, but at least I feel back on track.

I think I know what was at the root of my squat problems the past couple weeks. First, the equipment change threw me because safety. Safety bars (face savers, whatever you want to call them) just were there but not solid — not attached. I could have them workable if say I was in the hole and gently set down, but beyond that, not really. I spoke with the gym owner and she got the safety racks bolted onto one of the racks — so now everything is properly and fully bolted down (there were reasons why it wasn’t, legit reasons — I’m not going to fault the gym for why things were as they were; and I am going to credit them for listening — don’t get bent out of shape over it, because I’m not). But that helped — I now feel I can squat in the new equipment with the same confidence as the old power racks. That helped.

The other thing was some technique change. I had been watching some videos of Swede coaching the squat, and the cues were good cues. However, it was causing me to change how I moved. As well, when I started adding my knee rehab exercises in, for whatever reason I stopped doing bodyweight squats in my warmup — don’t know why I did, but I did. Well, I added them back in. That was a big help because that was simply natural movement — this is how my body moves. And how does my body move? I bend at the waist/hips a bit more than some, I just don’t stay as upright. And so what? Look at Steve Goggins. The new cues put me too upright, and so I try to get down to the hole and suddenly everything’s MUCH heavier. And so…

So today? I’ve got more solid safety equipment. I have added bodyweight squats back into my warmup to get my body mechanics ready. I keep the cue but allow myself to bend. And lo – things were better.

I only got 3 reps, and rep #3 was a bit of a strain, but fine. I wasn’t totally into it — still a little nervous about things. But I’m happy I got what I got. It’s not a glorious bit of work, but at least I felt back on track.

Pauses are good for me. More opportunity to work technique. Plus confidence, because I’m hitting them for more weight than I normally would.

Leg press I ditched today because tired.

Then the plate raises and curls were just light work. On curls, couldn’t find the EZ bar so I used one of the smaller 15kg bars with 40# of plates on it (2 20’s per side). I actually liked that better than the EZ bar as I felt my forearms were much more involved. I may stick with the straight bar (since my wrists didn’t argue).

Anyways, I’m good with today. I’ll get my shit together one of these days. 🙂

5/3/1 (4th cycle, leader-1, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Squat (superset with band pullaparts)
  • bar x 10
  • 140 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 205 x 3
  • 260 x 5
  • 295 x 3
  • 330 x 3
• Pause Squats
  • 260 x 3
  • 260 x 3
  • 260 x 3
  • 260 x 3
  • 260 x 3
• 1-Leg Leg Press
  • didn’t
• Front Plate Raises (all the way overhead)
  • 25 x 10
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12
• Reverse Curls
  • 15kg x 10
  • 73 x 8
  • 73 x 8
  • 73 x 8