Today was great. Set a fantastic rep PR of 420×8.

When I was entering data into RepCount and figuring what I needed to hit, 8 reps seemed logical. However, doing a 1RM calculation comparison (which only means so much) it was rather a large jump in my progression. Still, relative to my other recent top sets and rep PRs, it was the place to go. So I went there.

I will say, before too long I do want to try for a true 1RM in deadlift and see if I can break 500. On paper it’s possible, and it’d be a fun milestone to hit.

In other news…

I’ve been thinking about fixing my squat. One thing that constantly nags at me is the vast difference between my squat and deadlift. Some difference is natural, but I’ve got rather a HUGE gap. So I’ve been reading up on this again. Long story short, I’m suspecting my glutes are weak. I mean, I’m weak. Often the mantra is “you don’t have weak points, you’re just weak”. And that’s true. But the same people also go on about assistance work being important to bring up weak points — so which is it? Am I to care about weak points or not? If I am going to do extra work, it ought to have a purpose towards fixing problems, right?

What really got me tho was in a lot of my reading it made me think back to my PT assessment for my knee issues. It came out in there my glutes were weak, and weak glutes can have a big impact on knee tracking — all my issue. I’ve been doing all this PT work towards my quads, esp. my VMO, but really I think I’m hitting the wrong thing.

Furthermore, a couple folks mentioned the same thing: do you ever feel it in your glutes? I almost never do, which is a clue. As of late, the 1-leg reverse hypers are finally a place where I really feel it! I also recall feeling it in something else – I think front squats – but can’t find the reference in my logs (still looking).

Point being, I’m going to start looking at things to do for my glutes. Not 100% sure what I’ll do just yet, since some thing I’ve done in the past of course are supposed to work it, but I don’t feel it there. So… it’ll be some experimentation to find stuff. And today I did some. Instead of belt squats, I did leg presses with my feet high on the plate and a bit wider. I actually felt it more in my adductors, but I think there’s something to it because the reverse hypers were a little tougher.

And I think I’ve finally got a good groove on the 1-leg reverse hypers, so I’ll probably up the weight a bit. This won’t be for sets of 5, but I do want to get maybe into that 8-12 range towards actually building some strength in there.

anyways, more to think about.

I dumped upright rows and the cable curls. Give the elbow a break.

5/3/1 (5th cycle, leader-2, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Deadlift (superset with band pullaparts)
  • 185 x 5
  • 230 x 5
  • 280 x 3
  • 325 x 3
  • 375 x 3
  • 420 x 8 (rep PR)
• Leg Press (feet high and wide)
  • 90 x 25 (playing with foot position)
  • 180 x 20
  • 270 x 12
• 1-Leg Reverse Hypers
  • 90 x 20e
  • 90 x 20e
  • 90 x 20e
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min