It has been a bit since my last post but I have continued to work out and do my part to eat right. I will admit the holidays took a toll on consistency and my eating habits went to hell. Here is to hoping that I am mentally stronger now and will do a better job at not falling.
After the new year I started a new workout program. This is a simple program set with warm-ups, heavy lifting, a short met-con followed up with some stretching. The heavy lifting consists of 4 basic lifts: Press, Back Squat, Bench Press, Dead Lift. You run through 1 heavy lift per workout. So day 1 would be Press at 50% of PR for 3 sets of 10. Then you get a rest day. Day 2 would be Back Squat at 50% of PR for 3 sets of 10, etc. Once you cycle through the 4 heavy lifts your start back at the top with the Press again but now you do 70% of PR for 3 sets of 5. After finishing that cycle you step up to 85% of PR for 3 sets of 3. Now you hit your PR attempts for the final cycle and then start from the top.
The plan seems solid and affective. The problem for me was when I got to the 85% of PR. My press went pretty damn well as my PR is 170. The heavy lifting for this was going way easy and I know I can beat that PR without issue. Now my Back Squat on the other hand was not so smooth. My Back Squat PR is 335 for 85% of that is 285. My first mistake was not taking proper time to warm up with the lift. I think I did 5 reps at 200. I then bumped up to 285 to get the 3 sets of 3 "over with". I'm sure that is not the right attitude for such weight. My 3rd set my form went a little off and I found myself on the balls of my feet instead of on my heels. Here is where a spotter would have been pretty fucking useful, shame on me for going here without one. I ended up using my back to right myself and complete the lift and in doing so I tweaked my back. It was debilitating but I felt it and it was not pleasing. I ended up finishing my workout that day and the next day my back seemed to be fine. A few workouts later I'm on to the Dead Lift at 85%. My PR for Dead Lift is 415 so 85% put me at 355. That is a damn heavy weight. I usually get up at 5am so I can bust out the workout before heading to work. This day due to lack of sleep I put it off till after work. Again I was in a rush after work to get my workout over with. I did decide I was work up to 85% with a few warm up reps. So I did a few lifts at 50% and then I bumped up to 70%, 290. My first attempt at 290 ended in big pain shooting through my low back. This stopped the workout and laid me out for the night where I went over the lift again and again trying to find where it went wrong. I am honestly still not positive. Perhaps I was over confident about the 70% and let my form slack a bit. Perhaps my back tweak the week before came back at me mixed with my form being slightly off. I swear my back was flat and I was driving with my heels, but was I? It is hard to say.
I am now healing up and getting back to it. This morning I had a PT session with Michael Gregory which I am so glad to be doing. During today's workout we worked on the Snatch. I thought I knew what I was doing but having a trainer there watching my movement proved it was not as solid as I thought. I really appreciate the critiques I received for this. I am now more sure my form is not as on as I think and look forward to getting more feedback and work done to improve what I got.
As I go forward with my workouts I need to set myself to getting out of the mindset of getting a workout over with and really be present thinking through what I am doing. I'm also not going to be stepping up past 70% of my PR without having a spotter and someone to keep my form on track. I will be making use of my Tablet to video my lifts so I can critique them and also show them to people who may be more knowledgeable about it and see what I need to fix.
All right done with the babbling for now.
little chocolate doughnut love.
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