Thanks for noticing @BOTSLAYER and thanks for the comments @Vincepac1500 - I’ll give my hands a try out a little wider this weekend and see how it feels.
04/17
Back feeling fairly beat up still. I did a bunch of mobility work yesterday and spent some torture time with the lacrosse ball on my QL. Feeling a bit better today, but yesterday was bad.
Bunch of air squats, box jumps, bodyweight lunges and more to get the hips warm for squats.
Squats
135 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 2
405 x 10, 1, 1, 1, 1
Happy with this. It is kind of nice when you are make a plan and execute it. I went through my logs and hitting 405 for a set of 10 would be a rep PR so I figured I had one good set in me then I’d just work on form and hit some singles. Felt great. I think for today this did more for me than 5x5 a this weight would have…if my back let me accumulate that much volume.
Bench
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 1
295 x 6
295 x 3, 3, 3, 3
Meh, hit 275 for 10 on Sunday. Wasn’t feeling bad or weak, just not as good as I was on Sunday.
Bunch of band and suspension training rowing stuff throughout.
Some bench and deads from Sunday’s session and squats from today.
@simo74 - Thanks, I think I have finally found a form that feels the most comfortable and strong. I think the increased frequency of squatting really allowed me to dial my form in.
@BOTSLAYER - I’m glad you and JM thought they looked smooth without any/much drifting because I was having issues with that when I wasn’t 100% confident in my knee. But looks like I’ve come back from that now which is great.
@mortdk - Thank you! I appreciate it, the deadlifts didn’t feel too difficult, but boy did I pay for them with back tightness over the next 2-3 days.
That would be me! I’m the one that spends so much darn time reading about nutrition and wanting to try different meal plans and stuff so it makes sense for me to take over that job. Plus, it gets me out of folding laundry and cleaning the bathrooms, win!
Squat
135 x 10
225 x 5
275 x 3 Paused
315 x 3
375 x 3 x 5sets
I used today as a slight deload on the squat since I just squatted 2 days ago and wanted a little more in the tank for when weights start jumping again over the next two sessions.
Thanks to you my abs are incredibly sore today. Not had the ab wheel out in about a year, seen your standing roll outs and was inspired to try. I’m not in a good way…
Haha, whenever I go long periods without doing the ab roller it doesn’t seem to take much to roast my abs! Were you able to rock a couple from standing?
Ab Wheel Story-time!
Two weeks ago I was at a buddy’s place and he was showing off his new basement weight room. He was trying to coax me into lifting some of the things he had to see how strong I am. I declined, but I did see an ab wheel in the corner. So I walked over to it and did 2 standing ab wheels. 3 other guys walked over to try (all who casually workout, and would be stronger than your average Joe) and fell on their face and they couldn’t believe I could do one.
Then my buddy (the one who was trying to challenge me to lift something in the first place) walks over and does a standing ab wheel, seemingly effortlessly. “Never tried one of those, cool”. He has grown up/lives on a farm his entire life and is a competitive lumberjack. Needless to say, his core is strong as hell. I was impressed. He is ~6’3".
I did one shakey one that would maybe pass, the second rep I fell! There was certainly no cheeky look to the camera. Sneezing is causing major problems today.
I just wanted to let you guys know that my abs are sore from doing pull ups on Wednesday! How pathetic is that? There are no ab specific exercises in my current program.
Start on your knees. If you can’t do a full rep then you can go to the wall or something else that can stop you. Do partial rollouts with the wall/box/object stopping you so you don’t fall. Move further from the object as you get better until you can do them without any help.
…that’s kneeling, btw.