Friday December 26, Niagara Club Y
So I woke up bright and early and drove 45min to train with the guy I met in Ottawa from the Niagara Club. They train out of the Y there and it’s actually a pretty sweet setup they have in the back for all their PL.
Anyways, I had a kick ass session. I didn’t pick any of my weights and got slight modifications to my form that helped a ton.
Squat:
45x10x1
95x5x1
135x3x1
185x3x2 → belt (on the second set I moved my feet slightly wider to sit in the hole easier…it worked!)
205x1x1 → belt
225x1x2 → belt on first, belt, wraps on second
255x1x1 → belt, wraps → PR!
275x1x1 → belt, wraps → Super PR!
Bench:
45x alot - we worked on where I should be touching the bar to my chest and how I should be squeezing the bar
65x5x1
65x3x1
95x1x1
105x1x1
115x1x1 → PR!
120x1x1 → PR!
Deadlift:
135x5x1
185x2x5
So my personal best for squat before today was 245. I blew it out of the water. I didn’t know what any of the weights were that I was using and just went and did it. I was training with two guys from their club, one of whom is organizing the meet. Had him wrap my knees for me and I almost puked. They said they’d go even tighter in competition. They just kept telling me to lean back and breathe which did help. Once I stood up, the pain lessened, however I felt like my left kneecap was going to pop off while he was wrapping them… They also cranked my belt one tighter than I usually go. Pretty bad ass. The worst part was after my 275, they struggled to get both of the wraps off and I was almost in tears. It wasn’t pretty. It felt like it took about 5 minutes, but it was probably only 20 seconds or so. However, when you can’t feel your feet and your legs are throbbing, it feels like forever!
My previous bench best was 110, but with a lot of reps leading up to that. The guys laughed cuz they said the 120 was the only weight I had to actually work for all day. They think I have 125 in me.
Deadlift I told them it was all in my head right now about messing up my back. Because of that, they said I should just do a lot of volume with lighter weights since I won’t get “stronger” in my deadlift in 4 weeks. Instead I should focus on my set up, my form and just do lots of reps. That way, come the meet, I’ve got it out of my head that I’m going to hurt myself and I can just pull.
I was talking to them afterwards and they said they would have lots of volunteers there so someone could wrap my knees for me at the meet which will help a ton. You just can’t make yourself hurt that much on your own… (or at least I can’t).
They both also thought I could squat 300lbs right now if I could wrap my head around it. I didn’t struggle that much with the 275, except I lost my velocity on the way down and didn’t make it as smooth. But still, I hit depth and it came up pretty easily. I said I’d love to be able to just lift and not know what weight I was doing so the younger guy that I met there initially said he’d do my numbers for me and wouldn’t tell me a damn thing. He said he’d make sure he was the volunteer with the lifters for my flight and take care of my attempts. That way I don’t have anything to stress out about…
Anyways, I have 3 more weeks of lifting and this session today was exactly what I needed. My coach had thought 250 for a 3rd squat attempt was a reach… screw that! Bartl has also been trying to get me to wrap my head around 135 for bench… to train towards that goal. Knowing I can hit 120 takes me a helluva lot closer to that as well.
