Bloody music things

All this thinking of band names, it's too hard! Especially when I'm not really going anywhere with the weights. Well, that's not entirely true - I set a 1RM in the squat. But it wasn't exactly planned that way...

I was intending to stay at 110kg 3x5 today, and worked up to that. Taking 110 out of the rack after my warmup sets though felt really heavy, and after 1 rep I wasn't sure if I could make it. I did a second, and my form was awful so I racked again and pondered for a while. After a bit I reluctantly started taking the 5kg plates off the end, before I stopped again.

You see, I've been taking weight off, and significant amounts of it, each time I squat - it's almost reverse linear progress. My 3x5RM is 130kg (okay, with not-so-set back) and here I am, struggling on 110kg even to do a couple of reps. My sleep has been a little off, and I suspect I'm not eating enough (it's always hard to judge when losing weight. I'm going to start tracking again for a week or so, see how it's going) but that's a huge amount back. So I began to think that perhaps I should load weight ON, to at least counter the psychological element.

So that's what I did - not for sets of 5, but just for singles; feel the weight on my back, feel how my body reacted, and see if I could get it up. So I loaded 120kg - one rep, down and up, felt fairly good, a little rounding but felt fairly firm (didn't take the camera today unfortunately!) Waited 5 minutes or so, loaded 130kg on and did another one. I could actually feel the back break at the bottom of this one, but held it and managed to push back up without too significant an effort. So up to 140kg, heavier than I've ever done (previous was my 3RM, 135kg.) This time the back really broke, and it was a struggle getting it back up, but by gods it went back up.

So what have I learned? That I really am strong enough, and I've been cowering under the bar a bit. I need to strengthen my back, improve my control, but if I keep dropping the weight I'll just get weaker, not my back stronger. So I'll continue to focus on the back between sessions, put the bar back to 120kg for the next session, and if I get 3x5 there with reasonable form I'll head back up 2.5kg at a time.

After that, back to the press, and having acquired some 1.25kg plates I loaded up 52.5kg and sent it on its way. I practised the Mark Rippetoe double hip-whip (which I'm sure looks ridiculous to bystanders) and got it up, 15 times. Excellent.

Deadlift... well, one set at 80kg, and then 155 didn't want to move. Perhaps not having chalk didn't help so much on that one - must make sure to remember it.

A mixed session, but I've come out of it feeling positive and like I have more direction. Which is groovy.