06 December 2011

Iron Maiden

So back to the gym I went, determined to have some better form in the squats. One thing (yes, another thing!) I realised was that I've been doing the valsalva a bit wrong (or, at least, it's crept that way) as I've tended to take a breath and suck in, rather than push out. I don't think this is all of my troubles, but doing it right today (at least, I think so!) more consistently helped see more consistently better form. Not perfect, and not every rep, but good enough that I got 15 done at 120kg much easier than has been the case. Even the last one where I completely lost tension, ended up in a full squat at a dead stop, and by gods pushed it back up anyway. With a bit of rounding, but I reckon, in this instance, I can be forgiven it.

Next was bench, up to 70kgs this week. I've had many, many attempts at 70kg, but never pushed all 15 up - until today! It wasn't a doddle, but it didn't feel unbearably hard at all. So a new 3x5 PR, and up to 72.5 next week.

Powercleans at 75kg... so close, but not quite close enough! Even with 8-10 min in between every workset, by the time I get to these I'm getting rather tired. And that's not good for a power exercise which relies on good form and a well-timed snap! Just the same it was only the second-last rep of the third set that I couldn't rack, but there was much usage of arm-pulling before I got to that, it must be conceded. So I'll stay at 75 next time, try to work on getting that jump/shrug happening properly at heavier weights.

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