Bob Dylan

Back in the gym this afternoon, and since I'd been away for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd take a different approach back in to it. Rather than doing a typical 3x5 3-lift programme, I went for a 1x5 5-lift programme, just to get all of the lifts nice and greased again.

So squats went to 132.5kg and on just the one set, they felt quite solid, I felt comfortable with the weight on my back and controlled it quite well, no plummeting towards the bottom. Nice start.

Bench was next, one set at 75kg, and that was a bit more of a strain - certainly noticed the gap since I'd last done them much more. Still, they all went up.

Powercleans weren't quite so nice - I focussed much more on form through the warmups, and the difference between getting it right (or even okay!) and pulling them up is huge. I went to 82.5kg, but I was looping them out too much and didn't have the pattern down, so I dropped the weight back to 60kgs to get more in with a better pattern. I've been completely missing the thigh-touch on the way up, and I may need to reset down a bit again to get it. It's important that I get it right, so I'll probably go back to 70kgs as my workset weight next time.

Then it was press, and 55kg for 5. These were a little more difficult following the powercleans, but I got them up okay, still working on the 'new' technique for them.

Lastly it was time for deadlifts, and well, they're only one set anyway, right? So rather than just throwing in a double or something, I went for the full set at 172.5kg, for my third attempt. The warmups all went up quite solidly, and so did the first two of the workset. The third though swung out on the way up, and I got it just above my knees before having to drop it. But I wasn't going to stop there, no sir! I reset and pulled it again, and this time made it - but my back had rounded a bit too much, so I quickly ran and put my belt on. Does that make it not a single set? Perhaps, but I say unto you - bite me! It was still no more than 30 seconds between reps. Anyway, I got it in to a comfortable position, set myself and pulled. The belt didn't provide the same sort of valsalva-assistance that it does in the squat - I couldn't feel it to breathe against, as it were. But it did provide enough of a tactile cue on my back to help me keep it solid, and the last two went up really very nicely. PR! Awesome.

So then I went to celebrate with chinups - just one again (plus 4 jumping chins) but two sets this time! So kinda another PR. Good good.