Weekly Training Recap, High Bar Squat 1RM, And Stuff You Should Read

This past week has been ~~relatively crappy~~ kind of OK as far as training goes.

Monday was alright. Did all my prescribed sets for squats. I added reverse banded bench press to my "over warm up" at 410 lb before moving onto the work sets. Didn't get 5x5 on the bench press though (only 3 sets of 5).

Tuesday I did a neck workout prior to hitting up Mongolian (AKA STRONGolian) Grill. I like to train before going out to eat, so whatever I am eating becomes my post workout meal:

Couldn't hit my usual over warm up front squat at 370 lb for whatever reason on Wednesday, and on Friday my entire body was achey and tired, and I didn't complete my typical warm up sets!

I was thinking about taking the weekend off just to rest, but figured that I might be able to hit a high bar squat PR on Saturday because I didn't do my full training session the day before. Turns out I was right!

High Bar Squat: 505 lb

I tried squatting this weight last week and missed, and I got pinned on the first attempt at 505 this Saturday.

I think I didn't get it the first time because I tried to cut the rep short and didn't plow down all the way to the bottom to bounce out of the hole, or I wasn't prepared to fight during the sticking point when coming up.

In any case, the second time I made sure to bury the squat and bounce out of the bottom, and mentally prepared myself for a potentially ugly-ass grinder.

Well, I got it!

This is a +5 lb PR.

I find that high bar squats are easier than low bar squat up to around 90-95% of 1RM. After that, it feels SIGNIFICANTLY harder than low bar squats because there's a certain sticking point that's difficult to overcome when ascending out of the hole.

Ab Wheel Rollouts x 6

I always feel like I'm one of the Transformers while doing these...transforming into some sort of crappy 1 wheeled, 2 legged vehicle or something.

I've been doing these along with dragon flags and L-sit chin ups at the beginning of my workout (during "warm up") just to get it out of the way. Lately, my core has been feeling a little harder. Very nice.

Anyway, check this out: