Didn't do much heavy pressing last week, because low bar squatting on Monday made my shoulders ache. High bar squatting the next day didn't help, as there was pain from my shoulders radiating down to my elbows.
Shoulders feel fine now, but I think I'll need to do some extra shoulder mobility work before I low bar squat. I'm thinking more shoulder dislocations, band pull aparts and maybe some light behind the neck pressing and behind the neck pull downs to get them loosened up before prying my arms back and wedging a bar in between my palms and my traps. I just need to remember to do them...
Anyways, managed 6 PRs last week, including hitting a goal weight for front squats for 2014:
6 Personal Records
Low Bar Squat (No Belt): 520 lb x 1 (1RM) & 500 lb x 2 (2RM)
+20 lb 1RM & +500 lb 2RM.
Doesn't look too hard, but low bar squat feels really awkward compared to high bar or front squats, for now.
High Bar Squat (No Belt): 455 x 5 (5RM)
Ate 1/4 of a strawberry cake last night. Felt like crap afterwards. Thought that would be enough to get me a relatively heavy PR today, but I guess not.
Missed the 2nd rep of 555 lb & 500 lb (no belt). Forgot to drive my traps into the bar coming up, and the bar felt like it was rolling forward towards my neck. Couldn't recover.
Ended up with a +15 lb no belt high bar squat 5 rep max.
Reverse Grip Bench Press: 340 lb x 6 (6RM)
+20 lb PR! Missed the 6th rep last week, got it today. May have had another rep in the tank, but don't want to get too big.
Front Squat: 475 lb x 1 (1RM)
+10 lb PR! And my front squat goal for 2014 is DONE. Still plenty of space on the bar though.
The bar felt like it was sliding off my left shoulder while coming up, but before I could really worry about it, the rep was surprisingly finished. felt fast and pretty easy for some reason.
Clean & Press: 250 lb x 1 (1RM)
Baby is out, so I decided to do some picking-stuff-up-off-the-floor exercise(s).
I was thinking of doing clean & press first to get a PR and warm up for deadlifts at the same time, then moving on to deadlifts at a higher warmup weight than normal. I was going to attempt to deadlift 600 lb, but low back didn't feel too good after 1 rep @320 lb, so I stopped. Plus, feeling kinda hungry.
Stuff You Should Read
- Cutting Weight – Powerlifting, Strongman, Olympic Lifting by Chris Duffin
- A guide for cutting ~12 lb for a 18-24 hour weigh in. It doesn't mention more aggressive cutting techniques like sweating it out in a bathtub, enemas or eyebrow shaving. I wonder what his street weight is.
- 5 Fitness Myths That Need to Die by Jordan Feigenbaum
- A bunch of gainzZz™ related old wives tales dispelled.
- Periodization For Powerlifting – The Definitive Guide by Juggernaut
- Holy crap, Cain Marko knows a lot about lifting!
