Back to work

43 Burpees done throughout the day. I am definitely getting a whole lot better at these.

Deadlift x 5
45-50-60-60-lost count - at least 2 more sets worth i think

Push-Press x 5
45-50(PR)-50-50-50

Dips x 10 on BIW Gravitron
90- 90

I was in a foul mood @ work today - coming home from vacation tends to do that - and I am getting thoroughly disgusted with my company's rampant inefficiency. Anyway, I was relieved to get to the gym to put all that aside just to work on moving heavy things around. At least I feel like I accomplished something.

I kept the Deadlifts really light tonight to continue trying to work on my form. I did them in ront of the mirror - and it was a good thing i did, too. I started off only focusing on trying to not let my knee wobble on the lift and the descent. But I noticed - after about mythird set, that the bar was not parallel to my legs when I set it down on the ground. The left side was about 8-12 inches in front of my foot, and the right was much closer. This really confused me since I had been making sure to trace my shins with the bar on the way down.

This led me to take a much closer look at my form. I looked at myself in the mirror in the squat position just before the lift and I realized that while my shoulders were square over the bar, my hips were swiveled out to the left(allowing me to place most of my weight on my left foot) and my torso was compensatingly swiveled to the right to be 'square'. I worked to straighten myself out and - what looked straight in the mirror sure didn't feel natural. That will take some practice.

Long story short, after that discovery I stopped keeping track of reps, and just kept lifting trying to keep everything as aligned as possible both on the way up and the way down. Daniel's noticed the funny sort of corkscrew action I do when I was back squatting, too, so I am sure that this is something universal that needs to be fixed.

Astonishingly (meaning entirely predictably) when I was correctly aligned, the bar went up really easy, and the movement felt strong and sturdy. I'll have to keep working on this until what is 'right' also feel 'natural'. Once I manage to retrain myself (god only knows how long that will take :-< ) I expect that I'll be able to advance a lot more quickly in all of the lifts.

The push presses were pretty good. 50# feels quite a lot heavier than 45#. It really hurt (fatigued) my wrists. Daniel pointed out - and i think he's right - that I am not holding the bar in the front squat position - resting on my delts - between reps. I tried it, but couldn't quite figure out how to get from the 'rack' position' into a position I can push-press from. That will probably come with experience - and a little more wrist strength.

Then while Daniel was getting dressed, I decided to try a few dips. I've managed to miss every workout that calls for them - by accident not design - and they are definitely something I want to work towards developing. I set the BIW gravitron to 90 and manged 10 consecutive - the last few were really tough. When Daniel still wasn't out a few minutes later I managed to get in 10 more. I wasn't sure I would get the last couple, but I managed it. Next time I will try 80.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this workout. I'm glad I was able to identify a major structural problem, and I feel like it is fixable with the proper attention to detail.