A return to the 5 x 5

Warmup: Mobility exercises, 10 pushups, 30 situps, 30 air squats

Front Squats x 5:
45-45-55-60-60-60-60-60

Bench Press x 5:
45-45-55-60-60-60-60-60

Well - it was nice to get back to this. I decided to switch out back squats for front squats. Front squats keep you a lot more honest about keeping your chest up - you just have to - and I really liked them when we did them in class last week or so.

I got as high as 65# when we did them in class - but I decided to ease back into this a bit - so I opted to start with 60. The last rep of the last set was very nearly a bail, so that was probably smart. I felt like these were pretty good. THe knee wobble is there, and the corkscrewing is there on some reps - but my form and stability is much improved. It could still use some work (duh), but I feel that I now have the basics down enough to make it worth my while to try to progress.

I had thought about going with 55# for the bench - but Daniel said it looked easy when I practiced with it so I decided to do 60# instead (even though it didn't FEEL particularly easy) . Again, the last rep of the last set was very nearly a fail - but i pulled it out. (or pushed ;-) )
I don't know why, but my first set of bench press is always horrible. The bar goes up and down in this ridiculous completely uncoordinated way. It's like my muscles have to relearn how to do it. My second set was totally fine. And Daniel said that all my sets in general were looking really good. The bar is coming up evenly in one motion and is staying in the plane it should be in. I used to sort of 'ratchet' the bar up, one side at a time. My right arm definitely feels more tired than my left - which is awesome because that means it was actually trying to carry it's fair share.

Oh - and just to see if I could do it (which I couldn't not too long ago) I shoulder pressed the empty oly bar - it was only the one rep, but it was practically easy!