5x5's, and another skill bites the dust

Back Squat, x 5: 95-155-155-155-155-155
Weighted Pull-up x 5: 15-15-15-15-15
Weighted Pull-up x 1: 45-60(PR!)

I resisted the siren call of heavy deadlifts in class tonight to pursue my back squat regimen upstairs. Eric was there, and we worked in together while he did his deadlifts. His main comment on my form was that I tend to pitch forward at the bottom half of the drive up, which puts inordinate amount of strain on my back. Well, yeah. I get confused, because I'm trying to get good hip drive like Rip says, but I guess I can't do it at the expense of my chest facing the wall. So I worked hard at keeping that back arch throughout, and Eric said I improved.

I went downstairs with the intention of finding my weighted pull-up 1RM, with the hope that just maybe I could cross off another Level II skill (I needed 1/3 bodyweight, or 60#). Folks were busy with their deadlifts and I didn't want to intrude, and I didn't know where the weight belts were. So I grabbed a weighted vest and decided I'd just do 5x5's. I thought the vest was 20#, but turns out I was wrong - which is fine, because 15# really felt like the right weight.

After class was done, Max showed me where the belts were kept, and I thought maybe I'd noodle around with single reps. Since I'd just done a load of weighted pullups, at only 15#, and they were hard, I figured I was not going to do well. But I tried 45#, and it really didn't seem that bad, so I just said "to Hell with it" and decided to try 60# and see what happened.

I got it! It was a real struggle, but my chest touched that bar. One more off the list.