New PR's are FUN :-)

Tonight was looking like it was going to be a dud of a workout night. Daniel & I met at Ironworks to do our 5x5 only to get beaten to the squat cages (while we were warming up! >:-p ) by two guys who routinely take a very long time to do their thing. So it looked like we might be out of luck for squats. I had a long tiring day working in the warehouse at work, so I wasn't sure I was going to get anything out of actually working out, but Daniel really wanted to get his squats done, so we decided to trundle ourselves off to the power company where, if the rack was unavailable, we still had an opportunity of doing deadlifts with the 7pm CFEB class.

Daniel arranged to work in on the squat rack upstairs, I opted to join the CFEB class for the DL. The rep scheme for the day was 5-5-3-3-3-1-1.

I did a warmup set with 95# that felt kinda retardedly heavy, initially, but i started my workset @ 105.

It went something like this:

105 x5, gosh that was kinda hard - should probably stick to this weight for the next 5 reps. 105x5, ok - that wasn't SO bad, i could probably try something harder next,
115x3, well, yeah that was hard, but it's only 3 reps - i can try more,
125x3, heck - that was pretty easy - let's try my previous 1RM ... oh wait - there are 3 sets of 3? not 2? ok well ... I'll try it ... those big scary 45# plates are not the boss of me!
135x3 woo hoo! I got it! 3 times! and the last 2 were consecutive! (there was a brief moment of rest after the first)
uh .. hm .. i seem to be on a roll ... 145, here i come!!
145 x zero. couldn't QUITE move it. tried twice. oh wait. that's right - there are 2.5# weights - i can try 140. well DUH - i shoulda done that first.
140x1 - Yee HAW! it was slow, it was a FIGHT - but i got that thing UP.
140x1 - Alright!!! It wasn't a fluke I got it up the first time!! It was still slow and brutal.

Both times I got it about half way up my calves where it got stuck and wouldn't start moving again until I started grunting at it. I dunno what it is about those grunt-y, groan-y sounds, but they REALLY do help. I think it has something to do with requiring or maybe just causing a contraction in the core that helps move you (me) past the stuck spot.

I'm pretty excited about my PR's, of course there's the stupid little voice in my that says "You set that 1 RM back in SEPTEMBER - you can only do 5# better now?! Lame." But, in all honesty, pulling 135# that one time on my birthday seems like it was a fluke - some strange birthday gift from the gods. Every time since then that I have tried to pull that much weight - or even anything close to it it hasn't even moved. I wasn't able to repeat my feat on that day, either, which I was today, which makes me feel better about the validity.

I have a couple other workouts that I am behind on blogging - life has just been too crazy lately to stay caught up ... also they were less impressive so it's harder to want to sit down and write about being unimpressive when I'm really stressed out about work and whether I'll continue to have a job in the foreseeable future. At least I am continuing to workout. Edit. Ok - all caught up. sort of. my usual commentary is largely missing, but the facts and the logistical details are there.