Strength Cycle Week 11, part 1 - progress!

Finally! Progress!

Warmup: 5 minutes on the eliptical to warm up achy legs, 30 situps, 30 dowel OHS, shoulder dislocates.

I was working the Boz warmup with the OHS - trying to get hands and feet narrower as I went along, and for some reason, (finally?) I really noticed the width of my stance for the OHS when I was getting good depth, and realized that it was a lot wider than my usual back squat stance. I turned to Daniel and said - "I think my squat stance is too narrow." At which point he laughed, a little hysterically, and said "I've been trying to tell you that for the last YEAR." Why is it that some things - although you hear them over and over and know them backwards and forward - just DON'T PENETRATE until some totally random magic moment when things finally click?

BackSquat:
Warmup: 5 x 45, 5 x 45

5 x 55, 67, 77 Got it!
You can see the knee collapsing in somewhat if you really watch it. I also trimmed 17 seconds off the beginning of the video of me picking up the bar and getting my feet into position ... I definitely need to work on making that speedier. Part of it was me taking a little extra time today to try to find the right width stance, but part of it just needs to get faster.



21 x 62
attempt #1: catastrophic failure
not really sure how I managed this, but I figured I might as well post it since we caught it on camera ... who doesn't love to broadcast their colossal fails? This is a great "how not to squat" vid:


attempt #2: 15,6
went much better - though not quite 21. glad I decided to go ahead and try it again. I was pretty freaked out. I think i could get 21 if i could just get myself to go faster. my arms got too tired to keep holding the bar (well and my legs gave out, too.).

On the whole I am doing better at keeping my knees out, but there is still plenty of work to be done in this arena.

Bench Press:
warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 50, 55, 60, 65, 72 PR!!! GOT IT!!

21 x 55# - got this one too - BARELY. :-D AWESOME

The bench (finally!) felt strong again today.

WIth the 72# WEIGHT - it is SO strange - rep 1 was easy, rep 2 was still pretty easy - rep 3 was damn near impossible, but I finally managed to gut it out, and get that sucker UP.

On the set of 21 I nearly failed at rep 19 - Daniel thought i was done and moved to take the bar from me, but I wouldn't let him take it. I was sure I could get those last two reps, and I did.