Back Squat 1RM

Test time! Last time I tested my 1RM Back Squat, back in February, I managed 190. The strength cycle was specifically designed to get that up, so how did it go?

Back Squat x 1: 210 - 220 - 225(f) - 225(f) - 225(f) - 220 - 225(f)

As you can see, I really wanted that 225 - four 45# plates! - and I just couldn't manage it. Frustrating as hell, but it is still 30 pounds higher than it was four months ago.

My failure at squatting feels like it is more a fault of form than of strength, and puts way too much stress on my back. Something I continue to work on. No more back squats for a while, though - it's strengthening the wrong parts of my body, and ingraining poor form habits. Front and overhead squats only for the next cycle. Those'll keep me honest. And, hopefully, upright.

By the time I was done with the squats, my biceps were KILLING me. Like, Friday-night-level killing me. I am not clear on why squats should fuck up my biceps, though Rebecca professes to be unsurprised. At any rate, conditions were not auspicious to test my 1RM bench press, so I'll have to do that later. Perhaps tomorrow... I'm really not sure I'm up for Murph. I'm supposed to be taking it easy for the next week so I can be fresh for my certification next weekend, and my hands are barely recovered from the KB snatches on Sunday that ripped them up.

1RM Part 1

Warmup: Run 800m, ME, 30 situps, 30 OHS w/ dowel, iguana stretch

WOD:
Back Squat:
5 x 45#
3 x 55, 65
1 x 75, 80, 85, 90(f), 90 (PR!), 95(f) 95(f)

Bench:
10 x 45#
3 x 65#
1 x 70, 75, 80 (PR!), 82(f), 82(f)

Comments:
Neat-o!

I thought I could get 95, but I just couldn't quite get out of the hole. The pressure in my head from holding my breath and the strain of trying to stand up with the weight made it feel like my head might explode - which was unsettling. But I think if I can just manage to not 'good morning' the lift, I might be able to get 95 on a good day. it felt nearly achievable, which is why I kept trying.

The bench was a different story. 70 was easy, 75 was pretty easy, 80 was a little wobbly, but totally doable. 82 was just stuck. I had no sense of 'maybe I can get this up'. It just was not going to go. It was almost like hitting a literal brick wall.

When I started, my 5 rm of back squats was 60# and 65# for the bench. I never tested my 1 rm. My current 5rm for BS is 80# and ... I actually don't know what my 5 rm for bench is right now - I've been working 3's for the past several weeks because I was completely stalled at the 5's. I seem to have had a breakthrough though in the past 2 weeks as I've been able to get 72 and then 75 x 3 where I have been stuck basically since the start of the cycle. There's a slim possibility that I could get 72 or possibly even 75 by 5 now - though the 75 might be wishful thinking.

My weights have not actually gone up all that much, but i think I've made some great strides in form, and I have a much stronger foundation from which to continue to build strength. In some ways I feel like I am now ready to start this cycle - which is a little ridiculous. I am very much looking forward to our oly lifiting cycle, and getting some concentrated work in on OHS, snatches and cleans. (I'm less excited about jerks). I think focusing on those three movements will do wonders for my power output, coordination and strength.

Strength Cycle: Final Workout

Well, we made it to the end! There was a two-week interruption in the middle, with a vacation and a cold, so 12 weeks became 14. And the results have been impressive, I think. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Deadlift x 5: 255 - 275 - 310 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 245 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 92 - 107 (pr)
Press x 21: 75 (20-1)

Very nice. My form was pretty crappy on the 310, judging from the scowls on Rebecca's face, but it did go up and down five times. I was not anticipating a good workout - my back has been tired from the squats and the cleans - so I was just happy to get through it. The 245 went surprisingly well, actually, only getting really painful after rep 16. I was SHOCKED to get 107x5 on the shoulder press, and dismayed to fail the big set on rep 20. Gita and a couple others decided to try it, and agreed that 21 consecutive shoulder presses is difficult. Max said mine were looking a little push-pressy at the end, which is dismaying, but oh well. The workout's done. Hell, the whole cycle is done.

So this week we'll test 1RM for the movements, so we can gauge success on the terms we set out to use as metrics, but here's a little preview of where my 5RM went.

Squat 170 -> 205 (+35#, 20%)
Deadlift 265 -> 310 (+45#, 17%)
Press 95 -> 107 (+12#, 12.6%)
Bench 140 -> 160 (+20#, 14%)
Bodyweight 176 -> 191 (+15#)

FIFTEEN POUNDS bodyweight! Holy shit. It's no wonder my climbing and my pullups are horrible. This is preliminary, though - I'm stopping the creatine today and will remeasure bodyweight in a week. From what I understand of how it works, my muscles are puffed up with water from the creatine, so I should hopefully drop some of that this week to get a more accurate picture of how much weight I actually gained.

Strength Cycle - OVER

I've been putting off this post because i wanted to do a big analysis thingy about where I was when I started, etc etc etc. but I haven't found the time to put that together so I'm just going to enter the details of the last day and hopefully I will find time to do the analysis separately.

SO:
Deadlift:
warmup 10 x 45, 5 x 95

5 x 120, 130, 140 failed on rep 5

21 x 110# (14,2,3,1,1)

Shoulder Press
warmup: 30 x 5

3 x 40,45,52,55,62 failed on rep 2 - twice.

21 x 37# - got it! it was slow and brutal, but i never dropped the bar.

I had a KILLER headache friday night - it kept me up into the wee hours of the morning, and it was still around a little when this workout started. I wasn't sure whether the workout would help or exacerbate it, so I was a little tentative and slow to start. The work did make the headache subside, but the heavy deadlifts kinda tweaked my back. Just a little.

Week 12 part 1 (last week!!)

Warmup: .25 miles on the eliptical - barefoot. That was an interesting experiment. I had a really hard time keeping my right foot in place - i do when i have shoes on too - it just hurt a lot more to mash my toes into the end of the footbed or step on the edge of it. I was glad when my .25 miles was done.

Some OHS dowel squats, hip openers, hamstring stretch, iguana stretch

Back Squats:
Warmup: 5 x 45

5 x 60, 70, 80 PR!

21 x 60# (forgot the 1# weights)
(16,5)

These actually went pretty well, i thought tonight. I had to try twice to get the set of 80 - the first time I failed on rep 3, but the second time I made it though all 5 - although the 3rd and the 5th reps were pretty sketchy. On the whole, though, my knees are staying out better, and I am doing a better job of keeping my weight on both legs. Huge progress from just a couple weeks ago. I also managed not to fall over or injur myself in any particular way. (Although my back is pretty worked from yesterday's deadlifts)

I think the 2 trys at 80 took a lot out of me, but my biggest problem with the set of 21 is just that I don't go fast enough. My arms give out about the same time my legs do - or maybe even a little bit sooner. The first 7-8 reps were great. Then I got to 10 or 11 and lost count and spent a few precious moments trying to figure out whether it was 10 or 11 - had a brief 'interlude' with daniel when he told me he wasn't counting ... I believe I told him to fuck off (in the most loving way possible, of course), decided it had to be 10 and moved on.


Bench Press:
Warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 50,55,62,67,75 PR!

21 x 57# (15,1,5)

THese went better than expected. I was pretty wrecked after the back squats, and I was definitely not expecting to be able to get my set of 75. The 3rd rep was UGLY - it wavered all over the damn place - but I got it up, so it counts :-p ... I actually, ultimately, probably did a lot more work than I would have if I could have just kept it straight over my torso - so I'm calling it a PR +! ;-)

The wet of 21 ... was ok. The 1 rep in the middle was because I tried a different width grip and did not like it at all.

So farwell for a while to the backsquat and bench press. I'm glad that by the end of it my squat was finally heavier than my bench. :-p

Strength Cycle Week 12, part 1

It's the final week of the strength cycle, and I'm ready for it to be over. Next week I want to figure out my new 1RMs, so I can accurately track progress and analyze the program, but for now I'm just grateful I don't have to do 21 back squats again anytime soon.

Back Squat x 5: 155 - 185 - 205F/4
Back Squat x 21: 155 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 160(pr!)
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)

The squats did not go well from the start. I've been feeling jittery and spooked about my form since the videos from last week showed such a rounded back, and my hip flexors were exhausted from yesterday's deadlifts. My form was very poor today - lots of good-mornings out of the hole. I racked the weight after 4 reps at 205 because reps 3 and 4 were bad enough to feel scary. The big set made me want to cry. I won't miss that anytime soon.

The bench went better. I FINALLY got 160x5, which has been my goal for this cycle ever since it eluded me a few weeks ago and forced me to drop back down to 157. That means I made it to 5RM of my previous 1RM in every movement. The last rep was very wobbly, but it made it up. I knew I wasn't going to make the big set - it cruises along until about rep 12 or 13, and then it goes downhill FAST.

My back is sore, which is unusual. Going to try and get some extra sleep tonight.

Strength Cycle Week 11, pt. 2 - more progress!

Warmup: .5 miles on elliptical, ME, 20 situps, boz warmup-2 rounds, hip openers

Deadlift:
Warmup: 10 x 45#, 5 x 95#

5 x 115, 125, 135 - got it! PR! (though the last two reps weren't pretty)

21 x 105# - got it - though, again, the last few reps weren't pretty.

Press:
Warmup: 10 x 15#, practice with dowel

3 x 40-45-50-52-60
Ii failed to get 60 up at all the first time i tried it. I got it up twice the second time i tried it - and i managed to get a set of three the third time i tried it. PR! Daniel really helped me with my form on these - apparently I didn't really know where "overhead" was, and was consistently finding a place in front of my head instead of directly overhead. which made them much harder to get up.

21 x 40 (12,6,3) - these did not go so well. The first 12 were horribly wonky - i couldn't get a rhythm going, and i was wobbling all over the place. the last 9 were much better. ... last week i managed to get 14 ,7 at this weight. grrr. still - i PR'ed on three of my four tasks today, and I can't help but be happy about that.

Strength Cycle Week 11, part 2

I've been fighting off a case of the grumpies today, which meant a reluctance to do this workout (not having a group setting like a class is a real disadvantage sometimes). Thankfully, Rebecca and I managed to work through it, and I felt better afterwards, despite the annoying pain in my arms.

Deadlift x 5: 250 - 275 - 305 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 240 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 90 - 105 (pr)
Press x 21: 75 (18-3)

I really focused on keeping my ass down on the deadlifts, and earned some praise from Rebecca for it. Very pleased to get 105x5 on the press, and was not at all surprised to fail on the big set - a five pound jump from last week combined with some tired arms from the heavy set, I was pleased to make it all the way to 18.

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.

Strength Cycle Week 11, part 1

Satisfying night at the gym, as the benchmarks continue to accumulate.

Back Squat x 5: 150 - 175 - 200(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 150 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 135 - 157(pr)
Bench Press x 21: 120F (15-6)

The squats weren't too shabby, though the last rep or two felt quite hard. I'm consciously trying to avoid pulling down on the weight, but it's a hard habit to break. I'm very happy to FINALLY make a PR on the bench, and would dearly love to get 160x5 next week, but honestly I'd be surprised if it happened - I really seem to have stalled out on the bench press.

In honor of breaking into the 200 club, here's a video of some of tonight's effort. The air squats at the end are for the benefit of some forum folks whom I am asking for help in improving my lumbar extension.

Strength Cycle Week 10, part 1 & 2

Part 1 (5/21/09)
Warmup: not much. some squats, some hip openers, some dislocates.

Backsquats:
Warmup 5 x 45#, twice.

5 x 55# , 65#, 65#(uneven weight left & right)

This week was a moderately successful return to focus on form after last week's ugly results. I've included some footage from last week in the video below to show the progression.


Bench Press:
Warmup: 10 x 45#

3 x 55-55-60-65-72(f rep 1)

Everything just felt heavy and awkward. It was not a particualrly good lifting day.


Part 2 (5/23/09)
Warmup: jog .25 mile on treadmill, mobility exercises, a few reps of 30# snatches. A few attempts at 45# snatches - turned into 45# shrugs.

Deadlifts:
warmup: 10 x 30#, 10 x 45#, 5 x 95#

5x 115, 120, 130 - got it!

21 x 100# - got it - pr - this is where i was stuck before i had to go back down in weight when i discovered how to use my hamstrings.



This is only video of my heaviest attempt. My form has cleaned up a lot - but I have got to figure out how to keep my knees from buckling.

Presses:
warmup: 15 x 15#

3 x 40#, 45#, 50#, 55#, 60#(f rep 2)

21 x 40# (14, 7)

I am still struggling with my form on these. I don't always get my head through fast enough - particularly when i get tired. ... apparently I somehow skipped 21 x 37#. I think I will go down and try that weight next week.

Strength Cycle Week 10, part 2

Well, despite feeling rather like I got run over by a stampeding elephant named "Eva," today's strength routine turned out rather well - and certainly better than Thursday.

Deadlift x 5: 245 - 270 - 300 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 235 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 90 - 105F/3
Press x 21: 70 (unbroken)

When I started this strength routine, 300 was my one-rep max for deadlift, and 105 was my one-rep max for shoulder press. I'm not at all surprised I failed at three reps on the press today, though - after yesterday my shoulders have been feeling totally fried, and all my presses felt hard today. I was quite surprised that I managed 70 x 21. Hopefully I'll be able to get 105x5 next week.

Rebecca got my 300x5 on video for posterity, and I neglected to edit out all the time I spend psyching myself up to pick up the bar:

It's funny how my ass goes down to start the pull and then shoots right back up. On these sets of five the first one is always my worst one, and then my form is not so bad afterwards. My hips are shooting up a little faster than my shoulders, but overall I'm fairly happy with my form here.

Strength Cycle Week 10, part 1

Disappointing.

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 165 - 195(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 145 (unbroken)
Bench Press x 5: 125 - 140 - 157F/4
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)

Continuing to make progress on the squat (195 wasn't actually as bad as I feared it would be), but my bench remains stalled out. It felt weak right from the get-go tonight. Last night's WOD? Waiting too long between squats and pressing? Goofing around with weighted pullups? Different equipment? I don't know, but in general tonight I wasn't feeling it. Distracted, irritable, awkward with the different equipment and location...hopefully next week will be better. Only have to do this twice more and then we can shelve it for a little bit.

Strength Cycle Week 9, part 2 and Oly Seminar

Deadlift x 5: 225 - 255 - 295 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 230 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 85 - 102 (pr)
Press x 21: 67 (unbroken)

Wow, a good day! Especially considering how fucking wrecked I'm feeling these days. We got a good long sleep last night, and I woke up stiff but fairly energetic. Took my first contrast shower, which may be a bunch of hoo-hah, but is harmless and seemed to to a fairly good job of alleviating the soreness. By the time we got to Ironworks, I was feeling pretty close to 100%.

This did not last. While I did make good weights on my lifts, it came at a pretty steep cost, pretty quickly. My arms, particularly my upper biceps and deltoids, started acting up again, and my overall energy plummeted. The lifts went well, though Rebecca yelled at me throughout my heavy set of deads for not using my legs enough (ie, too much back). I was pleasantly surprised to get the 21 consecutive at 67...though that just means I have to do 70 next time!

After the strength routine came a three-hour Oly lifting seminar with Jim Schmitz. He spent about half the time on the snatch, and the rest on the clean and jerk - typically going around the circle and having each person do whatever the drill was. To be honest, I was rather disappointed with this. Perhaps it was my mood, which was somewhere between grumpy and downright cranky, or my general sense of exhaustion. There were some good takeaways, though:

• He likes to do developing sets of three, and they do work well: so a power snatch and two squat snatches, or a power snatch -> hang squat snatch -> squat snatch. By the time you get to the third rep, form is generally improved.
• I like the exercise of going tno the bottom of a OHS or Front Squat and taking some time to move your head all around down there in order to establish a comfort zone at the bottom of the lift.
• Also good is the slow deadlift -> shrug drill, with a weight heavier than you can clean
• For coaching, holding a dowel in front of you to help track the lifter's bar path is a "why didn't I think of that?" idea.
  

Strength Cycle Week 9, part 1

Max has instituted weekly 1RM deadlifts on Wednesdays to act as a sort of overtraining-o-meter, given the crazy shit he and Gita have planned for us over the next few weeks (ie, tomorrow's WOD). All well and good, except Rebecca and I already have strength days set aside, and they aren't jiving too well with the new CFEB schedule. Solution? Move 'em. So now we're going to do our strength stuff on Wednesdays and Saturdays, instead of the deadlifts and so we don't have THREE workouts on Sundays. Hopefully this will work out - we only have 3.5 weeks left in the cycle, anyway.

Back Squat x 5: 145 - 170 - 190(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 140
Bench Press x 5: 125 - 145 - 160F/2 - 157F/4
Bench Press x 21: 120F (16-5)
Finisher: 50 unbroken burpees for time: 4:11

Well, the squats went well. 190 was my 1RM when we started this cycle. I've discovered a bad habit: when coming out of the hole and trying to get my chest up, sometimes I PULL down on the bar very hard. This makes it more difficult, I've found. I need to be lighter on the bar with my hands - I can manage this on the big set, but at high weights I find I'm falling back into the good-morning habit. 140x21 was miserable.

The bench was terrible. I've definitely backslid and/or stalled out on this one. While it's nice to be making all the progress on squats and deadlifts, my press strength (shoulder and bench) just does not want to budge much. Next week I'll go for 157 x 5, then 5x3's up to 160 the following week. Maybe I'll get 160 x 5 by the time the strength cycle ends.

The 50 burpees were a good challenge: once you stop to take a breath, you're done. The obvious plan, then, is to set a pace slow enough that you can maintain it. Mine felt pretty damn slow, but really I don't think they were THAT much slower than my regular burpee pace - 4:11 translates to a 5-second-burpee pace, which may be a second slower than regular. My quads were burning throughout and trembling afterward.

Strength wk9 pt 1 - and some burpee fun.

Warmup: 400m jog, 15 pushups, 30 situps, 15 squats, 15 dowel ohs, 15 good mornings 15# bar.

Wod 1:
Backsquats:

10 x 45#
5x 55#-65#-75#(pr)
21x 65# (f) 14,7

Benchpress:

10x45#
3x50#-55#-60#-65#-72#(f rep 3 - twice)
21x55 (f) 19,3 (rep 19 didn't *quite* count my right arm just would not fully lock out - so i did 1 extra.)

Comments:
I was feeling pretty good about this. I thought I was doing pretty darn well with the squats this week. And then I watched the video Daniel took. My form is terrible. And it is entirely clear why my left knee always hurts afterwards. As Daniel put it, I am essentially doing assisted pistols. I would say that 70-80% on my weight is on my left leg. doing heavy reps with horrible form is just stupid - it doesn't help me and could very well injur me. The weights are not going up - and may very well go down - until I can keep my weight on both legs and keep my knees out. I also loose my lumbar curve pretty quickly. I have GOT to get serious about loosening up my hamstrings. I'll try to get the video up tomorrow - though honestly, it's just embarassing.

WOD #2:
50 Unbroken Burpees - no stopping to rest or breathe - constant motion.
5:45 - definitely a PR.

Averages out to 6.9 seconds per burpee. might be my fastest per burpee time ever - even though the burpees were pretty damn slow, not stopping to rest made a huge difference in the time. It was definitely a suck fest. But it felt good to get it done. I can. I will. I must.

Strength Cycle Week 8, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 225 - 255 - 290 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 225 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 85 - 100 (pr)
Press x 21: 67 (17-3-1)

I'm quite pleased with this. Despite not having even attempted this portion of the strength routine for three weeks, there wasn't really any backsliding - two PR's, in fact! And the 225x21 is a real mental benchmark for me - it was not terribly long ago that 225 for reps was seriously difficult. The only downside is the big set of presses - last time I failed on rep 20, so this was a little worse. But three out of four ain't bad, so I'm happy.

Strength - apparently I actually still have some!

Warmup: some air squats, 30 situps, hip openers, some OHS squat w/dowel, iguana stretches

WOD (same numbers as last week, because last week was an absolute, abortive disaster - and I didn't even have daniel's excuse of being sick - I just hadn't eaten anything):

Back Squat:
5-5-5
55-65-75 - fail rep 5 - NEARLY had it. Made the mistake of trying to breathe on the way up, and lost all core stability. I was almost half way up when i lost it. Grrrr.

21 x 60# - got it! Next week 62.
I was having a really hard time catching my breath on these. That was, in fact my limiting factor. I knew from my failure on the 75, that I had to hold my breath all the way down and up in order to make it through the reps, and so I had to pant at the top of each rep to make sure I had enough breath to make it all the way through the rep. Knowing that I wasn't allowed to breathe until I got back up made a great motivator to get down and up quickly ;-)

Bench Press:
5-5-5
50-62-72 failed rep 3 - the first 2 reps were hard but felt doable. apparently I let the bar dip (arms not perpendicular to the floor) on rep 3 and totally failed. I tried again and couldn't get any. Next week should probably be 5 x 3

21 x 55# (15-6) The first 12 reps were great - and then my right arm just couldn't keep straightening - I only made it three more reps and stopped - I didn't fail, I stopped. When my right side starts failing so significantly like that it makes me angry and sad, and it screws with my concentration. After about 20 seconds I finished out the last 6 reps. They were so easy, I know I waited more than enough(too much) time to finish the set.

I feel like I've lost a bit of my ability to keep pushing through discomfort. Though I feel like I've been really aware of that for the past couple workouts, so hopefully, it won't take too long to get back into the swing of things.

Still - it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things.

Strength Cycle Week 8, part 1, redux

I'm feeling much better the past couple days, as all the hullabaloo of the past couple weeks fades and I can settle back into my regular routine. After last week's debacle of a workout, I was a little nervous about trying again today, but once I started squatting and feeling strong, the nervousness faded.

Back Squat x 5: 135 - 160 - 185(pr)
Back Squat x 21: 140
Bench Press x 5: 115 - 140 - 160F/3
Bench Press x 21: 120F (17-3-1)

The 185 was surprising OK. I mean, it was heavy, but the weight went down and then it went up, and I never felt like it might fail. 140x21 was agony.

I appear to have backslid on the bench, which isn't really surprising, I guess, since I've done very little to work those muscles in two weeks.

Now that the weights have gotten heavy enough to start failing, I'm considering scaling back on the Intermittent Fasting for the next few weeks. I'm torn about this, as I don't like the extra weight I've already gained, but I do want to get the most out of this strength routine. Maybe I should wait another week and see how I fare at the bench.

Next week: 190/145 (omg), 160/120

Strength Cycle Week 8, part 1, aborted

God, apparently, does not want me to get strong. Despite the cold I went down to the gym to get in the strength workout, which proved fairly disastrous.

Back Squats x 3: 135 - 145- 155

...And that's where I stopped. My body was sending all sorts of "this is a really bad idea" signals - from pain in the ankle at the bottom of the squat (a first), to extreme degradation of form at low weights, and finally to extreme wooziness to near-blackout. OK, fine, I can take a fucking hint.

In related news: I am feeling very annoyed and somewhat concerned that, in the handful of weeks since I started eating meat, this is now my THIRD bout of sickness. Before, I hardly ever got sick - maybe once a year. What is up with that?