Lifting for 1-3-11

Slightly restless last night, in terms of waking up through the night. Melatonin does that to me sometimes. I still got up feeling VERY rested and ready to go.

Squat:
5 @ 45 lbs, 5 @ 95 lbs, 3 @ 135 lbs
3×5 @ 165 lbs (+10 lbs)

Overhead Press:
5 @ 45 lbs, 3 @ 65 lbs
3×5 @ 80 lbs (+5 lbs)

Power Clean
5 @ 45 lbs, 3 @ 85 lbs
5×3 @ 105 lbs (+10 lbs)

Chin-ups
8, 6, 5 @ BW

difficulty: medium

Not sure where my focus was during my first set, but I felt slightly off. Not to the point where I thought I was going to miss a rep or anything. The weight has just reached a point where I can feel my form, and maybe even need to exert myself slightly. But not too much.

Breathing was good, feeling very strong out of the hole. Not even a worry about hitting depth. I am going to have to watch how quickly I drop. There’s a fear going too deep, like I see a lot, and then there’s DIVEBOMBING all the way down. As long as I continue to control the weight, I’ll be fine.

Thumb over bar. Find spot on floor. Pull shoulder blades together and lats down. Take breath. Lift bar. Two steps back, one two. Exhale, take breath for first repetition. Hip break. Keep knees apart. Get depth. Drive upwards with glutes. Lock out. Breath. Repeat.

I think I got most of it.

Still finding optimal grip for press. I think I’ll end up settling somewhere in between the clean grip shown in the book, and the grip by the hash-marks that I used to use. This ends up being about a hand-width inside the hash-marks. More on this next workout.

Gotta watch how much my arms are “helping” the drive upwards. Cue today was “violent shrug”. At one point, I purposely tensed my triceps to negate any attempt at upright rowing the weight. Posterior chain and traps did their job, and I got a really strong set out of it.

Got another rep on my first set of chins.

Difficulty ratings are subjective, and best thought of as a first-impulse thing. Squats weren’t hard, but are at a weight past easy. Definitely had to deliberate rest between my clean sets, too.