Lifting for 12-27-10

Squat:
5 @ 45 lbs, 4 @ 85 lbs, 3 @ 115 lbs
3×5 @ 135 lbs

Bench Press:
5 @ 45 lbs, 5 @ 65 lbs, 4 @ 85 lbs, 3 @ 115 lbs
3×5 @ 125 lbs

Deadlift
5 @ 135 lbs, 3 @ 185 lbs
5 @ 225 lbs

Barbell Row
3 @ 115 lbs
3×5 @ 125 lbs

difficulty: easy

starting weight: 163.4 lbs

All too easy.

I had a couple things I was working on, in terms of form and technicalities. The book says to place your thumb OVER the bar when squatting. I’d never heard of this before. The book further goes on to say that this eliminates any possibility of weight being transferred downward to your arms. I was worried about the bar “sliding” down by back, but after my warm-up sets, it felt very natural. Not ‘gripping’ the bar let me focus more on just staying tight.

I’ve heard that doing a valsalva during a lift is one of the worst things you can possibly do. I’ve decided to throw this completely out the window. After all, when I’m doing a maximal pull, I get best performance if I take a DEEP breath beforehand and hold it for the majority of the lift. It’s going to take me a bit to get used to breathing solely at the top of the squat, it makes me feel like I’m “resting” at the top of the repetition. In the coming weeks, I’ll find a natural breathing groove so I can just focus on staying tight during the lift.

I made sure I was taking no more than a single step backwards. I know I’m guilty of taking a bit to get into position. Before I did my warm-ups, I got into a squat and used my elbows to throw my knees out. As said in the book, so I’ll know where my bottom position is. The resulting stance is where I squat about 75% of the time. I just need to KNOW where my shoulder-width stance is. And the approximately 30 degree angle of the feet.

I need to reread how I’m supposed to breath during benching. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t a maximal weight, but holding my breath at the top of the bench put pressure on my head. For most lifts, I’ve tended to follow the maxim of inhaling during the eccentric, and exhaling during the concentric, and otherwise not thinking that much about it. And not a full exhalation, either. Like… exhaling through pursed lips to keep most of the internal pressure. Again, I gotta reread about breathing.

An easy 225 lb pull. The book stresses always warming up with the bar, but the deadlift platform already had 45’s on it. Seemed rather pointless to take off the plates only to put them back on.

First time doing rows while deloading them on the floor between repetitions. Definitely took any lower back fatigue out of the movement.

Successive workouts won’t get as much commentary, as things tend to become routine. So I’ve decided to rate the difficulty of each workout as “easy”, “medium” or “hard”. Screw numbers. Just curious how quickly easy can become hard, and whether I can follow a hard workout with a not-as-hard one.

Without getting too complicated about diet, time to up my milk intake. At a peak, I could down four gallons of milk a week. Just don’t seem to have time for anything more. I’ll try to get back to half a gallon a day.