Deth

Fitness and everything else

I Am Very Thankful That We Are Fortunate Enough To Have A Garage Gym Setup Right Now

I just completed doing today’s starting strength, and it got me thinking again about how grateful I am to be able to have a nicely set up home gym. Thanks to the fact that we’ve built up our equipment over the years, I am able to keep working out like I normally do since we don’t need to go to a public place that’s smartly closed.

Today was 3x5 back squats at 215. They went well and smooth, but like everything today it felt slow and a slower recovery since my body decided today’s a good day to feel tired. They looked good in the video I recorded to keep an eye on my form. Things are slowly improving, and I am getting back the ability to stay more upright with heavier weights. It’s always been harder for me to be upright at lighter weights, it’s just much easier with heavier weight on my back. I’d say the cut-off seems to be when I start approaching body weight, I am more able to push back into the bar.

The presses were to be 3x5 at 130. I knew I have been approaching failure with them for a week or so. I didn’t think I’d make 127 earlier in the week, but it went up and looked decent enough to keep increasing the weight. I got the first set of five today, and they looked great in my video, albeit a little slower. The second set, I stepped back too far with the bar and bumped the plates into the back of the rack. I never regained my focus after that and felt the form break on the last rep, so I aborted. No worries. I’ll work back up to that weight again quickly and hopefully crush it!

The Power cleans are still feeling light at 165 pounds. I’m hardly even having to get under it yet. Today I played with widening my grip with the cleans a bit, thinking it may help me get into better positions. I’ve always done them and been comfortable with a close grip on the bar. If worse comes to worst, I can just go back to using my current close grip, but I am hoping I buy a little efficiency by going wider.

Really, though, I am truly happy that we can continue with our fitness goals. During this time with at least not having to worry all that much about getting sick here. More importantly to me, I don’t have to be concerned about passing it off to anyone else who is really doing nothing more than trying to improve his or her life and health. Slowly adding to our equipment has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made, I think, and it’s been paying off immensely.