Deth

Fitness and everything else

Twenty Rep Squats PR at 245 Pounds

It wasn’t nearly as hot or humid yesterday, certainly still pleasant, but not like it has been. I think that sort of helped me recover a bit. I also ended up having a good night’s sleep last night. I woke up feeling excellent and refreshed. I drank my coffee and looked at the news about the hurricane that hit Louisiana, and relaxed most of the morning.

Finally, around 11:00 AM, I got to my strength for the day. It wasn’t too bad looking. I began with my front squats at 210 pounds. Contrary to last Saturday they felt nice and easy today even they’re five pound heaver. I quickly worked my way through the three sets of five of them, but decided against doing anything extra since I was considering my very heavy twenty reps back squats later in the day. I felt like I was moving pretty well today.

Next, I worked my way through the easy strict presses at only 100 pounds. My arm felt better with these than it has in a long time. It’s been nagging me a little, at least, since before I got my first COVID-19 shot. Probably when my old sandbag filler bag busted open, and I very awkwardly finished a WOD with it. The presses felt outstanding today, with no tightness at all in my arm or shoulder.

Finally, I moved on to the power cleans. These felt good but a little off today, but I easily worked through my light sets at 150 pounds. I did my five sets of three, and they actually felt a bit better as I progressed through my lifts.

After I was finished, I ate lunch and drank my protein. I relaxed for a few hours and allowed my body some recovery, or at least waited to see how I felt later on in the day.

After recovering a few hours around 2:45 PM or so, I decided to give my twenty rep squats for this week a shot. Last week I skipped them, but I forget why given everything that went on. I guess stress from the tree self-destructing. I think my knee was achy too to a point.

Today I felt pretty good, and I knew my twenty rep squats were going to be tough at the 245 pounds. The first few reps felt good, but heavy. About ten in, my leg started cramping. Shit. I was too far in to stop, so I just did my best to ignore it. By the time I completed my twentieth rep, just about everything in my body was cramping up. I blame it on too much heat and humidity lately and drinking too much water.

I had to go into a very dark place to complete my twenty reps, but I did it and completed them. I treated every rep as a heavy single and took my time to fully focus on form. They looked great from the start and actually improved as I went on. Towards the end they were really super deep back squats but with great form and fairly upright. I guess the heavy weight stretched me out as I went. I ended up with a PR for these today and weight wise I feel like I should have at least another week in me on them if not two.

Music for today was Pyrexia