Two Squats At Three Hundred Pounds
I did not get enough sleep last night. Only about five hours is the best I could muster up. I think the biggest thing that kept me awake was that it was a mild night. It was in the upper fifties outside all night long so it was warmer in the house. I sleep better when it’s cold. It was one of those annoying times when the sheet was too warm, but not being covered up at all wasn’t working either. I laid there tossing and turning for a little while. By that time, my brain was wide awake too, so sleep was done. I smelled the coffee, so I got out and bed and started drinking that.
I was drinking my coffee and got to thinking. I want to do my very heavy back squats while Molly is home. She’s home today, and that would mean I didn’t have to depend on next Friday being a good day after thinking about the heavy weight all week. I had to do three hundred pounds for my one plus set. I’ve only been successfully under three hundred pounds once before in my lifetime, when I got three hundred and five for a heavy single last summer. That makes it a very mental weight for me.
It was around eight AM or so, I decided to just do it. I got changed and headed out to the garage to see how things felt. If I wasn’t feeling it in the warm-up sets, I’d walk away and do it later in the week.
The one thing that struck me today while warming was just how heavy the bar was feeling. Even the empty barbell felt like it was a hundred and thirty-five pounds on my back. The squats themselves felt pretty good, though. They certainly felt heavier than they should have and maybe a little slower than on some days, but I had no reason to stop. As I progressed through the heavier weighted sets while warming, they did start to feel better. I did notice that my left leg was feeling slightly weaker than the right one this morning. Probably pissed off from all the lunges I did in a WOD yesterday.
The moment of truth came when I got to that oh so mental and heavy final AMRAP. That three hundred pounds felt crushing on my back, but certainly doable. I got through the first rep surprisingly easily for how heavy it was. Sure, the rep was slower than lighter weights, but not that slow. The second one was pretty grindy, and I did twist a little favoring one side, The right one, as I said the left side felt weaker earlier. I completed the rep, and it didn’t look terrible besides the slight shift. My back didn’t give at all. I also didn’t cut the depth short, either. My plan for today was to stop at two reps anyway unless they felt absolutely flawless and be happy with a lifetime PR. I ended up getting that PR.
For my next cycle, I’m going to knock ten percent off my training max and build back up, but I intended to do that before I even got under the bar today. I’m thrilled with the PR, but it’s more about longevity of strength for me now than it is about the absolutely heaviest weight possible. I’ll be back up there in weight in no time.
Music for my squats today was Dio.
The sun came out in the afternoon, and it warmed into the seventies. We did the vault WOD for this week together out on the patio. Well, we did the shift version. I wasn’t feeling two hundred and forty air squats after this morning. It was great to get the chance to do a WOD together out on the patio again. I am excited for much more of that this summer!
Music for the WOD was Alice In Chains.