Training Sesh (plural) 6/10 and 6/12: Squats and bench and deads

Heading into the last couple of seshes before deload has seen some busy work time leading to later gym times. More and more I am contemplating starting to do morning training.

Ah, balance in life. That mythical beast.

At any rate, here are some occurrences:

6/10 - Squat day, 5/3/1

• Warm up, stretch - about 10min
• Squat - 5xbar, 5x145lbs, 5x195lbs, 5x235lbs, 5x280lbs, 3x315lbs, 3x355lbs
• Wide stance good mornings - 3x10x155lbs
• Band pull aparts - 4x15 w/ EliteFTS red mini Pro Band
• Band hip abduction - 3x20 w/ doubled over red band

As planned, went for a couple of extra on the last working set, kept it to just a pair of extra reps. I am trying to lock form in a little better on squats and still working on parallel. One of the things that ol' Jim Wendler states in 5/3/1 (and I am sure other trainers and lifters have) is that he defines failure in a set as breakdown in form, not a true mechanical failure. I have hit this weight before for more reps in the past, but with my personal concern with my squat, I felt like three was the cut off on this set. Reinforcement of good movement patterns and all that.

Again, video of the last three working sets (forgive my apparently drunk videographer on the first set):

• 5x280lbs:

Went ahead and just set up a box and plate for the next few sets.

• 3x315lbs:

• 3x355lbs:

It was hard to tell from the first video, but second and last working set appear to be a hair high, definitely not a convincing parallel if they were parallel. 

Speaking of, there is this website: Depth Privilege: End Squat Shaming

I made lols with my face. 

AND speaking of making lols with my face, I apparently accidentally tapped the camera "active" before actually being ready for a squat. Normally, this would just get deleted BUT in this instance, I captured David doing some hard coaching at the NBS.

In case you are having a hard time making out what happened, that is Bigfoot, I mean David, owner of NBS, air guitaring while he is waiting on a client to wrap up their set of planks or similar.

Boom.

and then there was Mastodon.

6/12 - bench and deathlift, again 5/3/1 day.

Occurrence:

• Warm up/stretch - 10min
• Bench - 2x5xbar, 5x95lbs, 5x115lbs, 5x140lbs, 3x160lbs, 5x180lbs
• Deathlift - 5x135lbs, 5x185lbs, 5x225lbs, 5x275lbs, 3x315lbs, 5x350lbs, 2x350lbs

And that's about it. Another day of getting out of work late and hitting the gym late. In and out.

The bench reps all felt pretty good, really. A little bit touch and go, but all good nonetheless.

The deadlifts, however, felt like ass. Going back and watching video, I think my set up was inconsistent from set to set and I was getting a little out of position, and I was not getting slack out of the bar before pulling. Technique is paramount in sumo deathlifts, and mine was not there.

Last set vid, you can tell I was unhappy with it.

Somehow.

Coming up, though, some deload. The other day someone brought up something I want to give a go- apparently the ol' Ed Coan used to deadlift with something of a narrow sumo, somewhere between conventional and a "standard" sumo. I did a little research, and found this video.

I warn you, it is pretty awesome.

Merica.

I realize he's not a tall man, but it does appear that his legs are inside of where we normally think of a sumo stance set up to be.

I'll play with it next time and see what happens.

That is also what she said.

We'll also discuss the joy that is early morning training.

And metal? Yes. Good ol' rock and roll metal. Stuff. And things.

Dave- if you're reading, add that one to the playlist. Boom.

Go forth and destroy.