Week 4 - Day 10B
Today's workout definitely ties for the best workout yet. Con Edison power outage forced me to go to the other gym in the area. I got to stretch a bit more before my worksets as someone was using the squat rack when I got there. I managed to work up a good sweat just from stretching alone and my body ended becoming very warm and loose.
Squats were amazing, no pain in the lower back. The squat rack had the hooks lower than the other gym's rack so I really got a chance to go underneath the bar and start with a really tight upper back which helped with stability a lot. I set the safety pins to the perfect height- my hips parallel to the ground. Stance was a bit wider than shoulder width and toes were pointed out. I noticed when I was stretching before than when I did body weight squats, I would shift my weight towards my left leg. This may be why my lower back has been strained on my left side (!!).
Presses were pretty hard today. I gave myself ample rest for the 4th and 5th sets. My forearms were really tight and burning by the last couple of reps on the last 2 sets. I definitely noticed my back arching a bit to compensate for muscle fatigue. Really happy I managed to finish the 5x5 though.
Deadlifts were easy. And no back pain!!
I finished off the session with 3 squat walk outs of 225 lbs each and I foam rolled my legs and upper back. In hopes of trying to replicate this amazing session, I'm going to take note of all the things I did differently today:
Drank half a cup of coffee right as I was leaving
Extra stretching
Lower starting point on the squat for tight upper back
Parallel squatting instead of ATG
Warmups:
3 x 30 sec. static Squat position stretch, pushing knees out
3 x 10 Leg swings
2 x 10 sec. Shoulder/Pec stretch
Squat:
5 x Bar
3 x 95
3 x 115
5 x 5 x 140
*Press: *
5 x Bar
5 x 5 x 70
*Deadlift: *
5 x 165
Walkouts:
3 x 10 sec. x 225
PWO Stretches:
Foam rolled the legs, upperback and lats