Week 10 – Madcow5x5 – Day 27B

15 Mar 2012

Squat:

5 x 135 5 x 160 5 x 190 5 x 190

Very easy. Light squat days give me a chance to analyze my lift while actually doing the lift . I think I may be rotating my torso when squatting. I feel like I'm rotating right a bit and I can feel it in my hips a bit. I think I'll have to record myself from the front next light day and see what's going on. All the videos I've recorded have done a great job showing my squat depth and posture. Unfortunately it doesn't provide what my squat looks like from the front where I can better see things like knees buckling in, torso twisting, etc.

Press:

5 x 65 5 x 75 5 x 85 5 x 95

These weren't bad. Still feel like my right lat is much more engaged than my left. I think if there was a video of me from the top down, I'd see my right arm pushing the bar away from the body more. This is, at least, what I feel is happening and it's causing my right lat to have to work a bit harder than my left. Not sure if this is happening because of my bad right shoulder (hopefully it's not!). Back was arching a bit on the 95 and managed to get stuck halfway up on the last rep, but finished it. Narrow grip helps...I think. And of course squeezing the bar engages the lats.

Deadlift:

5 x 175 5 x 215 5 x 240 5 x 280 (ow)

Sets prior to the 280 were pretty easy breezy. Used alternating on 240- I really didn't want to. Unfortunately, I decided not to record my workout today. I think I definitely rounded my back on a few of the reps on the 280. Not sure if I continue going up or stay at 280. I would rather perform lifts with good form than hurt myself petting my ego. I really want to hit that 315 PR by May 30th. I think I'm going to test my 1RMs the week of May 28th.

Assistance:

Chin-ups: 6/3/2.5 x BW - Not bad, first set felt very strong. Made sure I was doing full ROM by going ALL the way down and not doing partial reps.

Situps: 32/22/16 @ 1 min each set - These haven't really improved much, but I'm definitely feeling stronger on the situps compared to when I first began doing them. Lower abs got sore pretty quickly.