Deth

Minutes before I was going to go do my lifts for the day I received a pretty tough phone call. I won’t go into details about that call or anything but once I got over it I decided to put or at least attempt to put that negative energy into lifting. I figured if worse came to worse and I wasn’t feeling it I could just push today’s lifts back to tomorrow or Thursday if necessary. Either way I had to try to stick with my plan and let it be what it will turn out to be.

The squats were tough as hell today. It felt crushingly heavy at the 245 pounds. My knee’s giving me some shit too but I did the three sets of five with no issues other than a little more rest between reps than normal. I really had a lot of trouble today keeping my focus early on but as time went on I got more focused. These tough days are where I will get better.

The strict presses were heavy for me at 120 pounds. I did use my lifting belt for these as they’re getting heavier and I’m thinking that it may help me break the plateau. It’s not that I want to use it as a crutch but I think of it as tool to make my core even tighter. I’m slowly getting used to it. At the very least the belt well give me a cue of I am letting my back give too much and that’s a good thing. Because of today being the kind of day that today will be and my relative lack of focus I ended up miscounting and doing 4 sets but it’s all good.

The deadlifts were feeling really tough today after the first single at 275 pounds. They looked great but using the belt seems to have helped me “feel” my core with these especially. I was definitely happy to get through the heavier ones at 275 with no issues and even no hook grip. Stupid thumb nail peeled too short a few weeks ago. It’s close to good now but not quite there.

The best part about today was I remembered to use the deadlift jack that we got a few months back to load and unload my bar. It’s such a simple addition to our gym but has been a game changer when trying to put plates on or take them off. With my low vision I tend to “feel” when the plates are on and with the force and awkwardness of lifting the bar and sliding the plates on I’ve pinched the skin between my thumb and hand more than once and that’s not all that pleasant. I just have to remember to use the damned thing.

The music for today was Reverend Bizarre.