Deth

Fitness and everything else

Strength Was A Bit Disappointing Today

Let me start off by mentioning that although today’s lifting in the garage bit was a little disappointing it wasn’t terrible. I felt great this morning and was ready to go as soon as I woke up. I drank some coffee first because coffee is the most important thing to do.

For the squats I am continuing with the change up to front squats and I think I will keep that up for a couple of cycles at least. I had to do three sets of five at 210 pounds today and while they felt heavy with not being totally used to the weight on the front of my shoulders the weight was easily squatted. I did feel it a bit more in my core than the same weight of back squats would have felt but that’s really one of the biggest reason I am doing this for now. Surprisingly the front squats looked pretty text book for my build type. Most of the time in Crossfit I would collapse forward a bit but don’t most people do that when they’re new to the FS? As expected the bar was pretty uncomfortable against my throat but that will get better with time. I’m happy I’ve kept the mobility to maintain a full grip on the bar.

Next up were strict presses. I failed the weight last time so it was back to one hundred pounds for me today on these. As I assumed they felt pretty easy and I did five sets of five. Today with these my focus was really on the lockout.

The power cleans were where things went to shit for me. I was to do 175 pounds which is a bit heavy for me but certainly should have been doable. The warm up felt heavy but I figured I’d see how the working weight felt anyways. I failed the first attempt when my brain shut it down as a high pull. I took that and the fact that my mechanics seemed off today on these as a good reason to just pass on them today. I’ll see how this weight feels next time. That right there is one of the greatest benefits of doing this here at home. Hell, I even have the flexibility to give it another go later today If I’d like. If I were to take a wild guess at what my problem with these was today I would say my brain was shutting it down because of remembering the front squats being uncomfortable.

After I unloaded the bar I thought what the hell, why not give some over head squats a try. I’ve written about them before and how they’ve always been a struggle for me. Today I did them without too much of an issue. I did some sets with just the bar I was happy with my stable lockout and the way I wasn’t collapsing forward. For years I’d do a weird shift with my hips right near parallel but that has finally gone away it seems. I think that originates from trying to go deeper when I didn’t have the stability to do so. I’ve always had the mobility but just not the proper muscular control. Honestly I think the biggest cause of the weird hip thing during the overhead squats in the past was the way over used sit back cue. I took it too literally when I really had to do was squat like I naturally would.

Music for today was Necrophagia