Monday, June 5th MMXXIII A.D. - Keeping up the Clean, Done enough Squat, Technical fail in the end

 05.06.2023

Actually, a very nice day. Woke up a little earlier, worked, ate, slept some more, had the first coffee. Can't really judge the quality of my sleep and nutrition. I know I've definitely been getting enough creatine, I guess. Finishing the old creatine jar, have an unopened package too. It's been almost a whole week of me feeling very lazy when it comes to lerning the programming and such. I've somehow been unable (or osmething like that) to do anything. I alsmost did something yesterday. Alas, I talk so much about my Ratio being in control, but it is not, it is in cahoots with my subconscious. I guess we have to come to another nonverbal agreement again. Well, thank God we ackowldged it and we'll come to solve this small issue. Also, today we squat. Now excuse me as I go dowstairs to make myself a second coffee, I feel quite thirsty for it today.

Week 8, Session 2 - 62,5% and 72,5% for 5, 80% - 2 sets of 3, 87,5% - 3 sets of 1 and 85% as the "clean single". So, the rough numbers would be 150 and 170 for 5, 180 and 190 for 3, and 200-210 for 4 sets of 1. Hmm. Feasible.

Second coffee. Enjoyed it. Want a third one? Perhaps. Not exactly sure. I know I'll love it. Maybe I won't pack it very tight. I know I'll do stuff tonight and give you a report on that. Very good, feels good.

Workout

Warmup - somewhat nice, realising that some stretching I do isn't quite necessary

Squat clean

50 - 60 - 65 - 70 - a variety of sets, mostly singles. I think my technique is better, but front rack is still awfully tight though. Don't really wanna straing my connective tissue, you know. I'm managing to pull and squat, and that's a serious improvement.

Squat

50 for 5

100 for 5 shoulders are very nicely stretched from cleans. Easy narrow grip. Hips feeling wacky though

150 for 2 easy, but my hips hated it. Had to stop. Let's see what'll happen next...

150 for 3 better. Made it more like a froggy squat, spreding thighs, weight on the outside of the foot (on the muscle the controls the pinky toes)

170 for 5 super nice, breathing hard, bracing is difficult, but very smooth, low (deep range) and satisfying. Powerful, good effort.

180 for 3 very nice

190 for 3 not as nice, struggling with doubt after each rep, particularly the last one, but I persevered and rose, even despite a slightly collapsed upper back (that often happens on high bar squats)

200 - 2 sets of 1 - awkward at first, second better

205 for 1 nice, struggled

210 - I fell victim to fatigue and doubt induced foolishness and put my belt higher and tighter, hoping that it'd eliminate upper back humping during rise, but instead I wasn't able to stablizie the bar on my back at all, turning it into a variation of a round-back-low-bar squat with high bar, so I dropped the bar on the floor. Fail! Time to learn.

Alright. We'll agree that the change in pace when I rise form squat is a normal thing. In that position legs are very strong, but the upper body isn't, it's trying to collapse between almost streightened legs and the heavy bar, but because you can regulate how hard you're pushing with your legs you don't collapse. You can't remove it with a different belt placement, that's the whole point of squat.

In the end, I had a nice workout, everything was fulfilled cause we did do 3 sets of 1 and the "clean single" is sort of unnecessary. I think we'll continue working with the program, getting to 220-230 max in high bar squat, which is a noticeable achievement, especially since almost no one except for weightlifters does it seriously these days. And it's sort of just a better move than the powerlifting goodmorning sumo type of squat, which is why I switched to it. Alright.