Sunday, December 21, 2008

three rep max front squat, pr

Came in late today, but I've noticed Sundays tend to be a find-your-max day, so I was betting that its wasn't some met con with a time constraint. I was right, it was 5 rounds of finding your 3 rep front squat max, my rounds went as follows:

115, 135, 155, 165, 175

This is a 25 pound improvement from three months ago. Again I was a little cautious in aggravating the back, so took this opportunity to work on form and find out how much I can do without my core collapsing. Every set felt really good, but the last one was very difficult, I don't think I got the depth that I needed to get make it a real squat. I really flared out my feet so that my hips were open and engaged, making it possible to keep my core vertical and my elbows up throughout the entire motion.

Around the 3-4 set I was forgetting to suck in a big breath to keep the core tight, but I recognized that I wasn't doing it and did it right on the last set for certain, possibly the 4th set as well.

There was a finisher

5 rounds
10 kb high pulls (73#)
10 jumping lunges
10 push ups

The push ups were pretty damn easy, if I do say so myself. I've been attempting to improve my pushup strength by doing sets of sub max reps (like 10-15) at random times during the day. I believe this is called "Greasing the groove", although if I'm wrong about this I hope Jerry will let me know ;)

Although the push ups were fine, the leg work was tough, the fourth and fifth round my legs were feeling numb, and I simply had to wait for some sort of control to return. I can't remember the time, but when the photo is posted I'll edit the post.

I really am impressed with the amount of leg work we've been doing. The biggest part I'm focusing in on is keeping my core tight by holding in a big breath. This skill is where I'm most lacking when it comes to squats, so I figure improving this will result in the biggest/fasted gains in my squat strength as well as reducing the chance of injury.

No comments: