No training highlights last week since I was deloading and there was nothing exciting about that. Deloads are boring but they’re important and incredibly effective. This blog post by Tony Gentilcore teaches us what they are and why they’re awesome.

I’m getting after it in the weight room for two more weeks of conjugate method training (to complete a 10-week training cycle) before switching to a higher volume/frequency routine to peak for my powerlifting meet in November. This week will consist of heavy sets of 5 and next week heavy triples.

Monday – 8.29.12 – Max Effort Lower

1A. Box Jumps

20″x3

30″x3, 3

2A. Squats

45×8

135×5

225×5

315×3

365×3

395×2

415×3 <— Reps felt super slow and weak so I racked it

410×5

375×5

3A. Barbell RDLs

225×10

245×10 x3 sets

225×10

4A. Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats

60×10 x2 sets per side

5A. Weighted Ab Rollouts

20 pound backpack x10 x3 sets

 

Last time around when I did sets of 5 for squats I hit 405 as a near-max set. Today I had 415 in my head as what I wanted to hit, but I felt pathetically slow and every rep felt like a death grind so I racked it after the third rep. Looking back at the video, the reps were pretty crisp and clean. Looks like I’m a big wimp and need to sack up.

I believe this was more mental than anything. I was scared of missing reps this close to competition and didn’t want to risk it. Better safe than sorry. I backed off to 410 and hit it for a set of 5, then down to 375 for another solid 5 reps.

I am also going to CRUSH lower assistance with a few go-to exercises like RDLs and split squats. A mistake of mine in the past has been too little assistance work, thinking that just doing the competition lifts over and over (and over and over…) would be enough.