Training 10-26-07

The haunted house yesterday was pretty fun, actually. Not really scary at all. It was well set up, but all of the actors were high school kids and on average they probably weighed 130 lbs. A few of them were really good at hiding around corners or behind posts and jumping out and surprising you, though.

A

Squats
5 x 235
2 x 235 (failure on 3. Now I'm pissed)
5 x 225
5 x 230
5 x 235

Jump Squats
3 x 10 x 135

Bench Press
5 x 5 x 220

Speed Bench
1 x 15 x 135

Deadlift
5 x 135
5 x 185
5 x 225
5 x 275
3 x 325 PR!

Pullups (underhand)
5 x 5 x 35
6 with bodyweight (fast as possible)

Overhead Walks
5 x failure x 60

Second workout in a row that I've failed on 235 lb Squats. The Lucas was angry. The weird thing is that I got 5 reps of the same weight 3 sets later. I think I need to do some auxiliary work to help out the squat speed, hence the Jump Squats directly afterwards. Contrary to the name, you don't actually jump. You just push up as fast as possible, as if you were trying to jump (if the weight is too light, you'll actually end up jumping sometimes).

Bench Press is starting to get challenging. 225 next time. To keep with the speed theme, I did a set of Speed Bench afterwards. Similar to Jump Squat, you basically try to throw the weight up as fast as possible.

I decided to try a new approach to Deadlift, working up to a single heavy set instead of doing 3 sets of 5. 315 is good enough to be my first PR on Deadlift! I had to use a mixed grip on the last set. It markedly improved my strength -- not having to worry about grip slipping helps a lot on the heavy sets. I think I'll continue to use the mixed grip on the top heavy set going forward. Try for 4 with 315 next time.

I feel stronger with underhand pullups than I do with overhand, and they place less stress on my elbows. I'll use 35 lbs next time again for the overhand.

Overhead Walks are exactly what they sound like. I took two 30 lb dumbbells and walked back and forth in the cardio studio at the gym while holding them overhead. I walked until I felt like I couldn't hold them any more -- either 2 or 3 trips across the studio this time.