My BodyBlog

May be busy Friday night so I moved my usual Friday nighter to Thursday night.  Considered doing bench press program, even though only 48 hours after last time, I felt good.  Arriving at the gym, it was crowded.  Bench press and power rack were in use, and as I did a warm-up on the bike I decided to delay benching for another while.  A part of me wants to finish the program strong, another part of me just wants to get over with.  The sensible side of me won out I guess!  So, what to do instead?

To get away from the crowd I went to the lonely Smith machine and did 6 sets of standing leg raises, doing as many reps as I could on each set.  Got up to 315 and grinded out 15 reps, calves burning.  Finished calves by doing a couple of sets on the leg press machine.  By that time the crowd was starting to thin out, so I had more options.  To stick with my cycle of compound exercises I decided to do some rack deadlifts. 

I’ve been throwing these in occasionally as part of my deadift training and I think they’re proving useful.  I’ve only done them a handfull of times though, and not since Jan 21.  Didn’t really intend to go that heavy on these last night, but as I started I felt good and I kept my options open.  Did a set of 135×10 and then 225×8.  Felt really good.  Loaded up to 315 and banged out 4 reps, most reps I’ve ever done with this much weight on any deadlift.  I grabbed two 33 plates that were handy bringing the bar to 381 pounds.  Did one rep and then after a couple of seconds pause did another!  I was pretty amazed I had the strength for two reps at this weight.  My previous best on these was 410, and since I’d done a 425 regular deadlift last week I decided to push the envelope and go for 430!  Couldn’t find the right plates so I ended up with 432 on the bar.

I was set up for one of those special moments for me.  Not only attempting a lift beyond anything I’d done before, but a weight that I’d never seen anyone do in person before.  As often happens at times like this, people notice what I’m doing and as I got into position I had spectators.  Added pressure yes, but it makes me more determined and focused too.  I did the lift, getting it up with tremendous effort but not 100% effort like I expected I’d need.  As I set it down I was thinking ‘Holy s**t, I could have lifted more!’  After two months of squats and deadlifts the increase in strength I am experiencing is very rewarding!

After that I did some hamstring isolation sets and I could really feel it by the end.  Didn’t think I could do treadmill sprints or jump rope very well after the calf and ham work, so I went back on the bike for 10 minutes to end the workout.  What a great workout to finish up Febraury and my compound exercise cycle!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 6:55 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.