3-10-14 – Lower Body: Surprise Squats & Deads

My training got pushed back in the week, leading to two days to do my week 2 deadlifts and week 3 squats. Not wanting to fatigue my legs before my max effort squats, I decided to put them together and do my squats first. My foot placement was slightly off for a couple of my warm up sets, but fixed that by the time I was into my working sets. I was focusing on keeping my shoulder blades pinched to get that tightness in my upper back and tightening my grip on the bar. I wasn’t expecting what came next. This was my AMAP week for squats and I wasn’t really thinking I’d hit much over 5 reps. I ended up pushing through to 17 reps!! Guess that means it’s time to up that training max again! Very happy about that because I know I should be over 155 on my squat max. Deadlifts also went well, they felt good. My hips were feeling a little tight, probably because I had just finished max effort squats, duh! Ended with 140, and glad to get that plate on the bar for reps.

Now I’m excited to make progress from here until the end of April. What’s the end of April you ask? Read on.

Elitefts holds usually two seminars each year at their S4 Compound (the greatest, most awesome invitation-only training facility in the world) where they test all of their equipment with the strongest athletes in the world. These seminars started and continued as a fundraising effort for the Make-A-Wish charity foundation. Elitefts doesn’t make a dime on them, while 100% of the proceeds go to MAW. The seminar is named Learn To Train (LTT) and it consists of a full day of presentations covering topics of training, nutrition, mentality, and business, followed by a full day of hands-on coaching from the best strength athletes and coaches in the world. The experience is unlike any other and so full of benefits to the attendees. Mike has attended three of these seminars and I have attended the past two with him. The next one is happening on April 25th and 26th, and we’re super excited about it. We know this one will be even better than the previous ones because the staff is committed to improving everything they do with these seminars. I believe the official count down is 48 days. Training hard for LTT8!!