6-14-14 – Squats: New Lesson Learned

Today was my first squat session of my second cycle of 5/3/1. I learned a valuable lesson today. It is probably the most over looked thing I have ever been taught. BREATHING AND BRACING. I have a history of low back issues going back to h.s from an injury that required back surgery while playing football. I always wore a belt because someone always said “Hey, you should wear a belt.” I never really asked why because I thought I knew the reason. I learned today how wrong I was. Mike Mireles explained why and I put it to use. I took a big breath in, tightened my abs and pushed them against the belt. I felt my back turn into a flexible piece of metal as it was stiff and in place. The amount of drive I got was unreal! In 13 years of training I never felt that! How did I miss this all these years?! I’m glad to have this in my arsenal now and expect to make great progress as I felt stronger utilizing my abs and breathing.

Besides that,  I took my warm ups off of a low box (below parallel) for two reasons. The first is to keep my knees aching through warm ups as I have had a tendency to not sit back and second to warm up my hips and gain mobility.  It helped tremendously.