Astro Zombies

SQUAT DAY

Squat:

45 x 10

135 x 5

135 x 5

155 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 5

245 x 5

255 x 5+ (Hit 12. Estimated 1RM of 357.)

Squat (Olympic Style):

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

Leg Press:

3 plates each side x 10

4 x 10

5 x 10

My squat felt like garbage today. I've felt pretty sore since a solid deadlift day, and I likely have not done enough stretching and foam rolling since then to recover properly. My hams going into today felt tight and my back was extremely sore. I did the Agile 8 with some additional hip rotations and hip flexor stretches, but it was probably too little too late.

All my sets on the first Squat group felt heavy and my hips rusty. Even the lighter weights felt tough, I didn't feel explosive in the least. I had it in my mind, despite this, to hit 10 on the last set, and that seemed ambitious. Around the 2nd or 3rd rep I thought, "Shit, I'm going to have to push to hit 5." Which is downright pathetic.

But I hit 5. And then 8. And then 10. To make up for having a mentally weak moment I told myself that I was hitting 12. And I did. Sometimes lifting is just a matter of grabbing your balls and making shit happen.

As far as the assistance work, it was similarly crappy. It's not as if pushing yourself when you're already having a bad day will suddenly shake the rust of your legs. The Olympic squats were deep, though, and I actually did feel explosive, but the weight was still low.

I opted to do some leg press work, as I feel that my hams get overworked often, and overworked at the expense of my quads. Something thats weird about leg press machines, though, is that they don't ever seem to be the same from gym to gym. I could slap 8 plates on each side of the machine I used at the YMCA and crank out a rough ten for sure. But at Bally's, I'd bet I could maybe hit 1 rep at 8 plates.

I'm not sure if its just a matter of carriage weight from model to model, or if its an issue of oil/grease on the poles the carriage rides up and down, or a matter of the slope the carriage travels. Whatever it is, though, its hard to directly translate numbers from one leg press machine to another.