Failure isn’t bad if you learn and grow from it.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle X, week X
Work Set – Squat (working max: 300#)
2x5x45 (warmup)
1x5x120
1x5x150
1x3x180
1x5x195 (work)
1x5x230
1x4x260
Assistance – Front Squat
5 x 5/5/5/6/6 x 135/135/135/115/115
Assistance – Crunches
2 x 20/15 x BW
Foam Rolling
I didn’t even hit the required reps. It sucked. That last set was horrible form and I was just happy to get depth and come up. After the 4th crappy rep I racked it.
I’m not sure why. It could be because my “jack shit” deload week was truly jack shit. I rested a lot, didn’t eat well, and probably slacked too much. I needed it because I’m dealing with major burnout… mentally I’m fried, and have some physical and emotional burnout too. Just a lot of shit going on, and it all came crashing down. So the week off was certainly good for me in many ways, but I paid for it today. That’s ok… in the grand scheme of life, this is just lifting and doesn’t really mean much. Better that I work on the other aspects of my life right now.
But I think it was good because it made me realize. I had loaded the bar for pause squats and was getting ready to unrack when I stopped and called an audible. I opted to do front squats instead. I think that’s what I need. Ever since I was figuring things out about my squat weakness, both pause and front squats were on my mind. Everyone says “if you need help out of the hole, pause squats”. That’s what I need, so I did it. But I realize it isn’t quite that and doesn’t quite do what I need. Come on… my back is strong, working up to an all-time PR of 405 just over a week ago. I think what sucks are my quads. Or maybe I’ve been reading too much from Dan Green. But I do think, at this point, given what I see, how my body is working, reacting, what and where I feel the “failure” when I hit sticking points, etc…. yeah, I think front squats may be the key.
So let’s try them for a cycle (well, a 2-cycle cycle) and see what happens. Besides, nothing says I can’t pause at the bottom of them, y’know?
I had no idea what to do, so I just put 135 on the bar and aimed for 5×5. I don’t think that’s what I need because there was some lean forward. I dropped down to 115 and was able to better maintain uprightness the whole time. In the end, I don’t care what weight I use, so long as it’s done right. I’ll probably stick with 115 and aim for 5 sets of 5-8 reps. See what that does for me.
Ah well. Crappy day, but if it makes me better in the long run, fine.
Filed under: Fitness, Me Tagged: fitness, Me 
