Cycle 7 – 3s Week: Squat: 8/18/12

Solid 7-8 hour sleep before today’s squat session.
Had to really prep myself mentally as I woke up today!
Ate a decent amount of western omelette and potatoes to fuel me up for the upcoming challenge.
Arrived at the gym somehow feeling not as energetic as I was hoping for, really had to work on my motivation as I know today will be a tough session! (6/10)

Surprising enough I had a good session.
Did everything I wanted to do and met some awesome people.
Had a Russian guy familiar with Starting Strength help me with my last set of squat and even had another guy that competes in power-lifting help me with finding the exact and proper squat rack position on my shoulders!
Had a great “AHA” moment and made my day that started out as a 6 feel like a 10 at the end!

Pre-workout Warm-ups:

Foam Rolling
Dynamic Stretching

Main Lift:

Squat:

Power Clean Warm-up Set:
115 x 3

Squat Warm-up Sets:
45 x 10
140 x 5
170 x 5
205 x 3

Work Sets:
240 x 3
275 x 3
310 x 3(e1RM = 341) *e1RM 340 Goal Met!

Really had to mentally psyche myself up for todays squat session.
First 2 work sets already felt heavy for me when they normally are not too bad in past sessions.
I had one guy that knows about Starting Strength and Strength Training that I noticed do ATG Squats watch me do my last session.
Had him clap as I hit parallel to help cue me to get out of the hole.
I find that this really helped and wish I had a regular training partner!
Got the minimum reps needed for the day and that was all I had left in me.
At least I was able to achieve the estimated 1RM goal before the 1s week for this cycle!
Next goal is e1RM of 345 which I should be able to do by doing a PR of 325 lbs x 2 on the 1s week!

PS:
I REALLY felt my glutes and hamstrings work at the bottom of today’s session on each work set, specially the last set!

Assistance Exercises:

BBB Deadlift:
(50% of Training Max)

195 x (5 x 10)

Rest time after each set are 1.75, 2, 2.5, and 2.75 minutes respectively.
Sets felt easy enough to do and probably due to the rush I got from completing my squat challenge for today!

Hanging Leg Raise (Toes to Bar):

1 x 8
1 x 8
1 x 8
1 x 5
1 x 5
1 x 5

Rest are 30, 45, 45 and 60 seconds respectively.
Felt hard to do after everything else I have done today.
Guess I may not have ate enough yesterday.

Conditioning:

Tabata Burpee/PU:

1 x 4
1 x 4
1 x 3
1 x 2
1 x 2
1 x 2
1 x 2
1 x 2

Did Burpees jumping up to do a pull-up after each rep using the Tabata HIIT method.
This was so tiring!
Nice finish for a great session though.