4 weeks out: Squats and Pains

This week's training was up and down. Literally. In the same training session. Going into this peak cycle for the meet, this is how my week will look: Monday: medium intensity squat and dead (think 80ish%) Wednesday: high intensity squat and bench Friday: high intensity deadlift Saturday: medium intensity bench All the accessories are pretty low key right now. Just a lot of blood flow. Monday Squat - 2x2 @ 270 Deadlift - 2x2 @ 295 Deads felt super slow and super off. As I started warming up for deads, my quads got super tight. To the point that it was very painful. I tried moving around a bit but the tightness was so deep and tender, nothing was helping. It completely affected the way I pulled. Not only was the pain extremely high, but I felt like I had nothing to push with. Angered me a bit, but will just need to make some adjustments. Wednesday Considering these were numbers I finished with at last year's Arnold in 2017, I was a tad nervous. I mean, I knew the numbers were there, but still.... just goes to show how much of a mental game this can be too. Fortunately, I nailed everything nearly perfectly. Squats felt smooth and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in my new position. Bench was a breeze so I feel really good about that. Squat - 305, 315 Bench - 180, 185   Friday This day did not go well. I was super amped because Christian Anto was here to train with me and help me nail down a few technical things... and it did not go well. Again by the time I got to my heavy sets, my quads were tight and shutting down. Baffled by the pain, we decided to pull conventional instead of sumo. We also wrapped my quads for some compression. Deadlift - 320, 340 conventional   Saturday Medium bench day was easy peasy and figured out foot positioning to help me keep my butt down. Feel so much better about that, especially after the rough deadlifting the day before. Bench - 2x2 @160 Tricep/back