This past Thursday was a raw squat day at the local commercial gym.
I took the previous week off because my hip was bothering me, but I felt great this time, so it was back to work!
Warmed up with the bar, then went:
135 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 5
365 x 5
385 x 5
405 x 5
The last set felt really good strength-wise, not a strain at all, but as is usually the case when I try to squat out of a standard bar and power rack, my shoulders and elbows were shot to hell for the rest of the week. I know I make this promise to myself every time I try this, but I've got to limit my raw lower body stuff to deadlift unless I'm in a real gym. It just takes too much of a toll on the rest of my training.
Finished with 4 sets of 15 back extensions and 4 sets of 15 cable pulldown abs.
Friday was a raw bench day, and since my arms and shoulders were beat to hell from the squatting, I did another light week, only going to 3 sets of 10 with 245, then finished up with 4 sets of 15 ring rows and band triceps pushdowns.
If I were closer to a meet, I would just push through the pain and go heavier. But being 3 months out, it makes more sense to back off and stay healthy. Now that it looks like I have a shirt dialed in for this meet, I'm gonna be killing my top-end work and want to be as pain free as I can manage.
That's it for now!
