We all have bad days. The interesting thing is, sometimes bad days lead into awesome training sessions. Then there are times when you get the double whammy. That's when a sh!t day turns into a sh!t training session.

This is what I had going on the other day. I'll go through the list of sh!t first. I was getting the beggings of a cold. I have been struggling with a little bit of personal crap. To top that all off, I lost someone I knew from the past to absolutely horrific circumstances.

Pretty ironic that I just posted a blog the other day about embracing AMRAP, because it was the last thing I wanted to do this session. I hit a squat rep pr of 385 for 16 last week and the thought of matching that with 390 was daunting.

My worst feelings were confirmed that I was not feeling up to the day's training. Every warm up weight felt heavy. My mind was everywhere else, but training. My four sets of triples with 390 prior to the AMRAP set felt like max effort. When I finally got to my AMRAP set, I was looking for a way out and wouldn't you know, I found it.

On my eighth rep I came up forward and smashed my thumb into the monohook on the rack. I did this last week also so I knew my thumb would be a wreck. With excuse in hand, I racked the weight. My thumb was gushing blood pretty good, so I went up to the bathroom to clean and bandage it up. During the walk I couldn't quite tell if I was relieved it was over or if I felt like a complete wuss.

Wuss, won. I could not go out like that. In an attempt to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat, I decided to cut a deal with myself. This is something I have resorted to in the past. I especially needed it for this day as it the most brutal session of the week.

This day's training consists of squats 4x3 then AMRAP. It is then followed by 3x3 safety bar squats, 5x3 deadlifts, 2x10 rack deadlifts, and finishes with 2x10 block sumo pulls. It blows on normal days. With the two most important movements of the day being the squat and deadlift, I told myself if I could go back and hit that 16 reps on the squat, I could just do the 5x3 of deadlifts and be done.

When I got back under the squat rack, I knew there was no way I was going to get 16 reps. Yes, I already set myself up for failure. This is where you have to play tricks with your head. First, I told myself if I did not get the 16 I was going to have to do my deadlifts and the three other assistance exercises. Next I told myself not to worry about 16 reps, just break it down to three sets of five and one set of one, but all in the same set.

Breaking the reps down like that is just semantic, but it really helps sometimes. I got through the first five reps pretty well, the second set of course got more difficult, the third set to get to 15 was ugly, and on that last single to hit 16 left me seeing the white buffalo upon completion. I was completely exhausted and almost passed out, but I did it.

The deadlifts confirmed just how spent I was. These five sets of three are for technique work. They are not supposed to be heavy. My working weight was 410 pounds. If I remember correctly, I had difficulty pulling the first rep on both the third and fifth sets. That should never happen, but it did.

Was it a great workout, no. But was it successful, yes. So if you find yourself in the same situation, pick out the main work, set a tough goal, and then hit it. If you can suck it up and do it, you have earned skipping out on the less important stuff. It's a great compromise from just wasting your time on a sh!t show of a session. Make yourself a deal, hit it hard, and be done.