Trained Legs with Jessie and Jen Roder at Strength Beyond in Kalamazoo. I've been dealing with some bad hip and knee pain and Randy has a hip flexor injury and took the week off legs so I decided to just hit it light and hopefully be ready for a good session next week.
Squats:
4x5-10 135lbs
1x10 225lb
2x20 315lb
Heel elevated bottom position squats:
1x10 315lbs
Lying leg curls
5x12
It's really getting harder and harder to warm up on squats and I think it's about time I move to an actual warm up routine as opposed to just awkwardly trying to work into a decent squat position over half a dozen sets with 135lbs.
The two sets of 20 with 315lbs felt pretty good. The first was no belt or wraps, but with my knee pain I ended up doing a light wrap for the second set.
The heel elevated squats were with feet close together, heels elevated on 2.5lb plates (also wearing olympic lifting shoes, so the actual elevation was closer to a 5lb plate), and with constant tension at the very bottom position of the squat. The reps were done from as low as you could possibly go to about 3-5 inches above parallel.
I'm staying much leaner right now--sitting in the low 260s and much leaner than I was all winter and spring. I usually get my best squat workouts in this weight range (I'm not my strongest at this weight, but being less tight through the hips usually allows me to get some of my best higher rep workouts on squats) and I'm starting to feel good enough to plan ahead for some squat goals before I put some size back on this fall.
I'd like to hit a completely raw 405lb for 20 (no belt, wraps, or sleeves) and I'd like to take another run at 500 for 20 and maybe give 315 for 50 a try (I think I hit around 40 reps one time years ago).
We'll see I end up hitting any of those, but since my bench goes to shit at this weight I figure I might as well focus on hitting some squat numbers.
I just want to remind everyone that my member's only section is up at www.TroponinNutrition.com. You can sign up for $9.99 and get access to members only articles and information, and even ask for specific questions you have to be answered in the section. 