Little by little my back/hip issues have been rearing their ugly heads. It is not debilitating "yet." Last week's deload did not help the issue, although that was not the purpose of the reduced training. What that tells me is that rest is not what it needs.

While thinking about this I decided to give Master Rhodes a call. It's always crazy enlightening to talk to him. We have spent hundreds of hours talking about training and it never gets old. That's because training as well as our bodies are ever evolving or devolving in our case.

Now mind you it's not always advice, but just listening to someone's philosophy. While he was speaking, something he said made me realize that perhaps this 10x10 squatting and deadlifting has not been the best idea for my lower body training. It's not that I can't do them, it's that it is very difficult to maintain focus and perfect form for 100 reps. My squat and deadlift form with my back issues needs to be perfect. So I'm thinking my back would probably do better with a little heavier weight, with less reps, but perfect form. That might just cause me to keep my focus.

One thing I knew I was not doing, was enough low back and ab work. Rhodes does most of his during his warmup. That's such a good idea as far as I'm concerned. Right now my goal is just to get my back feeling healthy enough to squat and deadlift just for assistance to my bench. It's not like I'm trying to go out and try to squat a grand raw. A little work will probably go a long way for my core. I'm going to do it on all of my four training days regardless of whether it's an upper or lower day.

The goal for now is to simultaneously stretch and strengthen my back. I'm going to put squats and deadlifts on hold for a couple of weeks. That should give me enough time to get right for my upcoming training at the EliteFTS Compound.

In the past I'd probably go a few more weeks to make sure my back was really fired up. I definitely caught this before I had any clear signs. I guess just because I live with a certain amount of dull pain it's hard to tell when it progresses a little. Time to let the ego go so I can get my bench where it needs to be for August and to qualify for the Arnold. Yep, I don't know if I'd call it getting smarter, but at least I was less stupid this time around.