The Good Old Internet

I did not sleep that well or enough last night. We had a drink and watched a movie. Well, I had some Bourbon earlier too while watching the Eagles game, but whose counting? Molly’s on vacation, so we’ve been relaxing.

With my family’s secret discovery a while back, I didn’t lift anything at all for a good month. When I got back, I started my first 5/3/1 cycles with a smart but lighter weight. I’m nearly 50 years old, so I don’t want to lose my focus or do other things to risk injury, so I wasn’t aggressive at all. I’ve taken my time increasing my weight each cycle, looking at it as a long-term goal instead of a short one like I may have had when I was younger. Don’t get me wrong, I still want it all and want it now, but wisdom also gives me patience.

This morning it was fairly cold, and we don’t have the heat on yet in the garage. I was being lazy too and just not feeling it, so I was in no big hurry to go out and lift. I was back and forth in my head about whether I even felt like lifting today, but I ultimately decided to get out there and do it around the middle of the morning.

The first thing to note is that even the lightest set felt heavy and not good at all. It took my time working my way up and decided that I would just see how it goes and how the sets felt later. They did feel a little better, but I would say good at all.

For the second-to-last set, which called for 3 reps at 260 pounds, I went and got my girlfriend because she likes watching the working sets. I rounded up to 265 pounds because I didn’t feel like dealing with the change plates. Those three actually felt pretty decent.

When it was time for the final one plus AMRAP I had to do those at 290 pounds. It’s a weight that I knew was doable a few months ago, but I wasn’t sure about it now with my hiatus from the heavy lifting. The first thing that surprised me was how light the bar felt when I got under it and unracked it. I think, for one thing, I did a pretty good job getting centered. With my low vision, the struggle with that can be real.

I went to do the first squat, which is where I was thinking I was going to call it quits today, and that squat felt outstanding. It felt light and easy. More so than any other reps I did today. It was also extremely explosive. The strong feel of the squat led me to go ahead and do another rep. That was super explosive, too. Both of them popped off my back at the top. The second one pushed more into my neck, which I am not used to, so I stopped there. Needless to say, today’s squat session was a huge surprise and a great confidence booster.

Music today was Mastodon.