Training Log: 24/03/2013

Today I had the privilege to train with Lawrence who is a personal trainer at PURE and also an expert in athletic performance. It was a sick session with a lot of adrenaline and testosterone pumping. Learned a great deal from him, corrected some of my bad habits on the deadlift and also squatted some heavy weights. Since currently I only have one legs day, I wanted to pack everything into that session so I can get the most of it. We ended up doing deadlifts and squats in the same session.

So I decided we begin with some speed deadlifts with 40 to 50% max, did like 20 sets with around 10 worksets. Then moved on to (what was supposed to be my mainlift of the day) max squat. Then I realized it was a terrible idea. My lower back was quite fatigue from the deadlifts, probably since I hadnt deadlifted for a couple months. And the speed work had taxed my CNS quite significantly, I was only able to hit 70-80% of what I was supposed to lift. But "f*ck it" I thought. Lawrence was killing it for reps, I should be able to at least hit a rep with that weight. It was only 130kg. I switched from free squat to box squat cus I knew I can handle more on the box. So I loaded the bar, squatted down and sat on the box. As I tried to explode upwards,  I realized there was nothing left in me. Next thing I know the bar rolled over my neck and bam it hit the ground.

First time to really miss a weight like this. Here's what I've learned:

1. Never pair dynamic with max effort. If time only allows you to train legs once a week. Pick one, you cant put too much on your plate.

2. Assess your physical condition realistically. As old Henry Rollins said: "Most injuries involving the Iron come from the ego... Try to lift what you aren't prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson about restraint and self-control."

3. If you're gonna alter your stance/ the way you execute a lift in the middle of your sets, you gotta start from scratch. For example, you were pyramiding up your free squats for a max lift. You realize you may not be able to hit the weight you wanted to on that particular day with a free squat but you know you have a bigger chance using a box.  Now you don't just put a box there and start doing box squats using the same weights you were using. Even though its arguably still a squat, the target muscles are entirely different so does the way it is executed. You gotta start all over again from a light weight and pyramid up. Well that seldom happens to me actually. Usually I'd settle for a 3 rep max instead. Guess my competitiveness got the best of me.

Well at least I wasn't injured. I'll take what I've learned from my mistakes and kick some asses next week.

Here's a sneak peak into our training:

So I thought it would be easy:

This guy was obviously killing it, he moved on to 140kg after this.

This is before things got ugly:

All in all, it was a sick session. Thanks to Lawrence, here's my new motto: "To become the best you must learn from the be(a)st".

Stay strong and get stronger