Best.Day.Ever. Well..in the gym anyway...we were working up to a front squat max for 5 reps. I have strong legs and have always been a pretty good squatter...strength wise anyway...flexibility and mobility allude me and even with lots of stretching and tennis ball therapy I am still wound up like a top ready to explode like a whirling dervish at any moment. You can strum my scalenes like a harp.
So the front squats. We did a "death by' workout some months back...(maybe March) where we had to do front squats on the minute. I had made good progress in the gym but had never done this lift. When I attempted to pick up the bar and hold it properly in front of me on a "shelf'" created by thrusting my elbows up I completely failed. I could not hold that bar up. I ended up having to modify the lift, crossing my arms and holding it like an old lady...(no pointing out the obvious here...I know how old I am). I had NO mobility in my shoulders and could not do this lift. I completed the work out using a 35 pound bar...not my best day...I am still at this place with the overhead squat...my shoulders hold me back....BUT....TODAY....for reasons unknown to me I had a 30 pound PR on the front squat. Some weeks ago I was encouraged (read...Babs you WILL...) to cut back on my weight in the back squat and concentrate on depth. It has made a big difference. I am starting to feel the lift and how my body really is designed for these deep squats..when I am squatting I stop at the point I can't make it to parallel...so the front squat...it was one of those times where all the planets line up and crazy good stuff happens...my prior PR was 115 done roughly 6 weeks ago. Today I passed that by and did 145... then we took 80% of that weight and did max reps...so there I was, squatting away at 115 (my former PR) for a max of 19 squats...seriously...I was stoked...Brad was watching and he got all pumped too..."Damn" he said, "when did you learn to squat!" I love these compliments...I am a bit insecure sometimes, I also get a lot of critique from the boys at the mount...(which I love because it makes me better) but Brad getting excited about it made me excited about it....these little moments of exultation over the improvement of someone in the gym...I killed the WOD...dumbbell push up/rows, dumbbell rows, and sit ups...and the 500M time trial on the rower...a four second PR for me here...
Not all days are like this...yesterday I left the gym despondent...today my feel floated across the pavement as I ran home...(no car, long story)... I know that perhaps this day would have happened on my own eating plan...but I feel like the food piece has been a major part of my improvement...at any rate...yay me!!!
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