Couldn’t get it done today. I’m not sure exactly what my performance means, but I have a couple of ideas. The last 4 sets of deadlifts were to be triples with 375 off 4 inch boxes. I couldn’t pull it once.
That means:
- I’m not in condition to handle this volume of work. That’s possible, but I made it through Monday, which was much harder.
- I’ve never been strong off boxes or doing rack pulls. Not sure why, or even what that means, but my max off a 4 inch box is probably the same as my max pull. I have trouble getting the bar moving. Maybe that’s a weak low back compared to hamstrings? Switching to sumo might be the answer, but I don’t know that I pull more sumo than conventional.
- I just had a bad day. I didn’t get 8 hours of sleep last night, and I didn’t eat as well as usual yesterday. I think it’s possible, but it’s not an excuse, and shouldn’t be – I’ve had incredible training days after terrible nights of sleep.
Anyway, here are the details
Deadlift to Knees
220×3
2×3 @ 265
2×3 @ 305
4×3 @ 330
I liked these, they made me focus on the pull off the floor, and focus on keeping the bar close to my shins.
Incline Bench Press
4×6 @ 135
Incline benching with a normal grip bothers my shoulders, so I use a close grip. Kept these light and manageable.
Pullup
5×5
Deadlift from 4″ boxes
245×4
285×4
2×4 @ 330
375 x miss, miss, miss
330 felt OK. I really feel these in my lower back, so maybe that’s a weakness. Seemed really strange that 330 was OK but 375 barely moved.
Lunge
5×5
Overall, while I’m not happy I couldn’t complete the prescribed sets, I still feel OK. I might make an adjustment to my training maximum, although I looked ahead at the deadlift training next week, and it’s not as heavy, so I might just stick with it and see if today was just a bad day.
