According to my intuitive programming, yesterday was the last day before the USAPL meet July 31st to try a 1RM squat. I've been worried about walking out a big PR attempt, so I decided to squat with 40 pounds of chain on the bar. Chain is great stuff. It tries to jerk you around and is therefore good for working on stability, and since it de-loads at the bottom, it forces an explosive start. If you've got 385 pounds of bar weight at the bottom, and you apply 385 pounds of force, you're going to get stuck when links start coming off the floor.
I was again squatting with K.S. with C.H. assisting us.
It proceeded thusly:
45 x 5
45 + chains x 5
135 + chains x 5
185 + chains x 3 wrist wraps on
225 + chains x 3
275 + chains x 1
315 + chains x 1 belt on
345 + chains x 1 loose wraps on
375 + chains x 1 tight wraps on
(385 + chains x 1) missed on depth, I was about an inch high.
After months of training, which has been a grind at times, I have something to be happy about, and I was. The 415 top / 375 bottom squat was good, and while my last attempt was high, I felt good with 425 pounds on my back.
I think I can make the depth problem go away. I have stayed away from wraps in training, and I think my CNS is just trying to do its job of protecting me; it's trying to shut me down early because it doesn't know the wraps are going to give me a pop out of the bottom position.
C.H. asked me what I'm going to try at the meet, and when I told him 340, 370, 400, he didn't hesitate before saying simply, "410." With that attitude, which coincidentally is exactly the same as mine, I now have full faith in his ability to handle me at the meet. I'm still going to open 340, and I'm going to let him call my second and third attempts with the sole condition that no matter what happens on the second attempt, the third has to be at least 400. I've decided I don't even want to know what's on the bar. This will be the first time I'll be able to lift and not think, and I'm going to enjoy it thoroughly.
While I'm done with max effort singles, I will have a final high volume, high intensity day Sunday.
I have no idea what will happen at the meet. This time, however, I'm sure that I will be fully prepared for a big PR day when I'm on the platform.
Possibly, just possibly, people wonder what I'm thinking when I talk to the bar. Certainly not always, but more often than not I'm thinking about my heart rate and then nothing. I've learned that watching my heart rate gives me the easiest way to monitor my arousal level. What I'm happiest of all about this last session is that even with 425/385 my arousal level was right around 7 on a 0-10 scale. Absolutely perfect for training.
I haven't found the perfect level for a competition squat, but I suspect it's right about 9.25. Just like I do with you, I cue myself when squatting. I watch myself very carefully during every warm-up rep and see where the problems are. Sometimes, and the more I practice the more this happens, everything is right on, I'm in the groove, and I can just feel myself squat with no self-coaching. Still too frequently though, I will be falling forward, so my most frequent self - cues are the same "back" and "chest up" you hear from me. Not so many times now, and especially with knee wraps on, do I need to give myself, "knees out." At any rate, I've found I need to have room in my head for two cues, and trying to squat on 10 crowds all the thinking out. I think the two contributing factors in my near-death squat last November were unequally wound wraps, and trying to squat on 10.
I leave you with a profuse apology that I can't explain what I'm thinking about when I want to crank the arousal above 7. It's a non-verbal thing for me, and the best way I can describe it is unfocused aggression. I suppose it feels a bit like I'm bracing myself for the impact of the final, big meteor.
I'm worried now that my longer term thinking is drifting all over the place. I've caught myself thinking about what happens after I squat 455. Sometimes I think about how a mere 90 more pounds would be a triple body weight squat, and sometimes I think it would be both awesome and good for my rowing to increase my 20RM from its current 245 to 315. What I'm forgetting in all this, of course, is that I haven't squatted 400 yet.
Shut the fuck up, listen to C.H., and do my job which is to squat whatever is on the bar.
I don't control fate and yet I feel that something beautiful is about to happen.
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