And Another PR in the Gym

I am on some kind of a roll recently in the gym.

In recent weeks, I've set new bests for the clean, the clean and jerk, the strict press, the 500 meter row, and tied bests in overhead squats, and the back squat.

Last night, we were working on deadlift sets as follows:

5 reps - 65% of 1 rep max

5 - 70%

3 - 75%

3 - 80%

1 - 85%

max - 90%

But, I hadn't tried a maximal deadlift for a while, so I deviated in the last set. I started at 245 for my first set, and by the fifth, I was at 320 pounds. This went pretty easily, so I skipped the 335 pound max reps set, and tried for a new PR at 385 pounds, vs. my previous best of 375.

It turned out to be a very unusual lift. I got the bar a couple inches off the ground and then I just stalled. After maybe 5 seconds (OK, probably 2, but it felt like a lot more), I was about to give up on the lift, assuming I couldn't make it. My lifting partner said later that I shifted my body position just a little bit, moving back just a bit and allowing my hips to open up a bit more easily. Suddenly, the bar started moving slowly upwards again. I knew as soon as I had movement, I'd finish the lift. When I fail, it's always early in this lift, unlike strict presses, where I often fail at the end of the lift.

And, bit by bit, with the whole gym watching, I nailed the rep. Everyone broke out in applause; it was pretty cool to pull it off with an audience. It wasn't pretty, but it's a new PR for me.

My weight is down to 210 right now, from a high of 236 back in April. One of my deadlifting goals for a while has been to lift twice my body weight. Yesterday, I lifted 183% of my body weight, so I'm getting close. If I can get under 200 pounds and get to 405# on this lift by the end of the year, I'll make that goal.

After my deadlift, the rest of the workout seemed unimportant. The workout was 100 burpee pull-ups, which is a tough one. You do a burpee, but instead of the normal jump at the end, you jump to a pull-up bar and do a pull-up. If you can't do pull-ups, you are supposed to do 10 burpees, 10 pull-ups, etc.

Another option is jumping pull-ups, where you use a lower pull-up bar than prescribed, and really get a jumping start to the pull-up. I chose that option, and scaled the workout to 60 reps. I finished in 11:29, but kind of felt like a cheater because everyone else was still going.

After the workout, the chiropractor worked on my shoulder a bit, and we decided to decrease the frequency of treatments; my shoulder is just about fully healed.

Then, I headed home to watch the CrossFit games on TV.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Today, I'll do some rowing and the CrossFit workout, and then tomorrow may be a rest day. My legs are a bit tired today.