UB: Conditioning Week 5. Squat, Deads and Sprints

Defranco Mobility

Squat -
BarX10
135X5
185X2
225X1
265X1X5

Deadlift -
135X10
225X5

Rope Curls - 4 sets of 20

Incline Sprints - 14 in 13:00

I was nervous about these Squats.  I'd only tried 265 once before, at the end of the UB Strength cycle, and I got on my toes and had to dump the bar over my head.  So having "failed" to do it on a strength cycle, attempting it near the end of a conditioning cycle was a little worrying.  But I felt confident that the strength should be there, and that it was just a form issue.  When 225 felt a lighter than usual, I started to perk up a little.  I still took a lot of time to make sure my set-up was good.  If I got under the bar and my hands felt wrong, or the bar felt like it was against my shoulders instead of on them, I would pull out and reset.  Got all 5.  They were a bit slow, but so have all the singles been on this cycle.  Because I train alone, I also can't completely vouch for my depth on all 5, especially that first tentative attempt, but as a non-competitor I'm confident that they were low enough to demonstrate my ability to squat this weight.  Nice feeling of calm contentment after these sets.

I mis-read my damn program log, and did last week's programmed sprints.  Whatever; I got done with a minute to spare, and felt like I could have run more.  I did NOT feel like that last week, so I still call this progress.  In fact, I'm thinking that for the last week, instead of setting my timer for 15 minutes or what-not and trying to get X amount of sprints in that time, I might just start a stopwatch running, and see how long I can run sprints before I'm face down on the sidewalk.  Might depend on how I feel that day, though.

Deads were easy and fast as hell.  After a brief consultation with Paul Carter, I will continue to cruise on these in the next cycle.  More on that when I start that cycle.

Rope curls were done.  These just move the elbow through a slightly different range of motion than some other variations.  Not a big deal.  Just doing varieties of curls to balance out all the pressing and other triceps work I've been doing for months.