Tuesday 28.1: Clean singles, squat singles

Tuesday. Strength, clean singles (max PR 107.5kg). Back squat singles (max PR 142.5kg).

PR Day! It's been a long time since last day when I didn't do any metcon or didn't put my heart and lungs to work hard. So today my intention was to give my body a rest on the metabolic condition. Actually I didn't have an idea what to do when I entered the gym. Little before I walked in I got a feeling of doing some clean singles. Not looking for max numbers but just going heavy. The end result turned out to be great!

Strength. Clean and back squat

• Clean, 3x70, 1x80, 90, 100, PR 105, failed at 107.5kg, PR 107.5kg
• Back squat, 2x80, 100, 1x120, 130, 137.5, PR 142.5kg

Okay, after having warmed up I grabbed a barbell and started working on clean technique. I went for hang cleans and hang squat cleans for a while with lighter weights. Actually the last hang clean I did was @ 80kg. And it felt easy. Felt like I got under the bar quickly. Never has 80kg been that easy from pocket. When I mean hang clean I mean it's from the pocket, not from mid-thigh. That's your choice, do whatever you want. I've used to do them from the pocket, feels more natural for me.

After 80kg I started doing singles from the floor. First 90kg, felt light, added 10kg to reach 3-digit numbers, still came up solidly. My last record was 102.5kg. I skipped that and jumped right on to 105kg. That's on the video below. I took it with my phone.

It was a pity my phone's memory got full on this lift and I don't have the next lift on camera. Actually the very next rep wasn't a success. I had good tension on the lift and ready to pull and clean. But once I got the bar off the floor it was "too close" to my body and it hit both of my knees on the way up. Well, I dropped it, walked around for a while and got back to the zone, mentally.

Walked to the bar, puffed around, and did my thang. I got under the bar well and I was positively surprised how confident I felt being under that weight on the clean. Coming up with the bar wasn't an issue because my front squat is at okay level. What I realized afterwards was that those front squats with a pause that I've done lately, might have made a difference on today's performance. I've done something between 90-110k. I've created those weights to be at my comfort zone. So dropping under the bar with these weights have felt good.

I think it has lots to do with daring to go under the barbell. If you don't dare, you won't drop, even though you would be able. Even though the bar would travel high enough. This happened to me on the last rep I tried, at 110kg. The bar came up enough, the only thing I needed was the explosive drop. But I didn't drop. Need to work on those paused squats. On both front, back and overhead squats. They are great!

As I was on a roll I decided to try what squats feel like. I had planned to max out the squats on Thursday but it felt okay so I started piling stuff on the barbell. I was pondering what to do after 130kg. Should I put 135 or 140kg right away, and ended up having 137.5kg on the bar. Took it up and went for PR lift of 142.5kg. Previous record was 140kg and it's been there for a while. Completing that 142.5kg was bigger mentally than it is weight-wise. It was a victory for me too difficult to explain. I believe it's been some sort of mental barrier to step beyond 140kg. I hope there are no limits after today's performance! I think double the bodyweight is the amount of stuff I should be able to lift. That would be around 160kg. There's more work ahead of me, and I like it