Friday 24.10: Squats and deadlifts

Friday. Strength, back squat, build up to a heavy triple (max 140kg). Clean grip deadlift, build up to a heavy single (max 200kg).

Today was a day off from work which was great. We spent the day downtown with my baby and then headed toward the gym in the afternoon as Toni and Jouni were planning to enter as well. It was great to have Toni there to speculate some deadlift grips, and Jouni was smashing Karen with a 15kg bumper plate as there's no possibility to throw a wall ball. There was no metcon this time, just pure strength.

Strength.

• Back squat, build up to a heavy triple (5x70, 5x90, 3x110, 3x130, 3x140kg)
• Clean grip deadlift, build up to a heavy single (5x110, 5x150, 5x170, 3x180, 1x190, 1x200kg)

To be honest, I had no idea what to do when I came to the gym. Okay, I had an idea of squats and deads but it was very vague. I'm not sure about those reps in 110kg back squat and 170kg deadlift, might have been the other way around on the reps but at least the weights are correct. Anyway, at some point of squatting it came to my mind it would be cool to squat 140kg for a triple.

In the warm-up I always took one 5 second pause squat (up to 90kg), then banged some "speed" squats, as quickly as possible. They were not as explosive as I'd like to see but the point is to have good control in both downward and upward motion, and move with dedication. Squatting 130kg was moderate weight, it was awesome to understand that weight is no issue anymore. I'll take that any day nowadays. Plus a triple at 140kg, hmm… I've taken it once before in my life and the depth of the squats was not on the same level as they are currently. So there's no other possibility but to thank mr. Smolov for those unrealistic amounts of squatting lately.

After hitting that triple at 140kg I thought it's about time to get serious with deadlifts. It's probably been months since I've had my hands on a barbell for heavy deads. On the first sets I used regular mixed grip just like always before. For some reason it felt awkward and it was more natural to utilize hook grip in a similar way as I would do cleans. So we talked it over with Toni and he had similar feelings. So I figured let's give it a shot. It was instantly natural so I used that for the rest of the lifts.

200kg dead, hook grip

I'm having difficulties in choosing how to work in the future. Is it gonna be hook grip or classic deadlift grip in future sessions? Don't know the answer but today I built it up to a heavy single, and was able to knock a 200kg lift in the books. This was probably the first time I did clean grip deadlifts ever. There's a chance it transfers better in to cleans and snatches where hook grip is always used.