Wendler 5/3/1 Cycle 4 Week 2
- Warmup: Run 450m (around block)
- Press: 142.5 x 3+: 3
- Clean (as warmup for DL): 135, 165, 180, 195, 205 (PR!), 220x, 215x, 210x
- Deadlift: 320 x 3+: 7 (rep PR)
Today was pretty much a carbon copy of last Thursday – mediocre press followed by clean PR followed by deadlift rep PR. I’ll take it.
After the recent poor performance on the upper body lifts, I was happy to get the minimum on the press. The weight went up really slowly but it went up. The third rep felt like it wasn’t going to go but I battled through.
After PRing at 200 lb on the clean last week, today I hit 205. Very cool. Then I misloaded the bar with 220, probably due to being giddy from the 205, and actually almost racked it. I got it up to the shoulders and dropped it as I tried to pull my elbows around to rack it and a sudden “Oh crap! This is heavy!” reflex kicked in. Then I went to adjust the weight and realized I accidentally added 15 lbs of change plates on top of the 205. This really demonstrates that Olympic weightlifting is a mind game as much as it is strength and technique. After the failed 220, I backed off to 215 and 210 but they weren’t going up today. Maybe if I rested a bit more between attempts but this was already too much of a distraction from the deadlift. Oh, and I didn’t take video of this again because who PRs during a warmup??
At this point, my clean is starting to catch up with my front squat so I really need to stop skipping front squats on Saturdays.
Deadlift felt good again and, again, according to my records, 320×7 is a rep PR at that weight. I’m having a hard time deciding when to end the deadlift sets. I’m pretty sure I could’ve managed another rep or two but speed and form would have diminished a bit.
Experimented a little with behind the neck presses at the end. Did combos of strict/push and snatch/clean grips with just the bar.
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