Dripping in the Squat Rack. in Whey and Sonic Screwdrivers.

I feel like I could fuck a dozen bitches and eat a ten kilogram steak. Holy shit, what a difference when I warm up properly. I know I joke about getting older, but I’LL HAPPEN TO YOUUUUU. :: waves shaking finger pointedly at you :: I know squatz take a lot out of you, so in the past I would foam roll and then lead with squatz. Then after squatz, I’d do accessory exercises if I had the energy.

So, last month, I did a full body every other day consisting of bench/row/press/pulldowns and finishing with either squats or deads. (Was coming back from a layoff and used lowered weights until I hit that sweet spot of challenging weights.) Despite doing lower body shtuff at the end of my workout, I actually “felt” stronger in both lift. It baffled me. I hazarded some broscience that I wasn’t warming up enough.

So, as an experiment, I’ve been doing some leg extensions, curls, and glute bridges before my main lift. Psychologically, I would think it would “fatigue” me. Gasp, must reserve energy for TEH SQUATZ! Instead, my knees feel far more stable and I don’t have to think about them caving. (Always keep knees in line with the toes, matters more than whether it goes past the toes.) Concurrently, combined with delicious foam rolling, bridges definitely warmed up my glutes and hip joint.

I do have a fitocracy, as I’m a sucker for graphs and visually seeing progress. As well, I can specifically make annotations for each lift, and quickly reload a previous workout and just change a few numbers to post a new day’s workout. Anyway, eleven sets of squatz later…

There’s something to be said for hitting a heavy weight, then backing off slightly and doing your “main” sets there. Even if you just hit that weight two sets ago, it will “feel” lighter. Bodies are amazing. I just haven’t had a session like this in a long time where I just left it all in the squat rack. What’s funny is when I was a n00b, I remember when just doing three sets would have me walking slowly out of the gym. Then again, I was doing sets of 12. Fuck high rep squats. Now, after I catch my breath, I’m ready to Life again.

I’ll never forget the time I had a heavy squat workout, and then went on taxing hike in the afternoon. Legs felt just fine. GO TEAM CONDITIONING.

tl;dr: Squatting is awesome and I feel awesome. I’m going to sleep like a ton of bricks tonight. SWEET.