I'm Gettin' Bettah..!

I'm Gettin'  Bettah..!

The effusion got really bad over the course of the day yesterday, but that seems to have been the worst of it. Much better this morning. With a thin knee sleeve under my blue Rehband the knee feels pretty damned solid. Good enough to deadlift. But too acute a bend angle and the pressure from the effusion gets to be too much. Still much better than yesterday.

Here's the thing...the effusion isn't something to fight! It's evolution's very smart built-in response to joint instability due to damage or overuse. I tweaked the tissue in the back, tissue first damaged years ago and which took about a year to heal. So now when I re-tweak it by doing stupid shit like extreme stretching, my body responds by generating fluid to stabilize, immobilize and heal. 

With luck, I'll be ready to squat again by next Sunday. Today I'll deadlift which I've needed to do anyway without being tired from squatting. I'm sick of having trouble with 315 again. Christ, I've pulled 506 sumo in competition and 495 conventional in the gym (at about 185 lbs bodyweight). It is surreal to be struggling with three wheels again. 

Speaking of bodyweight and lifts, I'm --perhaps with great delusion-- hoping to squat ~360 Olympic style without belt or wraps and deadlift ~450 without belt while 165 lbs or less. I also hope that this translates to 407 (185 kilos) and 506 (230 kilos) in competition. 

The Twin Cities USAPL Open is in 90 days. That's enough time for 12-15 squat/deadlift sessions. I doubt I'll get to 165 in that time (I'm 155-158 now) and I probably won't add 100 lbs to my squat and deadlift in 3 months either. I seem to gain 8-10 lbs on my squat and deadlift for every lb of bodyweight I gain. So I'd need to gain 3 lbs/month for the next three months. Meh. Maybe. 

I don't really have any bench goals. Ever. But it would be nice to bench 315 one day. Much more important to me are my squat, deadlift, vertical and sprint times. As far as upper body, I 'd much rather be able to do a one-arm chin up (again) than bench 315. 

Today will be a classic bench/deadlift day with back focus instead of squatting. I think these strict DB rows are really helping my upper body pulling muscles the most, especially now that I'm using that semi-supinated grip. It's like the bench press of the back! 

Today's Goals:

Bench Press 175 x 5

Deadlift 335 x 1

DB Row 90 x 8 (strict)

Chin Up + 10 x 5