Tonight start the first night of rest pause work for the squat. Tonight was a doozy. Lots of wrong and too much straining.

Before I started I did some work on my left quad. It was feeling good but I aggravated it last week squatting 675 with a belt only. I hit the stick and lacrosse ball on it for a while and it loosened up.

Squat with 30 second rest pause belt only

135 for 5 3 sets
225 for 3
315 for 3
405 for 1
495 for 1
600 for 2,2,1. Thirty seconds rest in between sets.

This was a tough rest pause set. I did it out of the monolift to save walk out time and I was all over the place. On my toes, heels, back on my toes and into the rack. My goal was to hit the 2,2,1 rep scheme and it worked out but it wasn't fun.

Sumo deadlift

My back is all jacked up for some reason so I went sumo tonight. I did a few sets with conventional and it wasn't feeling good. I went sumo and it was ok. My goal tonight was to do some singles in the 85-95% range. I'm basing my sumo work off a 685 pull. When I pulled 740 sumo last year in an April meet I based my pull off of 675 so I'm hoping a low training max will again equal a nice result. Plus my back likes that.

225 for 2
315 for 2
405 for 1
500 for 1
605 for 1

My technique felt off so I dropped back down to 335 for some technique work.

335 for 3 doubles
500 for 1
605 for 1
655 for 1

655 the second time around felt better then 605 the first time around. I need to work on getting my hips closer to the bar. A wider stance seems to fit my build best as my torso is really long and my arms are really short. I was able to get close to the bar and keep my torso very upright. I even put my belt a little higher than usual. This helped by keeping the belt out of my hips and un rounding my back. What started out crappy ended well.

I went back to 315 again for a few singles again. I also realized we really need powder in the gym.

Done.

Tonight took a lot of time and I was ready to go home. I am finishing up a big project at work and my mind was fried. I have been creating all new job titles, descriptions, and work flows for our program staff. It's been a long process but I'm really proud of what it is becoming. I am the vocational director for a non profit who supports adults with developmental disabilities. It's my job to supervise the program and make it the best it can be. We set our goals to maximize client growth and independence via new work opportunities in the community. We found Though that our staff structure did not adequately support our goals. The plan must match the goal and ours didn't. By reworking those things we are in my better position to help our clients succeed. It's a cool project.