This past Sunday was a squat day at Apollon, and unfortunately not a very good one.
To start, before I even left for the gym I had to spend 20 minutes digging my car out after being plowed in at some point the previous night. It wasn't a huge deal, but it did make me late, so I had to wait for everyone to finish their squats before starting because they were already well into their training and I didn't want to slow them down by stripping the bar in the middle of their worksets.
Not a huge deal because it gave me extra time to warm up, but I much prefer working up with the rest of crew just for the motivation factor.
My back has been feeling pretty good lately, so I was anticipating a good session. I've been doing a lot of gear training trying to figure out the best way to transition back into it, so I decided to work up raw for a change of pace (RAW RAW, not RAW with suit, like usual).
My back, which has been my biggest issue over the last couple of years felt fine, but my right hip, which has been bugging me for a couple of weeks felt like it was on fire, and was causing me to shift to the good side during the squats.
Long story short, I worked up to only 420 before tapping out, no because it felt heavy, but due to the pain and my fear I would f*ck myself up worse by continuing on. I even tried throwing a brief on and continuing, but it didn't do anything for the pain.
Exactly one year ago I was finishing up preparation for the XPC Finals, which would turn out to be the best meet of my career. Now, I can't even keep up with our new guys on squat/dl days. Needless to say, It's been a bit disheartening, and it's getting hard to stay motivated and not wonder if my best days are behind me.
Then I remind myself that plenty of lifters have come back from way worse, and the bumps in the road I'm finding are generally the result of my being impatient. I'll give myself a week off from lower body this week, ramp up the mobility stuff and ART visits, and do what I can next time out