I'm getting ahead of myself:
Friday: Max bench.
Saturday: Max deadlift [both had more in the tank though].
Sunday: Max squat.
I missed a couple of days last week, and wanted to make up for those days.
Meanwhile, I should have just stayed up, cooked up 1-lb of bacon, and watched some old episodes of America's Most Wanted, and had a full rest day.
Tomorrow, I will be back in the gym again, training Max strict curl. I used curl 120-lb on the barbell for 8-12 reps.
I don't expect to match B. Hank's 165-lb personal record, but will aim for as close as possible.
I can guarantee you I'm good for 115-135 right now, so I'm going to try to match B. Hank's 165, or whatever it was.
I'm on a mission now.
Here are my squats for today:
315-/345-/370-/375-lb:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyKnPlsuaHv/That 315 went up slower than last time, then I had to regroup. Then I hit 345, a bit more easily, and then I went to 370 [to put space between B. Hank's 365-lb squat and mine]. As I wasn't feeling spectacular, I decided to get 370 first, then look at my form.
My form was OK for 370, but could have been two inches lower for my tastes [and the tastes of Getbig Squat King Fortress]. But I felt I could have done that depth, had I not misjudged depth on the descent. Notice I didn't exhale my air - exhaling your air will always prop you up a little higher/faster with squats, so I firmly believe I could have buried that 370 with some minor coaching on my form to keep in mind for next time.
So I loaded up 375-lb, with the goal in mind to just improve the depth I just hit at 370.
I succeeded at that, and 375 was slightly deeper, and was "OK" to me.
Still an inch or two high for my tastes - but "OK".
Now I'll definitely be watching squat videos by Ed Coan and Mark Bell, and refining my form in my deficits which even *I* see.
Then strong knee will have me squatting 405-lb to acceptable" depth as soon as I work them in over the course of a few workouts.
I'm confident I will be 30-50 pounds over whatever B. Hank puts out as his maximum squats. No problem there.
Again - here are my videos from 315-/345-/370-/375-lb, hot off the press within the past 60 minutes. Swipe left:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyKnPlsuaHv/And if swipe to the very end, you will see my depth on my 375-lb squat. Below are both my 370 and 375 depth screenshots. Then, finally, you have my 365-lb depth from last time, and my 315-lb, which is the depth I SHOULD be taking my 365+ squats too - so it's safe to say that another inch or two, and I'll bury my squats.
So my goal at the moment is hitting proper depth, and once that's consistent, adding 5-lb per week to this squat over the next 12 weeks until the contest is over.
Add strong knee wraps, and I might inch ever so slowly to a 450-lb contest squat with knee wraps. Time will tell - but I feel great, have no injuries, have a 20-lb body weight advantage on my side over years past, and don't have muscle memory - but do have the fact that I never put the effort in to getting to my max squat potential. So my squats have the most potential to improve because of that.
So time will tell - but I don't think a 455 squat to contest depth with knee wraps will be impossible for me to get to.
