I’m back at the office for the first time since two Thursdays ago. It feels weird, and I have a lot of fires to put out, but the good thing is that I could go back to the gym on my normal schedule.
Despite the week off, my 5x5A workout of squats, bench and rows went reasonably well. I was a little ambitious in places and that was okay.
Squat – 2x5x45lb, 2x5x115lb, 5x5x145lb
Bench – 10x45lb, 5x95lb, 5x115lb, 2x5x130lb, 2x4x130lb, 3x130lb, 2x130lb
Row – 5x45lb, 5x5x90lb
Bonus: Lat pulldowns, pec flys, cable triceps pushdowns
I tried to jump right in to squats but my hips were not having it. Once I hopped on the treadmill for 3 minutes to warm up they went lots better. (My hips are notably jacked up right now; they’re tight in the front and sore in the back. Need some time with the foam roller.) Still trying to nail my form down; my back is collapsing less but my knees were still falling in.
Bench was okay, I added 5lb and strugglebus-ed my way through. The first set of 5 was grindy, the second one was 4+1 (and one of the gym ladies was running over to rescue me, it really took that long to grind out that last rep), and then I decided that if I kept the weight on the bar I’d be happy with sets of 4… and the last one I only got to 3, and then I did 2 more and figured that was enough.
Rows still suck. That’s about it.
I’m trying not to think about the competition coming up. I made all these big changes to my life– and my body– to support this ambitious goal of being competitive, but I’m afraid that my performance won’t catch up with where I want to be. It certainly won’t if I’m stuck farting around at 145lb squats…
Running While Fat 
To me, even entering a competition is so far beyond what I would ever dream of, that I’m impressed you just put your name down! Whatever you do will be fantastic.
Dead Last Finish > Did Not Finish > Did Not Start
Or whatever the weightlifting equivalent is.
Its a really small and casual one, despite the amount of meaning I’m investing in it it’s really chill and fun :)