PR Friday – 6 SEP

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Smarter

Chalk floats softly through the air. The thumping of your heart is all you hear, all you feel. You step to the bar and place your hands on it, feeling the cold knurling on callused hands. The whirling hurricane of emotion settles into the eye of the storm, the peaceful moment when you have to make a decision to begin.

If you’ve found yourself on the receiving end of an ass kicking by gravity, I can feel your disappointment, irritation, and likely rage. Missing reps is common among lifting, yet dealing with them is not. Powerlifters can go months without missing a single rep to experience the ultimate let down on a third attempt. Weightlifters who push themselves will miss in each workout, but it doesn’t make it any easier. After the initial moments of rage subside, remember that each missed rep is a learning opportunity.

The process of getting stronger is dependent on how you react to failure, and failure will be prevalent. In order to get stronger, you have to get smarter, and you get smarter by analyzing what went wrong, how to fix it, and doing it better next time. This may require a hard look at recovery methods (food, sleep, etc.), the program (levels of volume or intensity throughout the week and over time), and technique (inefficiencies in movement and bar path). The possibility may exist that you didn’t have any business attempting that weight, but you won’t know until you try. There’s always a reason for failure, but it’s up to you (and the coach) to figure out why. Otherwise you won’t get smarter about getting stronger.

Happy PR Friday (post PR’s to comments)

24 thoughts on “PR Friday – 6 SEP”

  3. Took the Marine Corps CFT this morning… don’t get a score since I was just doing it for fun. Got 3:30 880 run, 55 Ammo Can Presses and 2.:59 w/ miss on movement under fire. Not too good… need to start conditioning

  4. Just finished 4-6 weeks of TM and hit PR’s on Squat and DL as part of a virtual lifting competition I’m lifting in. I really enjoyed TM except for the light days, they drive me nuts, I wanna lift. The squat is 485 lb and a 30 lb PR and the DL is a 15 lb PR at 555. I just started paused benching and got 295×1, 10 lb short of my TnG PR. I’m doing my first meet in December and hoping to hit 1400, so 65 lb to go. I’m starting a full 13 week Smolov cycle on Monday to try to get there. Here’s videos of the two PRs.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG0CJ2so2BE

    • Congrats on the PR! Also sweet shirt…from what I can make of it lol

      But yeah, I used to dislike light days on TM myself. I found it boring. It really wasn’t until I changed it so I was front squatting and OHP on light days (I bench 2x/week on volume and intensity days) that it became fun.

      It allowed me to go for PR’s on the front squat and OHP, which was then followed by work sets, and the load was light compared to volume and intensity days.

      • Damn phone app wasn’t working, wanted to splice all 9 attempts together but gotta wait to get home to download a different app. Shirt is this: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/GoD/img/2012/08/2012-08-02-teenagemutantzombies.jpg

        I made the same change on light days and really started liking it. It was the first time I had front squats programmed in instead of just screwing around with them once in awhile and just worked on drilling form at eventually worked my way up to 185 for 3 sets of 8 and PRing them at 315.

        Going to start self programming a bit in the new year and one of the things I want to do is alternate front squat and back squat in the TM template week to week and do light, high reps of the opposite on the light days.

  8. Long time no comment for me, I’m catching up on all the articles. No PRs this week but I do have a question: I started training in mma a few a few months ago. I train 5 days a week, I still lift at least three times a week, just wondering if you have any programming tips for me. besides having a balanced program and mobing and eating right, is there anything specific I could be doing?

  9. Weightlifting is indeed a frustrating sport. God, I love it so.

    Finally a PR.

    Back Squat 3RM: 115kg/253# (96%)

    Shoulders continue to get stronger, too, if being able to press heavier sets each week is any sign.

  10. Timely article for me. Squatted 290×2 (intended 290×3.) Will get revenge this week. Deadlift has finally caught up to my squat after ++ resets due to back injuries: did 290 x 5 (though there was unacceptable back rounding on the 4th and 5th reps, so going to triples this week. Benched 192.5×5 and it felt great.
    Anyone have any tips on catching up a weak deadlift? Anyone ever have their deadlift be LESS than their squat? My plan to gain ground again on the squat is to RDL the shit out of myself on volume day. Would it be too much to add speed dead’s on an assistance day as well?

  11. HBBS 360# for a double. 2RM for me. Also hit a clean at 250#, good for me considering I don’t train cleans. Want to do a powerlifting meet soon but that shit is not cheap.

  12. Hit a 125×3 OHP and a 325×3 Deadlift.
    Front squatted for the first time this week, I’m just transitioning my squat into 5×5 and thought I would give front squats a try on light day. So I guess 155×5 technically a front squat PR. Continuing trying to incorporate power cleans into my routine, getting more comfortable with them.

  14. PRs this week
    Squat 1×3 @ 340#
    Bench 1×5 @ 185#

    Rushed my squats and got off-balance on the second rep. I completed all of the reps but it was much harder than it should have been. Fortunately, I didn’t have to fail in order to learn to be patient.

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