Lighter But Got Squats In

I have posted about my angry hip that took squats away completely, or at least weighted ones, for about a week, among other things. Last week I failed hard at what should have been manageable weight. My hip definitely feels better, but I decided to lower the weights a good bit this cycle. I was back and forth on that over the weekend. What’s three weeks? If all goes great, I can make a bigger jump after that back to where I should be. If not, I am still getting work in.

Getting work in with squats is the best thing for me. Lately I have unfortunately been in my head a lot, and getting under that damned bar helps me more than anything when my mental state isn’t quite right.

The actual act of back squats is something that I feel my vision really has no effect at all on. I mean, if I am off-center with the bar, I can just quickly rerack and recenter it. It is something that I would feel right away. It is just me against the world. The gravity of the whole world, and here I am pushing weight up against the earth’s will.

I got out into the garage fairly early this morning. I headed out shortly after I was done with my coffee, and it was light outside. It was still humid. All the rain yesterday and last night didn’t help with that.

Upon getting started with the empty bar, I knew it was going to be a longer day. The floor was a bit slippery, but I made it work. I really focused on moving well. It makes more sense to do so when the weight is light like this cycle, so I can practice good patterns. The weight didn’t feel bad, although it felt a little heavier on my shoulders than it should have.

It felt good to be under the bar, so I took my good old time and soaked in the moments. As the weight got heavier, it still felt good.

This week’s final set was the 5+ AMRAP. Today the program only called for 220 pounds, which is light, but I stuck with the game plan. I didn’t even round up! The weight felt great, but I stopped at 5 reps. Again I stuck with my plan!

I got a nice shower after I was done with my squats. Between the lifting and the shower, it put me in a good mental state for today.

I made today work best for what is going on in my life. That is the best that can be done most of the time. Ideally, life would cooperate, but don’t bullshit yourself. That never works out regularly. The key is working around life’s inconveniences and making the best of it. That is just what I did today.

Later on today I decided I needed to do something. I needed to do something simple but challenging. It’s enough with the excuses. While my hip is still a little angry, it’s fine. It’s hot and very humid, but there is no reason I couldn’t get a quick little WOD in.

I cannot wait until I feel perfect. The older I get, the less likely that will be to happen. I wanted a mentally and physically challenging workout to do but not something that was overly complicated. I went with an old ladder type of workout with, in my case, hop overs, which are dumb, but the ladder part was kettlebell swings. That fit what I was looking for. I chose to go with the 97# big boy kettlebell. I dialed the speed back slightly with them.

The floor was very slippery from the humidity and my sweat as I got started, but it was manageable. The swings felt excellent. Great even. I even felt just fine after I was done. Boy, did they spike the heart rate, though!

Music for today was Macabre