Monday Squats Week 3 of Cycle

Okay I know this is running late but it has been one of those weeks. I did manage to get all my training in this week except for Strongman/GPP which is later on today. As with my last post I had some goals that I wanted for this week refer to this link as to what they were. What the Week Holds So to Monday

Monday was my Squat day and for this cycle I have been using the Safety squat bar with bands on it. Over the last 2 weeks I have added a band as I have become accustom training again. The Safety Squat bar I use weighs in at 25kg and the No# 1 band has 40kg of tension at the top with the No# 2 band having 50kg tension at the top. Yes I have measure both of them and was a little surprised at the No# 1 band being so close to the No# 2 band. however this gives me 90kg of tension from both bands.

Set 1 165 + 90kg of band tension 2 Reps
Video (not shown) was taken from the front and one thing I did notice was that my feet could have been out wider. The depth was pretty good and so was the power speed out of the bottom. Just using knee wraps with a band over my knees to teach me how to keep my knees out. It does appear that my knee to ankle stays pretty upright.

Set 2 175 +90kg of band tension 2 Reps.
Video (not shown) was taken from the side so could see a bit more. Again feet could have been out wider. A little bit of a wobble on the down part of the rep so will have to work on that. It appears that my knees stay out and I am also please that my knees do not come to far forward. Depth is hard to judge as I have shorts on but it looks ok from here. Speed on the way up is a little slower than what I would like but at no stage did I think I was going to miss. The pause at the top is just to reset myself.

Set 3 185 + 90kg of band tension. 1 Rep successful and missed 1 Rep.
Set 3 185 + 90kg of Band Tension C1W3
Video was taken from the other side and I felt pretty confident both reps were going to go. Feet were in a lot better place and I felt better set up. First one I could have been a bit high but I will take it. A little slow on the way up but got there. The second one, felt good all the way down but just not the power/activation on the way up although I did hold it until there was just a touch from the spotter. He did it right to in that he didn't lift me up but just helped get me going again and I was made to do the rest. Great spotting. I am not afraid of failing or missing reps every now and then. If you are not doing that are you really pushing yourself to the limit or not.

So to that end I achieved what I set out to do. Not to bad when you consider that I only went back to the gym 3 weeks ago after a 5 week layoff. There are things to work on and get better at (I would hate to be perfect right now) however overall I am pretty happy with how this cycle of squatting has gone. Next week I start a new cycle for squatting and will be using something different. As they have changed the day for the Canterbury Champs this year (12th April) I will have to get into my gear and start learning how to use it again so they weights will go up.

The rest of the workout went pretty well with front squats and lat pulldowns feeling real good. Bentover rows and Dumbbell rows being right on the money from a weight perspective. Reverse Hypers is coming along as well.

Overall the squat/back cycle has gone pretty close to plan. I feel I have achieved what I set out to do in this cycle or I have got pretty close to it. On to the 2nd cycle.