Believe in yourself as long as other people tell you how.

I've had a tough but rewarding week in the gym, and today's lift was a great way to cap it off. I decided to forgo the box and just free squat for my dynamic effort day because of the apprehension I have been having about my strength level and form. Thank goodness I did - even though DE days aren't meant for big numbers, I still felt good and solidified some small tweaks I have been working on.

Dynamic Effort Lower

Squat
45x10
135x5
225x2x8 - Video

315x2 - This felt amazing. About time.

Rack Pulls

365x8, 8, 6

Reverse Hypers

4 sets of 10

DB Shrugs

80x20x3

Weight 205

Since the point of DE is to move the bar as fast as possible, I think the video shows I have a lot of work to do. Still, I felt more explosive than I have for a few weeks. The major thing I tweaked today is the width of my stance. I have been squatting out wider since I attended a Learn to Train seminar with Dave Tate and his EliteFTS crew earlier this year. Dave works with a lot of equipped lifters, so I think absorbed some of that. I mean, the wide stance is tempting because it shortens the bar path and gets glutes and hams more involved.

However, I think for a smaller, weaker raw lifter like myself it gets to be a diminishing returns thing at a certain width. I am also trying to protect my right knee, and getting the quads out of the lift certainly made sense in that regard. The problem was that my lack of strength and size was causing instability and consequently a rotational force on my knees as I hit the hole. Today I brought my feet in a few inches and I instantly felt more stable, strong and pain-free. I'm still relatively wide, certainly not Olympic squatting.

On a side note, I got to see one of my favorite varieties of gym wildlife: Guy lifting in scrubs. I know very well what life as a resident and attending is like, and there is absolutely no excuse for ever doing this. You can take 20-40 minutes to drive to and from the gym, work out for an hour but can't possibly make time to change into some fucking shorts? It takes everything I can muster to not stand next to him, point and yell "Wow! Are you a doctoooorrrr???!?" The next step above this is "Dr. Scrubs at a Bar, M.D."

Tomorrow could be very cool. I could either go to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival as planned, or I may end up going to a local Celtic Festival to watch some Highland Games. OR I COULD DO BOTH! Life has too many possibilities, it's overwhelming.