Barbell Lower Body

Well, we stayed on track and did lower body tonight. I have to say that I don't think I've worked this hard in months. I feel like I'm stressing my body in ways that I haven't been and that feels good to me. There was a minor "injury" tonight to my left knee, but nothing that stopped me totally. I just ended up doing 4 sets of hip thrusters instead of 5. Then continued to finish the entire session. You can find the workout with instructions here. Here's what got done:

BODY WEIGHT SQUATS:

4 sets of 15

BACK SQUATS:

(65lb x12) 3x

75lb x10

85lb x8

ALTERNATING FORWARD LUNGE:

(The workout on the website called for walking lunges, but I don't have room for that.)

3 sets of 15

BARBELL RDL:

(85lb x10) 5x

BARBELL HIP THRUST:

(Bar x12) 4x*

The plan was to do 5 sets, however, on the 4th set I twisted my knee. I went to sit down on the bench and somehow managed to turn without moving my foot and tweaked my knee. It hurt for a few minutes and felt extremely weird, as though something "slid" around the side of my knee cap. I opted to not do any more and I moved on to the last exercise. (The pain is gone and there's no swelling or anything, thankfully).

BARBELL STANDING CALF RAISES:

I know I was supposed to do these raised, however, I did not. I did them on the floor, but without touching my heels to the ground. Next time I'll try elevated.

Bar x15

65lb x15

75lb x15

(85lb x15) 3x

••••••••••

I'm very proud of our efforts tonight. It was sucky, to say the least. If you've read any of my blogs up to this point, you know that squat day has always made me nervous. No matter how in shape I've been, how strong or how capable, squats always scare the hell out of me. Maybe it's because I know that you absolutely cannot cheat a squat day. You're either going to give it your all, or you're just not. I gave it my all tonight and I feel great about that. I know I'm going to be hurting but It's good to feel this way. So if you see me walking funny, mind ya business.