PR Monday (updated)

I know that 70s Big has PR Fridays, but I just can’t contain myself.  I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl!  A 203 lb schoolgirl….

Anyway, I broke from my regularly scheduled program and did a CrossFit total today along with our clients to see where I stood.  I mean it’s week 8 and I was supposed to do squat/press/deadlift today anyway, so it just seemed too perfect an opportunity to pass up.  How’d I do?  Well how does 945 sound, beeotch?

Old lifts
Press – 155 (right before starting program, very confident my max was between 155-158)
Squat – 260? (the less said about this the better, I avoided putting heavy weight on my back like the plague)
DL – 355 (was an old PR, but probably still accurate, definitely not more than 365-370)

This CF Total
Press – 155, 160, 165, 170 (I pressed first because the squat has been giving me elbow pain in the left arm, I know that I’m only allowed 3 attempts, so 170 isn’t calculated into the total, but it was there so I took it and it represents a 15lb PR)
Squat – 315, 335, 355 (not a true, hardcore 1RM, but represents a 60 lb PR, and 60 lb PR meaning: over my 295 lb warmup set which was my new PR for about 5 min)
DL – 385, 405, 425 (70 lb PR?  Assuming my previous weight was 170 when I could do 355, this is the same strength to weight ratio of 2.1)

So 165+355+425 = 945.  Numbers in BOLD ARE PRs.

Edit:  It’s worth mentioning that my working weights are nowhere near my 1RM attempts.  Below are the HEAVIEST weights I lifted leading up to this total.

Press – 139 x 5 (31 lbs under 1RM)
Squat – 290 x 5 (65 lbs under 1RM)
DL – 335 x 5 (90 lbs under 1RM)

Further Edit:  It’s also worth mentioning that this level of improvement would be impossible without consistency in training, eating, and resting, which would in turn be impossible without training partners.  I happen to have 3, and Phil, Sean, and Jenn have been instrumental in this whole process.  Get some training partners!  As Arthur Saxon wrote in his “Development of Physical Power:”

The bugbear of training loses half its fearsome aspect to the tired athlete who has a lot at stake, and must continue at his work, if it be done in company with a friend or friends.  There is nothing so fatiguing as the raising of iron weights time after time with no one to watch, no one to encourage, no one to advise–to express surprise at your improvement.  To surprise and beat your friends is always an encouragement, and in practicing with weights you cannot get the right positions unless you have an expert lifter to offer a hint occasionally.  Lifting, too, may become dangerous if practiced by oneself, so you see the idea is to endeavor to make your training as much a pleasure as possible.  If necessary, enter into little competitions with your friends.  I had almost said a small bet would be an incentive to work, but I suppose I must include betting among the list of vices we human being are apt to give way to, but this will not preclude one from a friendly competition occasionally in which points may be conceded, and lifts performed on handicap and competition lines.

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