Squatx5

Today was my last day of heavy-ish lifting before the comp. I worked up to squatting 185#x5, with every rep below comp depth, so am feeling very positive about using that as my opener next Saturday. Next week I'll probably only be at the gym once and will only be doing mobility work and moving the bar without any weight. In the past I have gotten nervous in these pre-comp deload weeks, that somehow 6 days away from the gym will cause me to lose all memory of how to bench/squat/deadlift properly and I'll do terribly at the competition. This is, of course, absurd, as the literally thousands of repetitions I have put in for each movement are so deeply ingrained at this point I think I could properly execute each one in my sleep (and sometimes do, as pre-comp dreams about lifting are not uncommon :)

Today's session was pretty different than 7 months ago when during my last heavy lifting day pre-comp I missed a lift, felt completely destroyed by that and sat on the floor for a good 5-10 minutes and tried not to cry. This was largely due to the fact that I had been dieting like a crazy person for over two months in order to get down to 181# for the comp and so I was pretty on edge and depleted of any emotional or physical reserves at that point. This time I around I feel about 1,000 times saner and more stable. I credit that to not trying to diet down to an unrealistic weight class for me, picking up a regular meditation practice, and I hope having matured a little bit as a lifter. I don't regret my decision to try for 181# last time around, as it was a tremendous learning experience and I'm still really proud of myself for doing it, but I'm glad that I'm lifting in the 198# class next weekend.