Happy New Year

It's a couple of days late, but I'd like to wish anyone reading a Happy New Year!  It's official.  The tree is down, at the curb, and the holiday season is finally over.

Unlike on Christmas, I did NOT go to the gym on New Years day.  It was more a day for recovery, from both an intense workout on the 30th and a few drinks on NYE.  I also played so much modern warfare, and so much skyrim over the break... I think my eyes are going to melt out of my head.  My one enemy of training is gaming, especially on the weekends.

Weekdays are easy.  I come home from work, and the first thing I do is get changed and go to the gym.  Weekends, on the other hand are much more complicated.  When I wake up, I do not have it in me to train right away.  I need to fully wake up, have some coffee, etc.  What I end up doing is playing a game for a little while.  And with a game like Skyrim, an hour turns into 2 hours, which turns into 5 hours in the blink of an eye!  Next thing you know it's 2pm and I haven't eaten breakfast yet.  Ridiculous.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier I went to the gym on Friday, the 30th, and did something different with squats.  I did 1 set of 20 reps at 135, practically touching the floor with my ass on the way down.  And today is what, Tuesday?  I'm still sore in my groin.  From 1 set.  Crazy.  Plus I did some hang cleans, power cleans and some RDL's.  By the end, I was shot.  Here are the sets.

12/30/11 Friday
Squats - 1 set
Bodyweight x 8 (warmup)
135x5 (warmup)
135x20

Power Cleans - 1 set
45x5 (warmup)
95x5 (warmup)
145x8

Hang Cleans - 2 sets
145x2 - I probably made 5 attempts at these, and failed.
135x5

RDLs - 2 sets
135x8
135x8

Now this whole workout needs an explanation.  The 20 rep squat thing is just an experimental thing.  I may do it for a few more weeks, but I plan on eventually going back to heavier weight and lower reps.

As for the cleans...ugh this was disgusting.  I started out trying to get 145 up with hang cleans, but failed miserably.  So instead I switched to power cleans and nailed the 145 pretty easily.  But, I really, REALLY wanted to hit that with hang cleans, so I tried again.   And again, and again, and managed to get 2 extremely sloppy reps up.  So I rested for at least 5 minutes, then I dropped the weight back down to 135 and got it up for 5 times.

The RDL's followed the form that was prescribed on 70's big.  I focused on keeping my knees unlocked, but not bent, kept my back straight/chest out, and didn't touch the floor with the weight.  Keeping good form was more difficult than I expected.

I took the weekend off, and then worked out on Monday.  I'll post the sets up tomorrow.