GOING STALE

It is easy to go "stale" if you do not keep things interesting. Just as in personal interactions, emotional highs and lows are key, not the same dull scenario ad nauseam.  Squats were getting "stale" for me, so I enlivened things by changing my squat routine. Normally I would just do 20 reps of my ten rep max and add 5-10 pounds to the bar every session. Nothing new there. 

I read in DINOSAUR TRAINING that a doctor was watching a football team doing squats, and he asked the coach how many players would be able to do heavy squats from the bottom position. Turns out that bottom position rack work will blow up your squat, not to mention your bench.

Today I started with 10 bottom position squats, then did 10 regular squats.  I used 60% of my ten rep max for the bottom position squats, and added 10 pounds for the regular squats and did 10 reps. The bottom position squats are brutal, even with a light weight. There is no "bouncing" you can do. You just have to drive upwards and fight gravity.

I plan on making deadlifts more interesting by incorporating one-armed deadlifts, too. 10 regular stiff-legged deadlifts, then 10 one-armed deadlifts with a barbell. Also, bench presses with bottom position work make setting up the power rack, the bench and the j-sticks seem worthwhile. So I'll start doing 10 bottom position bench presses, then as many normal bench presses as I can until failure.

It helps to keep things fresh.