OH Squat Fail

I know overhead squats are a move I haven't used much in the past, but it still irks me that I failed them today. It was at only 35 pounds, too! I simply couldn't keep the bar steady over my head and when I went down into the squat, the weight became unbalanced. The first try, I ditched the bar in front of me. The second try, I got a couple reps in before my central nervous system wouldn't allow the unsteadiness to continue. I didn't ditch the bar, but I couldn't get down. I guess this is a good reason to keep up my kettlebell TGU holds. Later on, I did better with my bench press. There were some long grind reps, but I breathed through them and got them up. The power cleans, also a new-ish move, went well, too. I'm going to rewatch the Starting Strength video on these to verify that my form is good.

Overhead Squat - 5x15#, 4x25#, 1x5x35#, 1x3x35# (glad I have the 15# bar!)
Bench Press - 5x45#, 4x60#, 3x75#, 3x5x87#
Power Clean - 5x45#, 3x5x60#

Sore calves defeated!

After my run Sunday, my calves got very, very sore. I've been limping around looking silly. I could have let that keep me from lifting today, but I didn't. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. Foam rolling was a no-go, but even squatting was fine.

Overhead Squat - 5x15#, 3x5x30#
Bench Press - 5x45#, 4x60#, 3x70#, 3x5x85#
Power Clean - 5x45#, 3x5x55#
Pull-up - 1 w/ red band

I guess I forgot to mention my 2.5 mile run on Sunday. I threw in a few walking parts. It was so much warmer and more humid than I like. Ugh. As said, my calves got very sore afterward. Ouch! I was wearing my VFFs. I need to run more often so I'm ready for a run I have scheduled next month!

A new lifting phase

I toyed with the idea of not starting the next phase and just keeping on what I was doing, but I decided to go ahead and start the new phase with my last workout. Today is when the differences showed up. I haven't overhead squatted in a long time and I've never really done power cleans. So, it was interesting. It's good to do something new every now and then!

Pull-up - 2x1 assisted by red band
Overhead BB squat - 3x5x15#
Bench Press - 5x45#, 5x60#, 3x5x80#
Power Clean - 2x15x15#, 3x5x45#