Back Squat PR @ 197 Pounds - 385 Pounds x 1 Rep

Still on my road to hitting a trio of a 300 pound Bench Press, 400 pounds back Squat and 500 Pound Deadlift. which is pretty close to saying 3 plates per side on the Bench (315), 4 plates per side on the Squat (405) and 5 plates per side on the deadlift (495). Give or take a few pounds.

Last week I hit my bench pr and got 305 for a couple reps, pretty sure I should be able to get three plates (315) for a rep if not now, very soon. I also tried my Deadlift PR of 500 pounds last week with a lift of 502 but did not have it that day :(

So here we are at CrossFit Langley working my way up to a 400 pound Back Squat and I hit 385 pounds for a single. The cool thing is I felt like I may of just had a little bit more in me but this was a solid Personal Best for me of around a 40+ pound gain over my previous lifts. It has been a while since I went for a Back Squat Personal Best so I knew I was going to hit a PR today. A big thanks to instructor Darren Clark from CrossFit Langley for pushhing me to my full potential.

Full Week of Workout Videos - Monday Legs - Squats CrossFit

58 minutes - 688 Calories  Aprox- Average Heart Rate 142 - Max Heart Rate 189.

• Garmin Heart Rate Monitor Session Link 

Location: CrossFit Langley

Warmup & Mobility

Strength:

• Box Squats 225 lbs x10 reps (Legs)
• Box Squats 255 lbs x10 reps (Legs)
• Box Squats 275 lbs x10 reps (Legs)
• Box Squats 305 lbs x10 reps (Legs)
• Box Squats 365 lbs x6 reps (Legs)
• Standard Back Squat 225 lbs x10 reps (Legs)
• Standard Back Squat 225 lbs x10 reps (Legs)

Maintaining Strength After 2 Month Off From Doing Squats and Deadlifts

As many of you are aware that follow what I do here on GetFitOver40.com, I suffered a really bad calf tear about 2 months while ago while doing a 400 meter sprint and had to shut down some of my leg work in order to take care of the calf tear and let it heal up.

So for the most part to keep my leg gains, I have been doing Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, some Machine Leg Press and DB Straight Leg Deadlifts. For calves, just everyday walking around till it heals :(

I am happy to say that over the last few days I have started incorporating Squats and Deadlifts back into my workouts and feel pretty much as strong as before the calf injury. My last Deadlift workout I even managed 8 reps at 395 pounds even though the last couple reps where real grinders. Today I even PR'd a 3 rep 275 pound Front Squat so perhaps those leg extensions did me some good!

In terms of my calf rehab, my left calf is feeling really good but I do not want to ask too much too quickly so I have just started to reintroduce some calf work by doing single leg body weight calf raises to get my flexibility and range of motion back. So far so good and I'm surprised to find that my injured calf is actually keeping up fairly well with my good one so I am well on my way to a full recovery :)

CrossFit Langley - High Rep Back Squat Workout with Metcon

High rep squats are super tiring and I feel they are one of the best indicators as to not only how strong your legs are but also, how your cardio can cope with extreme demands in a very short period of time. Doing high rep heavy squats burns up your oxygen super fast making your lungs burn and testing your cardio to the max.

We where supposed to do 3 sets of 10 reps using 225 pounds but the boys I was with decided to get it over with and do 2 sets of 15 reps using 225 pounds. So of course I had to do the same. Except I showed them and on my last set I did an extra 5 reps making it 20 reps at 225 pounds. I did space them out a bit at the end only because I was struggling for air, not so much my legs, they felt good and I maybe even had another 5 reps in them if it wasn't for my cardio packing it in first.

We also did equal amounts of pull-ups between our squat sets which did not give us a lot of time to recover our lungs.

This Squat video was filmed at the CrossFit Gym I go to in Langley called Langley CrossFit, and was part of a three section workout that included:

Warmup (3 Rounds):

• 5 x Bar Back Squat.
• 6 x Lunges.
• 100m Row.

Main Back Squat Workout (3 Rounds):

• 10 x 225lb Back Squat.
• 10 x Pull-ups.
• Actually did: Set of 15 Squats - 15 Pull-ups and a Set of 20 Squats - 20 Pull-ups.

Metcon Workout (3 Rounds): 

• 9 x 95lb Barbell Lunges.
• 12 x Box Step-ups.
• 100m Row.

You can see how this workout effected my heart rate and how many calories I burned by clicking on this link.

Workout Journal - Squats - 285 Pounds for 4 Reps

We did back squats again today at CrossFit Langley, this time my partner added a bit more weight than I normally would have on my own but that's how you reach new goals! Last Squat day workout session I managed a 6 rep 265 pound max set. Today we went all the way up to 285 pounds and I was able to do 4 reps.

This is how the sets broke down:

• 5 x 135 (Warmup)
• 5 x 205
• 5 x 225
• 5 x 245
• 5 x 265
• 4 x 285

It will be interesting to see what my one rep squat max is when we do a max rep squat workout?