What else can a say today was a heavy 90%  and felt good!   Another day to test myself out. This week has been progressively getting heavier but has not been pushing me hard throughout the week.  I know there is a max next week and I am sure it is preparing for that.  I still am enjoying the squats and have been looking into planning my upcoming workouts since next Thursday is my last day!   Today is Halloween so I have to hurry since my son will be wanting to trick or treat!

The new term for the month is "Bending the Knee".    It has been used a lot in the list of workouts and hashtags that have tagged the instagram page.  Thinking about the slogan "bend the knee"  it started to make me think in more than one dimension of the term.   Of course when you squat you do bend at your knees.  Some call it the "King" of All Exercise.   I have started to believe in both and ironically you would bend the knee to either.  Bending a knee while squat and to the King of Exercise.  With this month coming to an end, even though I am finishing out next week still with squatober,  makes me think of what it has done for me.  I would say overall I have lost weight although gained weight.  Another thing I have noticed is I have gained strength and size in my legs.  Not limited to that I have gained strength and size all over.  My stomach has also gotten very strong and I have not performed one crunch, sit up or any exercise that focus purely on my abs.  Engaging my core everyday in my squat has made that possible.   If someone were to ask me that they want to completely change their bodies I would tell them to squat.  I don't think that means putting a bunch of weight on a bar.  Sometimes just squating into a chair without using your arms or at least limit the amount of your arms used.   Also body squats could also help.  Use a wall or a table to help hold yourself steady if you need.  There are many variations to help build yourself up.  If you have a question I can try my best to help you out just let me know!  

Another day another squat.  In a good way though.   It is something I look forward to everyday.  And to be honest the prewritten workout has really helped keep me striving for more.  To keep motivated the next month I will write a week of workouts for myself before starting the week.  This should push myself throughout the week rather than writing the day of or even impromptu lifting.  All day''s/week's surely can get busy and tiresome.  If I am not prewriting the workout then it's probable my week schedule and mind determine my training.   A little tired maybe I would do less than normal.   If something comes up unplanned it could make me cut my workout short.   Have you experienced this?  Maybe not.  But to plan a week ahead maybe 2 weeks could help me in the future.  Also to put a goal in mind for the month.  For Squatober it is Squats.  And the exciting news I heard about over the weekend is that there is a Deadcember! What?!  I am going to participate in this workout as well.  Think about it Aaron Asmus is the head strength coach for The University of Southern California and his squatober workout plan is FREE!  He also writes the Deadcember plan.  2 month workout plan with a total of 44 workouts free!  That is crazy to think about.  So of course I am going to take the challenge to try and better myself as well as improving my knowledge through a professional strength trainer.   Anyone wanting to join?

Aaron Asmus vs Eddie Hall. Adding a bit to yesterday's workout.  I noticed a lot of times that anytime a back/bicep/tricep exercises  the rep amount was always 10-15 and the dumbells always 20-30 reps.   I watched a video of World's Strongest Man and multiple world record holder Eddie Hall.  During a deadlift session with a full back workout he did a lot of explaining on how the proper lift should be done and how to fully achieve breaking down the many small muscle that make up the large conglomerate of muscles in the back.  He said he works his tricep and biceps the same.  To tear down each muscle and to maximize the fatigue he does a minimum of 10-12 reps.   This way it completely tears down the muscle to rebuild and make them stronger.   But while doing this to also be extremely explosive.   He said to be explosive because he was also maxing most machines out completely but still a good tip for anyone that can't max a machine out.   The high reps like in todays superset of rear lateral raises/hammer curls/and shrugs made complete sense.  And to tear down each muscle is better than to tire out on one and not finish the others in my opinion.  I am glad to learn something new every day!

(204.2) Starting today off with a new goal.  360!  I will take that.  Really hoped to get 9 reps looking back but of course that makes today a bit easier than if my max changed to 385.  Still would have been nice though.  Today the workout went well.  I did a bunch of moving equipment around the facility today and reorganized the weights and things so it took a little bit of my energy.   It still didn't affect my squats.  I felt really good and felt I was able to get deep in the squat! I was lucky though because I forgot to bring my change of clothes but my Fjallraven hiking pants are extremely flexible and still look professional enough for work.  Can't wait to work through the remainder of the month and finish out strong.  Don't forget I will be doing an extra week since I had a choppy week during the third week.

Sore not so much.  Not either day.  Although I do have soreness in certain areas of my legs.  But not the soreness you get after leg day.  That is something that has changed a lot for me over the last couple of weeks.  My legs have gotten stronger and have grow in size and I feel that I am challenging myself everyday.  I would compare my soreness to be more similar to when I do an upper body workout.   It seems that even for someone like myself who tries to implement lower body often that I must be doing way more upper body and forgetting my lower half more than I ought to.  I have been thinking a lot about what do I do once Squatober is over?  I know I want to keep with my progress but what next?  And while I have been thinking about it over the weekend and decided to try and keep lifting legs often maybe 3 times a week and at least twice.  So this will be my next challenge through November.  Have you put any monthly goals for yourself?

(203.4) Loving the squats! The rest of the workout not so much.  If you do something everyday it becomes the normal.  Because of that I have gotten to really enjoy my squats everyday it makes the rest of the workout not as enjoyable for me.  Every day I look forward to "bend the knee"!  I always enjoyed back workouts the most but I have always tried to make it legs a priority when I lift.    It  boosts fitness and athleticism even daily life in so many ways.  After the "treat" squats yesterday I do have a little bit of soreness but not much.  Just a little different movement to remind myself I am missing a couple muscles in my legs that squats have missed.  Look forward to tomorrow and trying to go heavy again!  

(203) For years I wrestled and got into the habit of weighing myself first thing everyday.   Before food, water or anything else besides going to the bathroom first of course.  Many people would say it is not mentally healthy to weigh yourself daily.  To me my weight is not something that affects my daily progress or mental outlook so it does not bother me.  It is a simple habit that I have done for years.  By checking my weight daily a couple lbs up or a couple lbs down (which could make a 4 lb swing sometimes).  The scale depends a lot on what I have eaten in the last day or so and I understand that.  My normal diet doesn't vary a ton so I get a good idea what my actual weight is.  When I started this challenge my weight was the lowest I have been in 10 years.  192 lbs!  I was watching what I ate by my portions and that helped a lot.  Today I am weighing 203 lbs!  I have gained 11 lbs.  By saying that I also know it is partly due to the lack of lifting I had been doing before Squatober.    I can tell I have lost some extra fat but gained leg mass.   I may start adding my weight to the beginning of each blog like (203).  Another thing I have noticed as well as my wife is the strength and more definition in my mid section with abs.   This makes sense because it is a major stabilizer for squats.  They are getting worked everyday!  This weeks workout is a bit shorter but the Dumbbell rear foot elevated split squats from today was a great change to do a few of those. I bet i will be a bit sore from those tomorrow.

Today was low reps heavy weights.  I feel pretty strong in my lifting at this time.  My original squat max was a guesstimate since I hadn't lifted much prior to this Squatober.    It seems to be pretty accurate but my strength has also increased so I think once I get to the max day I will be able to raise my limit.  The last rep at 92.5% was hard but I didn't need any help to finish out the exercise.   My goal is to see what kind of gains I can make over the month.  My original goal was to finish the challenge but now I am excited to keep progressing. It is a little sad that Squatober is over half way finished.   My wife and I at this moment are having to lift at different times.  She has feels that the extra reps she gets more out  of her squat but her full range of motion is getting closer every day.   I think that will help her low reps with more range of motion. Next onto what I noticed first time back at my home gym. I missed music to help motivate.  We always play music here but wasn't quite motivating enough.  I didn't have my keys to unlock the door to turn up the volume and didn't bring my headphones.  So I was stuck in the silence. Silence is nice but not when I am trying to stay motivated.  For me music can make the reps feel easier.  Maybe it ignites the central nervous system a bit or heightens the nerves a little.   What are your motivations for working out?   If something is missing does it keep you from completing your workout to it's potential?

Today was great to be back in my home gym of Fit24.  It was a bit hard for me to go back to adjusting to lbs again.  To be honest it is the first time I have questioned a 45lb plate since I first started lifting.  It does make sense to increase by 10's instead of 15's.  It is ok though I will relearn.  The first day went well.  Lifts felt good.  I felt strong.  If you are wondering about why I am doing day 15 on day 20 check out yesterday's blog post.  There are no pictures from today but my wife has a couple.  Just simply forgot to take a picture.  I will make sure today not to forget.  My close grip bench was harder than I anticipated.  I felt good but my left elbow had a little pain in it.   I think it is just from carrying my son on and off over the past couple weeks.  He is heavy and likes to move a bunch and play around while I am holding him.  Hopefully that will all pass as well as my elbow symptoms.   Glad to be back!