Plateau

I sent this email to my brother after today's workout:

Man, so many things about my workout today were bad -

obviously it started with sleep - didn't get much
then I took BCAs - usually I scull, but as I got halfway through today my stomach really started to hurt, so I had to slow down and drink at a more regular pace.
squats - now I changed my technique so my arms at a higher angle as we discussed yesterday - good news - I can tell the form is much better .

the bad news - it just got a whole lot tougher! On the first set, I got really tired on my 4th rep and I thought I was going to fail and I in fact lost my footing on the 5th rep - I stumbled backward a few steps, recovered, and completed the rep and set.

Second set - I was really having trouble - the 4th rep I only just managed to power through. I considered stopping because I had never failed squatting before and was worried about what might happen if I couldn't get back up - but I though STUFF IT and went through with it anyway.. Now, the final rep was actually relativeley easy, but I noticed on my way back up that my arms were low again. So basically, I was using my arms to support the lift and that's why it was easier. I also noticed both arms were somewhat strained, so it re-inforces that the new tech is improved.

I considered dropping down on the 3rd set to 70KGs but really focusing on good form, but I decided to push through on 72.5 - again very challenging. I had a lot of trouble with keeping balance on my feet and unable to dig my heels in. I did it - but the tech wasn't great.

So this leaves me with a question - what do I do? Maybe I drop down to 70KGs and try to focus on really good tech and see how I go?

Maybe I do 72.5 one more time (I may get stronger) and see how that goes?

What do you think?

Then I went to the press - I did my warm-up, but then I felt like I was about to throw-up, so I had to sit-down for a few mins before completing my first set. Then I did the sets without too much difficulty - though I did feel like throwing up just a little bit after the second set.

Then I had x2 sweet, sweet mammoth fuels and actually struggled to down them - but I got'em in.

I'm pretty tired now man.

I'll be glad to have you there for our Saturday work-out, you can see how I am going and give me any pointers, plus if I am going to fail squats it'll be good to have you there as a spotter just in case. I'll feel more free to just go all out and not have to worry about it as much.

So yeah. That's my workout. What do you think?

This Saturday's workout will complete 1 full month of lifting weights going back to NZ. Haven't missed a single workout yet, which I am pretty happy about.

Although I really consider the NZ workouts to be a primer and the real lifting didn't begin til we got back.

I feel like I am starting to plateau out now - squats, bench and deadlifts are all extremely tough now. The press isn't so bad - because halfway through NZ I reset the weight to 20KGs. But I can kind of wait for that to get tougher..

On the other hand - I'm squatting 72.5 and weigh 77KGs as of this morning.
Benching 52.5 (failed last) and my LBM is just 58KGs - not bad.
Deadlifted 90KGs on Monday - nearly 15KGs more than my body weight.

Obviously not 'strong' but not easy lifts, either. If I could get squats to 80, bench to 60 and DL's to 100 - they will all be lifts. Won't be easy, but. Never is, I guess.

Sorry for the essay man.