New Deadlift PR/Arts and Crafts II

I started the day with 10 minutes on the elliptical, just to work on a good sweat, and then did my muscle warm up of 15-15-15 push-ups, sit-ups, and air squats x2. Then overhead squats five sets of five 45-65-65-65-65-65. I don’t really count the first set. Superset in pull-ups. On the first one, I kept my chin over the bar for a good 10 seconds. I’m going to have to try two tomorrow, I think. Then on to dead lifts.

I discovered that the mixed grip is extremely helpful, in contrast with the double-overhand grip that I was using. I started with 95 as a warm-up, five reps. Then 125 for five reps. Then 135 for five reps. I hadn’t done dead lifts in a while, but 135 was feeling too easy. So I went for 155, five reps, although the last one was fugly, but at this weight, I could see my body weight on the horizon, and knew I would be able to do it, even if I just did it one time. So I put two more fives on, for 165 and dead lifted it twice. For the finale, I put on 10s and took off the fives and dead lifted 175 pounds x1. My body weight was 176.6 this morning, so I consider that a win.

Speaking of which, I have lost three pounds on the Zone so far and have been on it for approximately one week. I do find that I’m hungry and have had to add a bit more fat than the allotted amount for my size and activity level, just as everyone warned me might happen. But my performance improvement cannot be denied. I could not be happier with my results.

Anyway, Arts and Crafts time again! My husband went to Home Depot and bought some two-inch PVC, assuring me that 1 1/2 inch would be too flimsy for parallettes. We sat on the lawn together and he used the Sawzall and I used the pipe dope, and we made these very lovely parallettes:

I put them against the shed and did a handstand on them, with my husband spotting. They are harder to get onto, but also make it easier to come off of the wall. I should come off the wall anyway, but am too much of a wuss to try it at the gym without a spotter. I also did some L-sits on my new parallettes, which were fun. They are also great for push ups because I can go below parallel. I discovered that if I put my feet up on something, I can do a wicked hard push up, like Zorro in the first movie with the chairs and the burning candles.

Practice, practice, practice…never say you’re too tall to be a gymnast!