One Small Purchase; One Giant Leap Forward

I was amazingly tired Saturday morning. Consequently, I slept in, blogged, and petted cats. What? I have to tell you that I drank lots of coffee too? Of course I did. Besides blogging, I studied for Sunday. I also tried to nap, but was unable to go to sleep. A nap at nine in the morning is a wonderful thing if you can pull it off.

Running was on the agenda. Forrest and Paul invite us and Paul's mom for a Thanksgiving meal the Saturday after the big day. Usually I run over, but Forrest's texted me before we got there and asked if I wanted to run. Thus I put my running off until the afternoon. 

The afternoon found me watching the Egg Bowl and Forrest reneging on his commitment to run. I became very lazy but determined at least to lift. Since the State game was not settled until :19 seconds left to play, it was after 6:00 before Pee Wee saw me. I was due for pulling and legs. I went light on the squats but deadlifted for the first time in months. I only did two light sets, but I added some heavy (contextual word) rack pulls. 

While we were in Jackson, I bought a pair of straps. This small purchase looks like it will be a huge addition to the gym and to my strength training. In the past, I have tried a few times to do heavy rack pulls. My grip always started giving out around 150 pounds despite the fact that I have pulled 200 from the floor. I don't know what the difference is, maybe it has to do with the bar possibly being farther from my body when I start the lift. I said maybe because I really have not been able to figure it out, but trying rack pulls causes the bar to roll and I can't hold over 150. I found these straps at Academy Sports for about fifteen bucks. 

I tried them last night. On the first two attempts something was not right. I wasn't getting any benefit from them. Since I had never been taught how to use them, I experimented and found out what I was doing wrong. I was wrapping the straps over the top of the bar. I tried wrapping them under the bottom and WOW, the bar felt like it was welded to my hand. I pulled

10 X 95

10 X 115

  8 X 135

  7 X 155

  3 X 175

  3 X 185

  3 X 205

  5 X 215

I decided to stop there. Since this is the most I have ever pulled, and I am not a young man, I want to give my body time to adjust to these kind of weights. But I loved this, the way it felt, and I will be doing lots more of these in the future. 

So I only did one workout, but it was a good one. Thank you, Jesus.