Leg Day Record-Breaking Bonanza!

Holy cow, y'all: something happened yesterday. Maybe we had rested enough; maybe watching this video of this dude's Ridiculously Diverse Athleticism inspired us to greatness; maybe we just happened to both be in upbeat enough moods that anything felt possible. Whatever helped the stars align in our favor, we had a killer leg routine at the gym last night.

Something to keep in mind when reading these numbers is that our 1 rep maxes were, of course, not tested at the end of a vigorous work-out; they were tested as stand-alone single lifts, so we were not at all fatigued. That we both came close to our 1RMs at the end of a challenging lift, and repped the weights, is a big deal. Also, The Marmot and I have been struggling with increasing our dead lifts for lack of grip strength. We both have felt like we can lift more with the strength we have in our hips and legs, but our hands fail--gravity wins, and the bar gets ripped out of our grip. This time, we both broke through our grip limits. I had never lifted 135lbs more than 5 times, and by the 5th I'm usually holding on with my fingertips and pure will power. We completely exploded our previous records when you consider the total number of reps.

I dead lifted more than I have ever lifted in my life. As I said: holy cow, y'all.

For comparison, I'll post our stats from one month ago, April 15, along side in gray, and our previous one-rep maxes in blue. Our lifts from yesterday will be in red.


Warm ups:
20 toe-touch deep squats
20 spider-man lunges
Olympic bar (45lb) back squats x 10

Marmot, Back Squat
(hip irritation from old injury = keeping weights relatively light)
135lbs x 10  -  135lbs x 10
155lbs x 10  -  155lbs x 5
175lbs x 7   -   165lbs x 5
                       185lbs x 5 
Previous 1RM: 225lbs


Pancho, Back Squat
85lbs x 10   -  115lbs x 5
95lbs x 10   -  120lbs x 5
105lbs x 5   -  125lbs x 3
Previous 1RM: 145lbs

Pancho, Front Squat (for giggles, to limber up for DL)
45lbs x 15

Marmot, Dead Lift
135lbs x 5 (warm up)
185lbs x 10  -  225lbs x 5
205lbs x 7   -  230lbs x 5
230lbs x 5   -  245lbs x 4
                     250lbs x 2

Pancho, Dead Lift
135lbs x 4  -  135lbs x 7
115lbs x 8  -  145lbs x 5
115lbs x 5  -  155lbs x 4
                     160lbs x 3
                    165lbs x 2
Previous 1RM: 175lbs

Then, because our grip wasn't tested (/murdered) enough:

2-lap, 2-handed farmer carries
Marmot: 40lb dumb bells, 3 sets
Pancho: 30lb dumb bells, 3 sets
During rest between sets: pull ups, dips

2-lap, 1-handed farmer carries
Marmot: 30lb dumb bells, 1 set
Pancho: 20lb dumb bells, 1 set

We also tried to do box jumps, but the box was too high for me. It is one of the scariest things I have ever made myself try, and I swam a mile in Lake Michigan with 10-foot swells! Having to stand still, look at the box (with a top just above my knees) and try to jump from standing to the top of it was utterly terrifying. I tried 5 times and didn't break any teeth, but I did fall.

Maybe I'll do better next time.