Keeping this post short and sweet.
Did the last of my 1 rep maxes today – front squats and deadlifts.
Front squat was 109 lbs and deadlift was 165 lbs.
Not thrilled with these numbers, but I know that this is just a starting point, and it only goes up from here!
One thing to note is that my 1 rep max #’s for the squats are literally ass to the grass. My butt probably gets w/in 2 inches of the ground. If I were to do “typical” squats like they do at the globo-gyms to 90 degrees, I could squat a hell of a lot more. The thing is, the primary reason I’m squating is to improve my Olympic lifts. And it is absolutely imperative that I increase my stregnth in the bottom range for these lifts.
One of the things that I noticed both on my Back Squat and Front Squat max days is that my legs feel that they could lift a lot more, but my core strength sucks. I tried SO hard to keep my chest up, but as the weight got heavier, I started to dip forward on the drive up. I will continue to squat with lighter weights until I can increase the weight and still maintain proper form.