workout b, with variations. man, am i bushed. wasn't even sure this would be a full workout because knee, so i went in without eating lunch or dinner and just kind of figured i could keep it light and do i dunno, maybe some collection of other/non-strongliftsy stuff. but i did more than i'd planned on doing.

squats: bodyweight, 2x10@45, 1x5?@65, 4x5@85, 2x5@90. better than i thought i would do. the 85s felt hard, and i really regretted not eating much throughout the day. decided to do 6 sets of 5, since i could just feel that 6 reps per set wasn't going to work. but then after 4 sets i figured it was already heavy enough that another 5 pounds probably wouldn't make much difference, so i tried it, and sure enough. so i did 2 more.

ohp: had to get creative since there were no spare 45 bars and the rack had a deep lineup. instead of doing 5x5 at 50 or even trying for 55, i just did 3x10 at 30 early on, and then right at the end another 3x10 at 20 with the curl bar. i kind of like doing high reps and low weight for ohp, since i really enjoy the feeling of having actually solid form. will probably continue going for volume rather than weight for a while, and see where that goes.

deadlift: whoo-hoo. well, i was frightened of these due to the recent knee events. but a day spent with youtube gave me one little tip i'd never even heard of before, courtesy of buff dudes: starting the whole thing with a little bit of lordosis. in other words, duh. breaking backwards at hips and knees to start the whole thing, in the same way that you start out for squats. what i HAD been doing was the rippetoe beginning, which (to my interpretation) was just 'lean down and grab the bar, and then do the rest of the stuff'. it made an amazing difference in my hamstring loading and i had no knee trouble at all, but still kept it very cautious with weight and again went for volume and muscle memory instead. around 5 singles at 100, then probably around 10 singles at 120. i tried 140 and got it up . . . once. after that i went back to 120 for about 5 more reps, and packed it in. also, thanks @krokador, since being asked about it in that other thread really made me drag the bar into my legs on the way up, like never before. owsies, but i'm pretty happy tonight.

other stuff:
1x60 sec plank - got my turn at the rack before i could do the second one.
good mornings (first try ever), with 30lb bar: i think 2x8, but tbh i've forgotten by now. lat pulldowns: sets of 8-12, at 20, 22.5 and 25 on the double-cable machine, spread throughout the workout.
seated rows: idk why, just for looseness/mobility or something. i did a few sets of 8-10, at low weights which i've forgotten now. i remember some at 40, i'm pretty sure.

tomorrow a workshop on lift 'variations'. i'm pretty sure this is partly because i asked for something covering low bar squats, last time around. so looking forward to it although i think i might not make it out of the laz-e-boy chair tomorrow.