in normal life this would be workout a, but i'm still scared of my lower back so i skipped deadlifts and spent a remedial session instead. i did a - really no other word for this - buttload of squats. and some ohp stuff.

squats: oh . . . just words. lots of words. and lots of squats. i seem to have forgotten all about how to get my abs in and fight the buttwink. pretty sure i'm just letting my pelvis tip forward and caving in at the waist as i start to come up now, so i was working on remembering how to stop that. the heaviest weight that i used tonight was 65. and i thiiiiink near the end i might have started to solve the problem: monster lower-ab recruitment, monster glutes/upper hamstrings, and (who woulda thunk) much wider hips than i've been using lately. i did very light careful weights and a lot of bodyweight, but i guess i'll find out tomorrow how the volume hits me.

ohp: i got my 5 sets of 5 in the usual way, with 45lbs. but i split them up over the entire workout, since doing a set or two early on in my squats seems to help me with keeping my upper back tight during the squats. not a hope of getting the tommy suggs hip pop going with 45 pounds, but i did two or three sets each with the 20 and 30lb bar. suggs style seems to give me a better lockout that my shoulders like more so i may back the weight down and start using his form at some point. idk though. i'm not doing too badly at the conventional style with 45 nowadays, so it's hard to give up with the hope of an increase always hovering just over the horizon of the next time i try.

remedial: 40lb bent-over rows, facepulls, 60-sec plank after a few sets of squats. and something that i invented myself because i'm on a crusade to make my lower abs do their job of keeping my pelvis level. been letting my glutes do too much of the extension work in this zone. basically i just stand with shoulder-width feet and loose knees, and do pelvic tilts using only the sub-belly-button part of my abs. good thing i went to the grubbier gym where there was no one around tonight. they're somewhat graphic.

whoa nelly. another one of those mashup workouts following friday's half-assed half one.

warmups:
external rotation pull on the cables, 3x12@2.5 on the left, 3x8@ the same weight on the right.
with 17.5lb cable, wouldn't know what this should be called. it's basically just scapular activation/mobilization, starting with shoulderblade drawn all the way forward and a little bit down by the cable, then using serratus and a bit of traps and such stuff to draw it back into its neutral position again against the cable. felt great but rusty.

squats: 2x5@45, 2x5@55, 1x5@65, 5x5@75. how the mighty are fallen (again). i've re-read rippetoe, tweaked my toes outwards by 30 degrees and need to give the unused muscles that this exposes a bit of time to catch up. 75lbs was plenty for them, tbh. shoulders fine, i don't think anyone would even guess that a month ago i couldn't get my left elbow up without my whole upper body trying to pretzel forward under the bar on that side to relieve some of the strain on the joint. which explains why my front delt was always having a fit. it's a much happier, friendlier front delt these days.

bench: 2x5@45, 2x5@55, 5x5@ SEVENTY. this has really been a long time coming. pretty sure it matches the best bench weight that i ever did, and it felt pretty good. key for me was what feels like arching my upper back, but is really just de-kyphosing it and getting my shoulderblades clipped and set flat. i'm excited about bench pressing now.

rows: tricky today for some reason. tried some 70lb sets but the bent-over stance didn't feel like the best thing for my si joints today and that may have been throwing me off in all the other directions as well. so finally settled on 5x5@65. which means right at this moment i'm benching more than i row. isn't that kind of backwards or something? i also did three or four sets of seated rows with 70 to get my back out of it and really concetrentrate on the shoulder-blade pinch.

aaaaaanddd deadlifts. actually deadlifts are my exciting story, so i'm going to be boring here. all the way back down to 65lb, but i think i might have found my form fix. my problem has been: soon as i turn my lats and spinal erectors on by pulling the slack out of the bar and rotating my chest upwards, i collapse at the waist and start hyper-extending my lower back. or i'd try to compensate for that and be lifting with a slightly rounded spine. and i just could not tell by 'feel' at the start whether i was in a position that was going to give me that scary little lumbar-zone pinch as the bar cleared my knees.

but not deadlifting is not a solution either. in the week or two since i've quit deadlifting i've had nothing but hassle with squats and the lower back doesn't feel like it's getting stronger in any of it. so today i spent the time in between row sets at 65lbs just working on this whole problem again, because i need to feel the 'problem', otherwise i don't even know what i'm trying to fix. 65lbs was just about right. so here's what fixed it: i do the whole posterior-chain tightening routine from shoulders down, but right before i settle into my legs and start to open my hips, i turn on my abs in the bikini zone too. that honestly feels to me as if it's doing the trick. it levels everything back to the right place in my lumbar zone, and when i pulled from that form the whole thing felt natural again for the first time in i don't-know how long. i got really excited and really happy and what i like best is: it's not going to be something i'll have to try and work out with my head. when it's right in this case, it FEELS right.

i did a lot of stretching and such afterwards, and also my two 60-sec planks. AND two sets of 5-8 pushups form my knees, in honour of my most supportive non-lifting friend who is just now suddenly starting to build a bodyweight strength regime of her own.