Strong 15 Testing Week: Squat & Overhead Press

Tonight called for 1RM testing in the squat and overhead press.  Unfortunately, I only managed 2.5 hours of sleep last night, and I was wondering all day how I would do tonight because of that. I tried to not let it bother me, figuring it was out of my control. A contributing factor to this lack of sleep was that I had it in my mind that I needed to have a good night's rest because of tonight's testing. Once I started thinking like that, I was a dead man, as I kept saying to myself, "gotta get to sleep, gotta get to sleep", and never really did.

The weight I used for my squat at the start of this program was 338. In reality, that was probably a little bit higher than what I should have used.

Tonight's results:

Squat

42/10, 133/3, 183/2, 223/1, 273/1, 313/1, 333/1

Testing Weight: 343/1

343 was a difficult single and I really had to battle to get it, and I ultimately did. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to tape my session tonight because there were too many people around my area. Going solely by feel, then, I felt like the rep was solid. The depth felt good and it was a true grinder, so I think this is representative of my true 1RM.

All in all, I gained 5 pounds in my squat since the start of this program. That doesn't sound like much, but it is still a positive result for someone that takes a long time to increase strength. As alluded to above, my 338 start was likely a little suspect, too, so the 5 pound increase is actually probably more than 5 pounds.

What I need to work on going forward: hip drive- still not driving as much as I should be.

Overhead Press

My true 1RM going into this program was 177.
I hit a 1RM of 181 during Week 9 of this program, even though the 1RM wasn't supposed to be tested at that point. As I said in that post, however, I felt good that night, so I decided that I would not waste that feeling.

Tonight's results:

42/10, 92/3, 133/1, 158/1, 173/1

Testing Weight: 183/1

183 is a new true PR! 6 pound increase from the start of the program. Another true grinder of a rep that felt good.

On Thursday, I will test my 1RM in the deadlift and bench press.