PR Testing

Today was the day of my "competition". I decided to do all 4 exercises on the same day. I was in the gym for about 2.5 hours today, and when it was all done, I was much more mentally and physically exhausted than I anticipated. I'd imagine that the mental aspect lead to both the mental and physical exhaustion, as I never actually sweated like I would during a normal workout. This was expected, due to long rest periods and only doing 1 rep per work set.

Incline Press
warm up: 45/10, 95/5, 135/1, 155/1, 175/1, 195/1
work sets: 205/1, 225/1 (PR), 235/0
   * The warm up sets and the set of 205 flew up. Originally, I thought the elusive 225 would be my third set, but because of how fast the reps went, I knew that I would hit it with no trouble. It went up well enough that I decided to go for a pie in the sky PR. I got 235 halfway up, and then it died. I probably would have been good for 230, though. Despite missing the third attempt, I am happy that I finally did a 225 pound incline press, and it wasn't all that difficult. I tried to record the set of 225, but I messed it up, unfortunately.

Jefferson Deadlift
warm up: 155/5, 235/3, 265/1, 315/1, 345/1
work sets: 380/1, 415/1, 425/1 (PR)
   * Video: 425/1. Based on how it felt, I think I would have been good for 430, but since I missed the third attempt with the incline press, I didn't want to be greedy.

               

Overhead Press
warm up: 45/10, 95/5, 135/1, 155/1
work sets: 170/1, 180/1, 195/0
   * I was worried about this one because I just hit a very difficult 190 pound PR last week.  I could have tried 190 again, but since my goal here was to set new PRs, I decided to see how 195 felt. It went a little bit beyond my head and then hit a wall. Not disappointed at all because I knew I just barely hit 190 so recently, that it would have been a miracle to get 195 today.  I probably shouldn't have even bothered testing this, but I figured why not.

V-Handle Deadlift
warm up: 155/5, 235/3, 265/1, 335/1, 375/1
work sets: 405/1, 435/1 (PR), 440/1 (PR)
   * Video: 440/1. I was pretty spent after the set of 405, so I decided to go for a PR which I knew I'd hit (435). If it was a grinder, I would have called it a day. However, it went up well enough so I decided to end the day on a successful note and crack the 440 mark. Could I have done 445 or 450? Maybe. But, I didn't want to end the day on a miss and since I never hit 440 before, I decided it would be a nice number to conclude with.

           

Conclusion
3 nice PRs and 1 PR from last week. Not a bad day at all.
I'll do a recovery week next week and start another Beyond 531 cycle based on 90% of my new PR's commencing the first week of April.