Week 3 Day 2: Deadlift

If zombies decided to start lifting weights, would it be called the undeadlift?

I think I like Tuesdays the best because it's deadlift day, and there's just something kind of satisfying about moving really heavy stuff.

Yesterday, I made a couple of minor adjustments to the workout. The important one was that I decided to top out not at 295 as I'd planned, but at 305 instead. I've done 5 reps at 295 before, so I know I can do more. I was able to complete three reps at 305 and very well could have done 5. I want to continue to improve and, since this is the peak week of the cycle, there's no harm in going a bit heavier. Next week is the deload, so no worries on pushing it too hard.

The other tweak I implemented was supersetting hanging leg raise, good mornings and then ab crunches on the PowerTec Workbench. And, yes, I openly confess that part of the reason for making this change is because I hate hanging leg raises, so I don't want to do any more than three sets of the damned things. And, yes, I hate them so much that I'm more than willing to do supersets of three different exercises just to get out of doing two sets of them.

I finished up with three sets of Pendlay rows since I wimped out on Monday and didn't do them when I'd planned.

Besides, I like to do the rows on deadlift days because the two work so well together to strengthen the back. When I was following my hardgainer minimalist routine years ago, I liked to do seated row and bent-over row after deadlifts. It did a lot to strengthen my lats and traps. And I did not mind at all when doing the bent-over row that I had a tendency to allow my upper body to move upward from parallel to the floor because it just meant activating the traps more. With the Pendlays, I remain parallel, but there's still some activation of the traps. I may want to work the shrugs in more as I'd planned and some upright row.

For a little variation I will occasionally mix in underhand barbell rows, which some refer to as Yates rows.

It was a tough workout, and I'm ready for my rest day today before moving on to the bench press tomorrow. It might be time for me to push a little harder on that one as well. In two weeks I'll be starting another cycle, and it's about time to shake things up and raise expectations.

Oh, yeah. It's logged on Fitocracy.