I suck at squatting! Its true! It took me years to admit it and in my prideful ways I decided rather than keep trying, I would just give up on the squat! Yep, it is way easier to give up than it is to go back to square one and figure out how to do it right! So I would rationalize in my head all the reasons that I should just stop trying to do them and then stop doing them. That sound like a good plan, right? Cant do it, just stop trying!! Yippee skippee for me, I am a big loser! LOSER spelled out in the air across my forehead!
Ok, so now that we have established that I am a lazy, excuse making, LOSER, lets move along to my rehab! I have always liked Mark Rippetoes’s teaching/coaching/tell you like it is style. Why? Because he uses physics, angles and lines and forces, to tell you why you should do it his way! I love that! Mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics etc were always good subjects for me. My mind thinks in absolutes and laws and rules and such and mathematics was concrete for me and I got it! I wasnt always right with the answer but the process was absolute and that was a good thing for me. I was wasting time on Amazon earlier in the week and Mark Rippetoe’s book “Starting Strength” Basic Barbell Training came across the bottom of my screen so I decided to get it, why not!
The book came in on wednesday and so I spent that evening going through it and Mark goes into great detail and pictures with how he trains for form on the squat as the first section in the book. So I thought to myself, ” Self, you have to go back to doing squats now! You cant give up on them without trying this way now that you have pictures and explanations and everything else to go with it!’ “Ok self, lets try it again, friday, we do them again!”
And now it is friday and I kept the weight low, and I did them! I had on my batman and joker chucks and I squatted and watched the video and tried to make mental adjustments in my head and I did it again. I am determined to retrain myself to squat properly!
I set up the bar low enough on the rack to get under it properly for the lowbar squat! This has been an area where I needed to go but have not because it bothers my wrists and shoulders and I just wasnt willing to hurt like that but dang it, if you want to get something accomplished, you sometimes have to be willing to sacrifice!
I had my batman and joker chucks on and I was determined to get it done, something done, anything done!!
I had initially plotted to do 95#-115#-135#-155#-175#for how ever many reps it felt like were good but after the first set and then watching it on video, I figured I had best just stay with the 95# and get my form down! So thats what I did!
I have some things to work on and get my muscle memory down! I am going to swallow my pride and get my form down good and then I will work on moving the weight up! At the end of the day, I would rather have great form and lift less weight than lift more weight and look like a loser doing because my form sucks and I am not getting full ROM! Its a choice, loser is NOT my choice!
It is a fantastic and wonderful thing to live the fitness life!
