got a lot done in turbo mode this morning so managed to go to the gym earlier than normal and no one was there except for these two white-haired santa claus-like men in the weight area chatting away loudly. they were directly behind the rack so they watched my entire squat routine, warm ups and work sets all, and right as i did my last warm up before the work set i was thinking "wow, this is the best form i have ever had; obsessively tweaking it and reading up lately* was worth it" and the guys went silent for a moment and then one whispered to the other "damn. she is really good." that made me feel awesome! the feedback there always does. now if only my work set form had been as good, grr. working on it. technically at my bodyweight now (just need to perfect my form)!
*now that we're entering the non-novice, "okay, NOW you really have to work and it's hard, you're not just adjusting to form and all the new principles" stage i've been trying to be really good about perfecting form because the sheer weight makes me uneasy otherwise. i need to know i'm doing it right because if i don't, shit, hauling one's bodyweight+ poorly is a recipe for disastrous back and knee injury. also weight imbalance can mess up muscle growth symmetry and improvements in balance and coordination, some of my favorite benefits to lifting weights. also doing it not just-so can mean one goes up a lot only to discover later they've been doing it slightly wrong and certain muscles aren't getting worked which means upon trying to fix it going way down in weight, and that just seems like it'd be a bummer. so far i'm pretty happy with digging deep in detail with stuff--certain things, especially tips to protect the back, have proven really useful and easy to follow and i haven't had any worrying aches anywhere since i started paying super close attention (before i'd occasionally get crunchy knees or a stiff lower back).
and i felt bad because this young dude scrambled over as soon as i started unracking the squat weights to prepare for the press and said "you don't have to unrack that!! i can use it as is now" and i was, meathead brain-tired as i am immediately after the hardest set of any big compound lift, slow on the uptake and confused at first so i raised a brow and said "well, but i'm not done yet" and he got all redfaced and embarrassed and apologized profusely before the blood came back to my head and i realized how mean and what a rack hog i must've seemed. so i was like "no wait, sorry, yeah of course" and i had to reassure him multiple times i meant it, i didn't mind and in fact needed the break. when he was done (he squat what i did, the exact weight and exact same 3x5!) he apologized again and i reassured him again. felt so bad for the initial misunderstanding. sorry guy for being a bitch; i wasn't thinking and was just confused at first by the whole interrupted thing as i was still catching my breath.
*now that we're entering the non-novice, "okay, NOW you really have to work and it's hard, you're not just adjusting to form and all the new principles" stage i've been trying to be really good about perfecting form because the sheer weight makes me uneasy otherwise. i need to know i'm doing it right because if i don't, shit, hauling one's bodyweight+ poorly is a recipe for disastrous back and knee injury. also weight imbalance can mess up muscle growth symmetry and improvements in balance and coordination, some of my favorite benefits to lifting weights. also doing it not just-so can mean one goes up a lot only to discover later they've been doing it slightly wrong and certain muscles aren't getting worked which means upon trying to fix it going way down in weight, and that just seems like it'd be a bummer. so far i'm pretty happy with digging deep in detail with stuff--certain things, especially tips to protect the back, have proven really useful and easy to follow and i haven't had any worrying aches anywhere since i started paying super close attention (before i'd occasionally get crunchy knees or a stiff lower back).
and i felt bad because this young dude scrambled over as soon as i started unracking the squat weights to prepare for the press and said "you don't have to unrack that!! i can use it as is now" and i was, meathead brain-tired as i am immediately after the hardest set of any big compound lift, slow on the uptake and confused at first so i raised a brow and said "well, but i'm not done yet" and he got all redfaced and embarrassed and apologized profusely before the blood came back to my head and i realized how mean and what a rack hog i must've seemed. so i was like "no wait, sorry, yeah of course" and i had to reassure him multiple times i meant it, i didn't mind and in fact needed the break. when he was done (he squat what i did, the exact weight and exact same 3x5!) he apologized again and i reassured him again. felt so bad for the initial misunderstanding. sorry guy for being a bitch; i wasn't thinking and was just confused at first by the whole interrupted thing as i was still catching my breath.