in honor of my dad

It occurs to me that if this post was really in honor of my father (RIP, Dad, we miss you <3), it should rightfully have squat video to showcase the Bulgy Polish Catcher's Thighs he gifted me with being put to good use. Unfortunately that was not on the video agenda today. There is plenty of footage of me walking around in leggings, showing them off in all their chunky glory, however. That'll have to do.

What was on the video agenda today? First up, rack pulls!

Some notes before we begin, eh? You'll notice that the camera angle changes from one side to the other in the course of these. Here's the thing. I haven't done these in a good three weeks because of my lil hip problem and also?  Any time I do them it's a crapshoot whether I'm going to feel strong as fuck and rip out a PR or whether I'll inexplicably not be able to move weight I moved easily a week or two before. No rhyme or reason. I figured that today I would video my set at 165 so that even if it became apparent this was gonna be a crap day, I'd at least have that. I set up on the incline bench press bench.  Bueno!  165 felt easy peasy. Gonna try for the PR, but no need to video all my sets. So I took my camera off the bench. Then some guys camped out there to, y'know, do incline bench. The nerve!  Thus the rest of the rack pull video is from my non-preferred side.  (It's tough to be me.)

165x5:

205x1.5:
(205x2 would be a PR, but I just couldn't get that second rep locked out completely.)

205x0:
If my head wasn't out of the frame, I'm sure you'd have been able to read my lips.

205x2:

Third time's the charm!

Not really happy at all with my form. There's entirely too much back rounding. It was bad enough when I played them back on the camera at the gym, but looking at them on my computer? Eek.  Definitely need to video these again the next time I do them.  And I'm going for two plates.

Next up!  Weighted dips!

Before I show you this first video, I want to stress to you just how crowded that corner of the weight area is and how flummoxed I was trying to figure out where I could set up my camera.  I put it on the seat of the leg press and this was the result:

BW+25x7:

Ha!  Yup, you can't actually see my upper body.  I left this video in, though, so you could see me set up. Nothing, uh, phallic about strapping that plate between your legs, is there? I feel my metaphorical balls grow every time I do it.  So then I grabbed my Y employee accomplice, Steve, and asked him if he could film.  I did another seven reps only to find out that I hadn't actually instructed Steve how to start videoing. Oops. But I had another set left in me!

BW+25x7:
Once again, third time's the charm!

These look like maybe I could've gone a little deeper, but I'm hoping that's just the camera angle, because Steve told me they looked good. In fact, he told me that most of the guys in the gym couldn't do those.  I didn't tell him that's because my metaphorical balls keep growing. Just KIDDING.

I should really stop discussing testicles in a post dedicated to my father.  Sorry, Dad.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Father's Day!

xoxo