737

Max on the Bench test was 225. I managed it slow but steady. Almost stuck at one point but it kept moving.

Some random guy was on shift and bored so he offered me a spot. With the spot I went for 235 and pressed it, but he had to give it a bump when I got stuck. He was a good spotter though. I wanted him to pull the bar off me, but he just gave as much as I needed.

So the combined total is 737:

210 Squat (I counted the one to parallel rather than 220 to the high box)
302 Conventional Deadlift
225 Bench Press

I'm happy with the deadlift and the bench. The squat, well, that's another story.

That my bench press outclasses my squat is telling and I problem I'd like to rectify. Blame it on:

1.) My college years in which I didn't squat because "I have bad knees"
2.) My focus of late has not been on squatting heavy but on keeping good form at good depth. I've made some progress with that, but I'm wondering if all those days of doing 5 x 5 @ 135 as deep as I can muster might be a little better served by higher weight at a slighly higher box...say parallel?
3.) I'm have a few technical flaws on the box squat. I think I have tended to close my stance up a bit in the interest of gaining more depth comfortably--it hurts to squat deep with my feet wide apart. I also noticed in trying heavy weights off the box that I was initiating with my legs and neglecting to keep my chest up turning it into more of a heavy good morning/squat hybrid.

I did a bit of reading on proper box squats today. I think I've had a tendency to use a lower box than most of the pics/videos of seen of the EliteFTS guys and I definitely have a narrower stance. Gonna try it out with a wide stance and a slightly taller box and pick the weight up. Will leave the depth/mobility work for the light front squat days.

Anyway. Overall not terrible, but I'd like to bring the squat around in the next 2 months. Will plan on retesting late February just before I dive fully into bicycle mode. I think I'll probably take one cycle off of heavy conventional deads (as I have done a lot of them lately), trade out for training the sumo style deadlift for more leg focus. This cycle has me squatting on high volume heavy days, so I'll pick up the box a tad and shoot for sets of as heavy triples as I can muster with good technique.

Will see where this goes. Main goal for next 2 months is to work on the squat.