Old School Workout Recap: Safety Squats, Tempo Squats, and Deadlifts

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Day One: Top Set of Safety Bar Squats
3. Day One Continued: Three Count Pause Bench
4. Day Two: More Bench, Feet Up
5. Working in Good Mornings
6. Day Three: Top Set of Paws Below The Shin Conventional Deadlifts
7. Breaking in Vivo Barefoot Shoes
8. Temp Squat Work
9. Day Four: Last Day for Main Work
10. Trap Bar Deadlifts

Working Out The Old School Way

Let's go back to the old school way of recaps. For this article, let's recount what happened during the week in terms of workouts. In the coming weeks, we will go more in-depth with the specifics of each workout.

Day One: Top Set of Safety Bar Squats

The day started with a top set of safety bar squats for a set of 10. It was rated at an RPE of six, which always makes me hesitant. I know this will give me back offsets that are relatively close to the top set. Surprisingly, I kept the back off sets relatively easy, and my last back offset was higher than my top set.

Next, I moved on to three count pause bench. One thing I always do with these is go for an extended pause, only because I don't count like one, two, three. The problem is when I'm doing rep work and then having to worry about pausing for a certain amount of time. I tend to lose track of the reps.

Day One Continued: Three Count Pause Bench

As long as I'm getting a longer or extended pause than what I normally do, I'm usually pretty good with that.

Day Two: More Bench, Feet Up

Day two was marked with more bench work, but this time, I had my feet up. I like to lift my feet up for this. Not like a Larson press because I find that puts stress on my lower back.

Unfortunately, putting my feet on the bench puts too much push on my feet. To make it a little harder but not overdo it, I don't use the bench and instead keep my feet up.

Speaking of more difficult to do, for the most part, I finally worked in good mornings. I figured I need to use the Transformer bar. It does have a hinge setting but is so awkward because the weight literally wants to flip off of your back. I had to pull the bar down into me so that doesn't happen.

I'm just trying to push my butt back and feel the results in my hamstrings. This exercise is super awkward at first, but I'm assuming that if I get better at these, they could potentially have some really good carryover for me.

Day Three: Top Set of Paws Below The Shin Conventional Deadlifts

It was a great day for conventional deadlifts. I did my top set of Paws below the shin conventional deadlifts for 406 4 6 and rp5. One reason why the load was a little weird was that it was using those competition colors. I'm also using 55-pound plates but the conventional deadlift felt really really good that day.

I also broke in these Vivo barefoot shoes, which You might have seen people like Shane hunt or Dan Grigsby wear. I'm really liking them, especially after just one week.

Temp Squat Work

This is one of the videos I use to talk about the new ins or sleeves that I also got. Last week, I talked about iron Rebels. This week, I'm talking about new insert meaning that I sized appropriately in this case. Just doing some tempo work here, and I really love my CB4. The nice things about these hypertrophy blocks is I get to use a lot of the stuff that I probably wouldn't when I'm closer to competition. I want to make sure that I'm not doing some really strange variation or using bars I wouldn't be able to use in competition.

Day Four: Last Day for Main Work

I went for 285 again with the Benchmark set for one more top set of bench. This time, it was rated an RPE nine, just because after four days of benching all of which was a ton of volume overall, I started to get a little bit fatigued, but that's what I like about some of the back off sets.

For seven sets of ten with back-offs, the weight was 205 pounds, all rated at RPE five. The last main work were trap bar deadlifts. These exercises let me work my hip hinge without worrying about much else.

Highlights

• Safety bar squats
• Breaking in Vivo barefoot shoes
• The benefits of Tempo squat work
• Trap bar deadlifts

FAQ

Q: What are safety bar squats? A: Safety bar squats provide a completely different stimulus than front squats, back squats, or any other squat variation you might know.

Q: Should I lift my feet during bench press? A: Lifting your feet on the bench press adds some level of difficult for people who push too much with their legs.

Q: Why are Vivo barefoot shoes good for lifting? A: They promote proper foot position when lifting.