Pushing your Limits

For quite some time our home gym has had two barbells.  One is Mike's & I don't touch it because it contains a large number of plates.  Yeah, I workout but I'm too lazy to remove a lot of excess plates.  (insert humor here) Instead I use a curl bar for everything that I do.  The other day it was set to 65 lbs. for some wide stanch squats I had been performing.  I was really proud that I'd worked my way up to this weight  after performing:
Set 1 - 30lb / 25 reps
Set 2 - 40 lb / 25 reps
Set 3 - 50 lb. / 25 reps
Set 4 - 60 lb. / 25 reps
Set 5 - 65 lbs. / 25 reps
This was kind of a test after reading several blogs I follow about doing higher intensity.  I was trying to findout what my real limit really was & I must say I did feel this work in my inner thighs the next day.  I'm cautious, as at home we don't have a squat rack & I have to safely press this weight overhead into proper position.  So anyways, I picked this same barbell up again the next day to do some deadlifts at the beginning of my workout.  It seemed heavier than usual & the second set I was unable to do my usual set of 25.  The third set was also limited to only 15.  Then Mike strolled downstairs & informed me that he'd added TWENTY POUNDS to the bar!  Apparently I have NOT really been challenging myself.  I just increased my deadlift by 20 lb. & my muscles felt almost no difference after three sets the next day.  There was a "twing" of fatigue but nothing serious.

So I made a little trip to Dick's Sporting Goods & purchased the 300 lb. Olympic set.

Now we have 3 barbells & unlimited weightplate potential.  Lookout, the Fishers are getting serious.