So I started lifting consistently about 5-6 months ago after about a year and a half of sporadic visits to the gym. I got a lot of good advice here and I just wanted to share a recent experience with everyone.

I read "New rules of lifting" a few months ago and it really changed my outlook, I've been sticking mainly to barbell exercises and weighted pullups and dips and I recently started Stronglift's 5x5.

Unfortunately I really took one of the "New Rules" very seriously and was adding weight to my squats every session. When I was squatting my bodyweight (~160lbs) I was getting down to parrallel but as I gradually increased weight I was also gradually losing ROM. I ignored this as I was becoming obsessed with increasing my working weight every time I worked out so that two weeks ago I was "squatting" 230lbs but probably only doing half squats. In my mind I knew I was cheating but my ego was not letting me drop the weight to get proper ROM.

Yesterday I finally cracked and during my warm up sets I told myself that I was going to do ass-to-grass until it became too difficult and then stick to that weight for my work sets. At 205lbs I felt that I couldn't go any heavier without comprimising ROM so I took my rest and started my 5x5. It was incredible. I've never had such a tough and fulfilling squat workout in my life. The usually only go all the way down with an empty bar. Even in my warm up sets I would just go to parrallel, this is my first time doing working sets ass-to-grass and my legs felt like complete jelly afterwards, awesome!

So moral of the story (which really should have been obvious to me before I tried it): Full ROM squats at 205 lbs >>> half squats at 230 lbs.

I think the strain and exertion from such a tough squat workout messed with my head because I was supposed to do 1x5 deadlifts afterwards with 255 lbs but I screwed up the mental math and ended up doing 265 lbs, a new PR by 15 lbs!