Today was not a good workout. But you drag yourself to the gym anyways, because that’s what discipline is about.

Squats

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x80
• 1x3x125
• 1x2x165
• 3x5x210 (work)

I opted to keep my progression the same this workout as last workout since the bar speed last workout was very slow. This session it was faster, but I could tell my form wavered a little bit. I’m debating if I want to do this again on Monday or go ahead and jump to 215#. That will depend how I feel. See the commentary section below.

Presses

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x55
• 1x3x70
• 1x2x85
• 3x5x102.5 (work)

My first microload! Decimals! 🙂  The odd thing here was feeling suddenly strong. Whereas on Wednesday I felt I struggled with 100# work sets, today only a couple of minutes after set 1 I felt this burst of “go” and pounded out set two. After only a couple more minutes of rest, set three. Odd that I didn’t need so much rest, that I felt so much stronger, and I did not feel at all like today was a struggle. Stressing sure, but not a struggle.

Chin-ups

• 1x11xbw
• 1x10xbw
• 1x8xbw

I don’t know what happened here. I feel like I’m stalling out. I’m debating if my body lets me get to 3×10 across that I should just go ahead and go to real pull-ups and chin-ups, even if that means things like 5 sets of 2 reps, or maybe 2 sets of 2 reps then 3 sets of 3-5 negatives. Whatever, but no more of these “inverse row” things.

Commentary

Today was not a good day.

I didn’t want to go into the gym. I had no motivation. I felt worn, I felt tired. I tossed around ideas of skipping today, but that would just start down the slippery slope of skipping. I thought that maybe I’d do a light workout instead, maybe just do the warmup sets and not the work sets, but no… what good is that? If the work sets aren’t going to happen, my body will tell me and I’ll listen to that, not listen to my brain and lack of motivation.

My guess? While I’m off work this week, it’s been nothing but work. Whittling down a huge to-do list, lots of running around, lots of doing things, and it’s rather non-stop. I’m tired! I haven’t gotten as much sleep either. So I do believe it’s just that creeping up on me. So how will this affect Monday’s workout? I don’t know for sure, have to wait and see how I feel when I get there. But it does tell me that I need to chill out this weekend, nap, and get some good recovery time in.

It also makes me think about how much longer I’ll be able to stick to this program. I’m not 18 years old and can’t recover like one. I cannot eat like a horse; in fact, I’m actively working to trim back on that because the fat gains are too much and I do need to lose. Consequently, that does mean my recovery ability will decline and I may in fact lose some strength or at least I may stick at a certain point for a while. It does make me think that after a couple more weeks of this program I might switch to something like the Wendler 5/3/1 to see how that fares for my body (and even in that, maybe pare it back a bit, like instead of 5 sets of assistance, only 3). We’ll toy around and see. It’s not so much to care about progressing with how much weight I lift, but progressing with putting a constant growing stress on my body so it will improve and adapt and work towards my goals. My goals have shifted slightly (e.g. the fat loss) so I need to adjust accordingly.

But in the end, my body will tell me what’s what and when to switch. My brain is eager to switch, but I need to force it to wait until my body says it’s time.