Set an awesome, but strangely anti-climatic, personal record.

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 140#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x85
  • 1x5x105 (work)
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x5x135 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 65
• Asst. #2 – Supinated shoulder-width grip lat pulldowns
  • 5 x 10 x 120
• GPP – Sprints
  • Tabata style (20 sec. sprint, 10 sec. walk)
  • 2 “laps” walking (warmup)
  • 5 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
  • 2 “laps” walking (cooldown)
• DeFranco Agile 8

Today’s PR was a significant one because I broke into the realm of 45# plates on my press. 🙂

But oddly, it was anti-climactic. Of course, I knew for weeks this PR day was coming and I knew I’d set a PR because that’s just how the program progresses. I was really looking forward to it for the fact I’d be using 45’s and while I don’t lift for ego, there’s no question the ego gets satisfied with things like that. Once you start moving 45’s, you start to feel like you’re moving real weight. So I’ve been looking forward to today for weeks. Even last night before I went to bed I was giddy with excitement. When I loaded the plates onto the bar it felt cool. I was smiling a lot. When I pulled the bar out of the rack, it felt a little different because there’s a change in how the weight feels with the larger plates (center of gravity and such), but really not a whole lot. And I just pressed like anything else. When I was done and racked the bar, I thought I might feel some elation and excitement, but it just felt like any old press set.

In a way, I was bummed… but then, I don’t know what I was expecting to feel because it’s just weight. But in a way, I thought it was kinda cool I didn’t feel anything special about it because it’s just weight. The body and muscles don’t care that it’s 45# plates, only my mind and ego.

So still, very cool. I’m happy to have cranked out 5 reps with it. And now, life goes on… next up, 140#. And so on, and so on.

One thing on a form factor, I continue to work with my breathing so I don’t get all light-headed. I am finding that just breathing regularly up to the bar, tighten up and hold breath and unrack, if I feel the need then exhale while I get into position but keep tight, take as many breaths as I need before I start doing the movement to get my head clear and solid (tho not too long, of course), and then get going. On Press it’s slightly different since I want to breathe at the top of the movement so, I breath, press the first rep up, then breath again and THERE I start my rhythm… so it’s a bit of an “off beat” but alright.

Everything else rolled OK. I am thinking that sooner or later I’m going to stop doing lat pulldowns and try going back to chin-ups. Not sure I’m ready for it yet, but I have thought about buying a band to help me if I can’t yet crank out enough reps. The goal is of course to do proper chins, and so who knows… maybe if I’m not there yet I shouldn’t just crank 5×10 across on my lat pulldowns but try to move it more to a 5×5 across to get the strength up. We’ll see.