I may have PR’d, but it was less than satisfying.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 19, week 3

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 240#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x3x145
  • 1x5x180 (work)
  • 1x3x210
  • 1x1x230 (PR)
• Assistance – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/10/10-5-4 x 135
• Assistance – DB Rows
  • 4 x 25 x 40
• 100 rep work – JM Presses, Face Pulls
• Foam Rolling

Sure, technically it’s a PR, but I’m not happy with it. I missed what I wanted. I wanted at least 3.

Why didn’t it happen? 2 things, both with my head: 1 mental, 1 physical.

Mental – I’ve got some heavy shit weighing on my mind. It’s dominated my thoughts the past some days and has me very unhappy and stressed. Try as I might to clear my head of it, it’s just so dominating that I couldn’t be fully in the moment of the lift.

Physical – I have this problem from time to time where I get under the bar, I inhale and tense up to lift off, and my head swims. That happened. I felt it coming so I didn’t lift off, waited a few, breathed a bit more, then tried again, but even then my head was too far gone. As soon as the bar descended, I could tell things were not good. It was … uh… not so much a physical struggle in terms of say arm and chest muscles to get it up there, and not a mental struggle in terms of mind… but a “physical head” struggle because my head was physically swimming. After I got the 1 rep, my body felt like it could do more, easily. But my head said no way, that if I tried another rep it’d be dangerous. So I racked it and relegated myself to staying at this weight for the next cycle and going for a rep PR. Oh well.

I’m not happy with it, but it’s how it goes. It does show the power of the head and mind in lifting.