My neck… ugh.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 1

• Work Set – Press (working max: 155#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x6x135
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/8/7 x 95
• Assistance – Seated Rows (superset with all pressing)
  • 11 x 10 (last set, 20) x 70
• Assistance – Lat Pulldowns
  • 4 x 12/12/10/8 x 110/110/110/100
• Foam Rolling

For the past couple weeks there’s been some pain in my neck, truly a pain, not metaphoric. 🙂 Pinched nerve? I don’t know. Swallowing can hurt, and can cause the pain to radiate down the top edge of my left trap. Probably would be remedied with a trip to the chiropractor for a quick neck movement, but I think ultimately it’s due to a lot of muscle tightness which then pulls my neck into funky positions and causes this. I think it’s why my left-hand grip isn’t so good (it’s been slipping on deadlifts), and it really got in the way of things today. But still, press on (pun intended).

I do like supersetting the rowing in here. Went way too light today, but better to start too light than too heavy. Affords me the ability to go strict, letting shoulders pull forward, then pinch the shoulder blades together at the top of the movement. Focus on pulling from the elbows, with the pinkies. This is not a max effort movement, this is a bodybuilding movement. Still, I will go heavier. I do think running my supersets with a movement in the perpendicular plane is keeping my shoulders happier.

I opted to drop power cleans. They just aren’t what I’m looking to do right now, not consistent with the goals I have.