Where was my head at?

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 24, week 2

• Work Set – Press (working max: 160#)
  • 45 x 5 x 2 sets (warmup)
  • 65 x 5
  • 80 x 5
  • 95 x 3
  • 105 x 5 (work)
  • 120 x 5
  • 140 x 5
• Assistance – Press
  • 100 x 10/10/9/7/6 x 5 sets
• Assistance – Seated Rows (superset with all pressing)
  • 85 x 10 x 11 sets
• Assistance – Wide-grip lat pulldowns
  • 100 x 10 x 5 sets

I went to the gym fairly unencumbered mentally, which is unusual. So while I was pressing, my head was…. just there. I was focused on getting my setup and breathing and tightness going that I lost track of what I was doing otherwise! I got to the 5th rep of the 140 and felt that was good…. because I thought it was 3 week and that I just went 2 over the prescribed reps. Then I racked it, entered it into my log, and found myself disoriented wondering what just happened. No, it’s 5 week and I should have gone for more… but I didn’t. In fact, pressing up that 140 wasn’t hard on the upper body, but my lower body was very shakey. I’m trying that “screw my legs into the ground” stuff to get my lower body tight, but I don’t know if it’s working or is feeding the wobbly because it’s not actually stable. I’ve never been wobbly like this, until I tried the ‘screwing’ approach, so…. jury is still out.

Still, I did what I could and the session was what it was.

I also wonder if the back work took a little out of me. I bumped up to 85# and while that’s still not enough to really drain me, I am really focusing on full range of motion, squeezing the shoulder blades together at the peak, and making it a movement about the back (not the arms, etc.). From what I felt, I do wonder if it took a little out of my traps so I couldn’t get lock out well enough. Not sure, but curious. I’m generally OK with that. I don’t want the back work to detract from the main lift, but I really do want the extra back work. So if it’s a cut back in the short term but leads to longer term gains, bigger and stronger back, fine.

Ended off the session as I’ve been doing. Press day sometimes turns into “arm day” too. That after I’m done, I’ll just rip through some light sets of something for a pump. Today I did some front plate raises immediately followed by some db lateral raises immediately followed by some ez-bar tricep pressdowns (full lockout) immediately followed by some barbell curls. All light weight, trying to go for like 8-15 reps. Lift up with no momentum, really go slow on the negative, rest a moment at the bottom to lose momentum, go again. Two quick rounds of that, just for a pump. Nothing worth recording, but it’s there.

I have to admit… I’m thinking more and more about a change up. I don’t know. Is it me? am I not working hard enough? smart enough? Something? Could I be stale? Could something like Cube Method be a kick in the pants after 2 years of Wendler? I poked around at the gym to see what I could do for something like block pulls. There’s really nothing block-wise I could use but…. I MIGHT try the Smith Machine. I tried it and well, no it’s not ideal but it might be better than nothing using what I have available to me. I think the only thing keeping me from jumping on the Cube right now is wanting more information about Cube Extreme just due to the approach that takes towards gym time. I’m thinking about just emailing Corey Hayes and asking….