Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 26, week 1

• Work Set – Press (working max: 170#)
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 70 x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 3
  • 110 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 145 x 6
• Close-grip pulldowns (neutral grip, superset with warm-up pressing sets)
  • 75 x 15 x 5
• Press
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 8
  • 105 x 6
  • 105 x 6
  • 105 x 6
• Wide, pronated grip pulldowns (superset with additional pressing sets)
  • 105 x 12 x 5
• Cable EZ-Bar pressdowns (pin the elbows to the side)
  • 45 x 12 x 3
• Hammer Curls (superset with pressdowns)
  • 30 x 10 x 3
• Foam Rolling

I guess after a long Thanksgiving weekend, my body wasn’t ready to get back to the gym. I didn’t gorge myself, but certainly more carbs ingested than I should have. I feel massive bloat, and not liking it. Tho I’m not going to start my fat-loss stuff in earnest until after I hit 1000#, I am going to start paring back on my carbs a bit to try to help manage my bloat. My own fault… been consuming too much, not sure why. Could be stress and the comfort of food is always there for me. *sigh*

Anyways.

Overall the session was fine. Things did feel a little heavy, but probably from my drag-ass this morning. Only thing of note is ditching the rotating curls and going back to good old hammer curls. If “clench” is my cue — and I worked on that throughout the session — hammers are going to take me further, especially since I can lift relatively heavier on them than other curl types.

Another thing I noticed was I was holding my breath a lot today. Unrack the bar, step back, ensure tightness, then start pressing… didn’t take a breath until maybe rep 3? Then subsequent sets might work the same, with multiple reps per breath. I didn’t feel bad, and in fact it was kinda nice because it helped me keep tightness. But the lack of oxygen may have come into play for the lower rep output. I dunno. I didn’t plan on doing this, it just happened. Curious.