That’s about what I figured.

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 185 x 1
  • 205 x 1
  • 160 x 9
  • 160 x 5
• Dips
  • BW x 5
• Wide, neutral grip pull-ups
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1

As per my plan, this week is just some testing to ensure I know where my every-day max (EDM) is, so going into the next cycle I can be more proper with my percentages. When I started this program, I just picked numbers and increased in a simple fashion. Now that things are somewhat normal, I want to ensure I’m following Paul’s program more strictly. So I wanted to ensure I had my EDM where it should be.

That said, I was pretty sure of where I ended up. I’ve been hitting 200 for a single the past some weeks, and it’s been fine. I knew I was good for 205, and figured I could grind out 210-215. Given how things went today, I think I’m spot on. Paul’s description of your EDM is the most you can do for a crisp single; once it starts to be a slow grinder, that’s closer to a true 1RM. The 205 was good, and I could tell that if I did more, it’d be grinding. So I’m not too far off in my numbers, and I’m happy with that.

I didn’t expect to do much else today. I’m fried. I’m exhausted and burned out. Hooray stress of life. So I figured to do some dips, but it was strange… went for set #2, lowered myself, then couldn’t go up… something said “hell no, you’re not doing that”. I dismounted and tried again, same thing. It was some sort of pain, felt like a nerve thing. I really don’t know, can’t begin to hypothesize, but I was not going back up. Argh. So whatever… skip it.

And despite my better judgment, I thought to try some pull-ups. The neutral-grip pull-downs have been alright to me, so I thought to try neutral-grip pull-ups. It wasn’t bad. Just 5 singles. The grip is probably shoulder-and-a-half width, neutral, and I am not going all the way down (i.e. letting my scapula roll forward/up/out), but getting as close as I feel comfortable. I am thinking to go with this, even if it’s just a bunch of singles. See where it takes me and if my shoulders can be happier with it.