Yes, I took yesterday off. I had a long weekend, exhausted. The best thing was to not lift but instead to sleep.

Today went quite well.

I upped my bench weight. I was calculating off an EDM of 240, and since I hit the 15 rep mark on the AMRAP set it was time to up the weight and go back to around 8 reps on AMRAP. I recalculated the EDM at 255 and off I went. I was surprised that the 215 felt so easy, and I cranked the 190 for 12 reps. I am not sure what to attribute it to. Did I recalculate wrong? Is my body still ramping up after being deprived for so long? finally food (carbs!), creatine, etc.? Hard to say, but here I am. I see no reason to adjust, just hopefully means progress will continue.

And everything else went up too. More reps on everything. I simply cannot complain. Again, it feels good to be making forward progress in the gym again.

Based on Paul Carter’s “Guaranteed Muscle Mass” article.

• Bench Press
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 100 x 5
  • 125 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 190 x 2
  • 215 x 1
  • 190 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 190 x 6 (50%)
• Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 95 x 22
  • 95 x 14
  • 95 x 12
• BB Row
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 8
• Wide Pronated-Grip Pulldown (350 Method)
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 16
  • 110 x 12
• BB Curl (350 Method)
  • 40 x 25
  • 40 x 18
  • 40 x 15