Progress continues.

Didn’t hit the 10-rep threshold like I’ve been doing everywhere else, but I attribute that to the Press being the 1 movement I had a true 1RM of before I started (instead of fair calculations). But still, hitting 8 is solid for the 3+ week.

And it continues to be a track record of progressing. Comparing against the past few Press sessions, either weight and/or reps have gone up. So it’s still solid progress; slow progress, but solid. Press has always been a slow one for me.

I also found a couple important tweaks to my setup. The past few Press sessions had a little shoulder pain when I got overhead. I have found my index points on the bar when I set up, but I was being a little too strict about them. Basically the point where my thumbnail ends I line up with the edge of the bar knurling. But I was kinda stretching this. When instead I did it relaxed (brought my grip closer together, just a tad), that made all the improvement. I’ll have to see how it goes next week tho — could be that I just got sufficiently warmed up by the time I made this change.

Another thing that’s constantly frustrated me is my breathing — I always debate where to take a breath. You typically take it at the start of the movement, but here you’re at the bottom. I found myself today unracking, getting settled, then exhaling a bit so I could have a fresh breath to press with. Well, taking that breath blew my setup — my chest collapsed (of course) and I lost a lot. So yeah, I have to take my breath, hold it, unrack, settle, press, then at the top finally take my first breath. I kinda hate that because I get a little light-headed from the oxygen deprivation. So I’m trying to do a bunch of stuff to breathe deep a good 6-10 times or so before I unrack the bar. That prolongs my setup, but seems to be leading to better results.

It’s all still something I have to keep working with, but Press setup and technique is something that’s long frustrated and elluded me, and these two things seem to be progress in the right direction. I’ll see how they fare next week.

Also with my chin-ups. The joint stress comes at the bottom, when I’m hanging and it causes the arms to rotate/torque/twist — elbows don’t bend that way. So today I just didn’t go all the way down. I’m not sure I liked that. I mean, it was certainly less stress, but that full extension and starting the pull from there really provides good work. As well, I am really missing out on the shoulder retraction. So…. I dunno. I may stick with it next week, and then next cycle try something else like close-grip v-bar pullups and doing underhand-grip pulldowns. That may work out. I’ll just keep playing until I find what’s going to give me good results and not damage me in the process.

Otherwise, just a good day.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 60 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 105 x 3 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 120 x 3
  • 140 x 8
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 125 x 8 (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 145 x 8
  • 170 x 6
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 12
• Face Pulls
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 15
• Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 15
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 15