Good, good.

Again, working with alternatives to try to continue making progress yet contend with my pain issues.

Pressing went well. One interesting thing I noticed was because of limitations of the gym’s “rack”, I actually unrack the bar pretty low. Instead, I’m now squatting just a little more (another 1-2″) thus starting with a slightly higher rack position when I bring the bar out. That keeps the bar from being “too low” and thus creating greater elbow flexion — and seems to have made things a little happier this morning. Plus more focus on straight-wrist (including using wrist wraps on the last 3 sets). Things went well. For once, I feel like my Press is progressing.

Very excited for next week as that will be Pressing 170 for truly a lifetime PR.

Continued with the Arnold Presses. It’s interesting. Just like with back work shifting focus to “pull with the elbows”, here with the Arnold instead of focusing on the twist with a wrist/forearm rotation, focus on it from the shoulder — almost like doing a fly. That does change the movement slightly and I actually felt something pretty good in my upper back, in those rotator muscles. Kinda cool. I’ll continue to go with these a bit.

Also continuing to not superset pressing with pulling to see how that fares — so far, inconclusive. Chest supported DB rows I’m finding interesting because it is a different plane of movement, with the back at more of an incline than a lot of other rowing movements. But also the forced-strictness really provides opportunity to ensure the back muscles are doing the work. I’m digging this. Still finding my groove, but so far so good.

Straight-arms – they are what they are. Still finding groove here, but so far pretty cool.

Cable lateral raises I had a revelation about. I really can use more unilateral work in places I don’t tradtionally get it, like shoulders. For sure my left arm/shoulder is weaker than my right, and this is turning out to be a pretty good thing in terms of trying work stuff. Will continue.

Tate Presses were an effort to find something different for my triceps. Alas, not enough range of motion and when the weights got heavy enough to feel something, what I really felt was a lot of elbow pain/pressure. Not sure if that’s normal or just because of my current issues, but it’s enough to not do this movement. Instead well… the gym has one of these triceps machines: rest your upper arm on a bench (think about an almost horizontal preacher bench), then there’s a couple “arms” that you hold onto (hands in neutral position) and you extend your arms. I figured why not, I’m looking for something different and this machine is different (never used it before). I’ve softened my stance on machines: they have pros and cons, just like freeweights have pros and cons. This wasn’t too bad; the main problem I had was as all machines do, forces me to conform to the machine’s plane of motion. All in all not too bad, but I’d prefer if my arms could have been raised about 1-2″, because as it is it causes a slightly awkward wrist flexion. We’ll see how this goes.

Anyways, all in all not too bad.

And of course, the new Metallica came out this morning so it was my soundtrack. I like a few tracks off the album, but so much mid-tempo stuff… not sure. Feeling like a 3.5 out of 5 stars sort of thing. Maybe I’ll like it with more listens (been that way with me with a lot of albums lately).

5/3/1-based program

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 125 x 3
  • 145 x 3
  • 160 x 6 (6RM PR)
• Arnold Press
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
• Chest-Supported DB Rows
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
• Straight-arm Lat Pulldowns
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 12
• One-arm Cable Lateral Raises
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 10
• Triceps Machine
  • 50 x 15
  • 70 x 15
  • 80 x 15
• DB Curls (alternate, neutral-to-supinated hand while curling)
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 7