Yeah, I’m going to have to find some alternative to bench pressing.

Because of my continuing battle with my arm pain, I’ve been making modifications to my benching sessions. So far I’ve been using the 5/3/1 progression, but a Paul Carter-inspired 5/4/3/2/1/1+ rep scheme. The intention is to still get in some work, still work up to that top set, and still try for a rep PR, but keeping volume and stress on my arms low. The other change today was NOT supersetting in the back work. But I’m not sure that matters much.

Rowing and such doesn’t really bother things, but for sure it adds something if I superset. So I do think it was a reasonable thing. Despite that, the arm pain was stupid today. Mild ache as I warmed up. After the 225 set, things were hurting, and after the 250 I started to pack up to go home. The pain was bad. From last go-round, posture was a problem and contributed to shoulder and upper back issues, and while I didn’t feel any direct issues there, my understanding is such issues can radiate down the arm and manifest itself in biceps pain. So when I had that body work done it helped a lot, but since that time I have backslid on posture while I work. I have to get better about that, and am back on the wagon. I’m also working to make daily use of my Spud Inc Bowtie to see what it can do to help me out. I’ll also be rolling a lacrosse ball on my arms during meetings and such.

That said, 250×4 is a 4 rep PR, and all things considered I’m really happy with it. I actually felt like I could do 1-2 more, but given the arm issues I just racked it. I focused on crush-grip of the bar, and how that helped my whole body get tight — really makes a huge difference. Also wore wrist wraps, which I think helps but of course if I’m having problems it can’t stop the problems.

So, nice PR, but I’m going to have to make more changes. But first, rest of session.

I was feeling so bad I started to pack up. But after a few minutes the pain subsided enough that I opted to try to see what else I could do. I didn’t do any more benching (no down sets, no DB bench). And I didn’t want to do too much either. So I just tried some DB rows (Kroc-style) to see and that felt ok, so I kept going. Then I did the rest of what I normally would do, just reduced sets and reps. Get SOME work, just not much and nothing too stressful.

As for how to change up, I don’t know. My first thought? Move to incline benching. Thing is, it seems only flat benching is causing this problem. I press and I don’t notice issues. So, could incline benching work out ok? I don’t know. My feeling? this next cycle go ahead and find out. Work up to some sort of a max, which doesn’t necessarily have to be a 1RM; I could do a 3RM or 5RM and use formulas to estimate 1RM. From there, just progress as normal. I might also change my supplemental lift from DB bench; it just depends. I want to see how incline might go, because if that works out great, sticking with 3×10 of flat DB bench could be just fine.

Anyways, I have to get this under control.

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 4
  • 160 x 3
  • 200 x 2
  • 225 x 1
  • 250 x 4 (4 rep PR)
• Kroc Row
  • 50 x 10e
  • 50 x 10e
  • 50 x 20e
• DB Upright Row
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 12
• Pressdowns
  • 60 x 12
  • 60 x 12
• Reverse EZ Bar Curl
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12