Good day!

Pressing went quite well. Last night I looked at what would make for a good PR, progressing along, and I hit that. Today’s cue? “tight!” Always a good cue.

Pyramid downs work well.

I’m not supersetting in the pulling work because arm issues, but it’s cool because this makes me address it differently. Instead of the usual long breaks between sets, here I take about a minute between sets, which hits things a little different. I’m liking it.

Plate raises. I’ve been feeling on these like I’m not getting a lot of delt work. I realized I’m leaning a little back, or getting a little swing. So on the 2nd and 3rd sets I leaned a little forward and ensured to start the movement from my delts, raising my arms instead of raising the weight (kinda “rotating at the shoulders” — weird semantic difference, but it’s what it is). That helped, as you can see by the drastic reduction in reps. 🙂

Skullcrushers. Because I started doing French Presses on bench day, I opted to try taking these heavier for fewer reps. Gee, I can see why people say this trashes your elbows. Plus I changed how I do them, going to my forehead/hairline instead of behind my head. Let the French Presses be lighter weight and as full a range of motion as possible. Let these be heavier, fewer reps, and a different range of motion. I’ll keep this up for a few more sessions, but it becomes a problem for my elbows I may switch to dumbbells with a neutral hand position as that should be less torque issues and restriction to the elbows.

All in all tho, a good day.

Best part?

Last night before bed it hit me — I haven’t been feeling the arm pain. And today? Nada. This is great news! I’m hopeful. If I have to stick with incline presses on “bench day”, then so be it. Better to incline and have no pain, than flat bench and cause myself problems.

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 75 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 3
  • 125 x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 160 x 7 (7 rep PR)
  • 140 x 8
  • 125 x 8
• Lat Pulldowns (pronated grip, to chest)
  • 110 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 11
• Front Plate Raises (all the way above head)
  • 25 x 35
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 12
• Skullcrushers
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 8
  • 80 x 6
• Hammer Curl
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 6