For a first back day, it was a good start. There are adjustments to be made.

I decided I want to keep chin-ups/pull-ups in the mix. I hate them. I suck at them. The only way to stop sucking at them is to keep doing them. What’s different here is at this new gym I actually have to reach for the bar — I have to get up on my tip-toes (the old gym’s bar was low and I’d have to curl my knees to be clear when at a dead-hang). It’s not a bad thing, but it did make getting on the bar a little difficult, because of the torque of the chin-up position. Small issue tho.

When figuring out the plan here, I knew I wanted the “ups”, and because I’m weak and suck at them I knew I had do do them first else, before the muscles were too tired. However, I can’t dive right into them — need to warm-up. So I figured to put in face pulls as a warm-up. All in all, this progression of exercises worked well; I even felt the rows worked better after this bit of work.

That said:

I think I’ll add at least 1 more set of face pulls, tho I contemplate a 4th — basically going for 100 reps to warm up. TBD.

Chin-ups are fine. I may not stick with chin-ups, I may go to pull-ups, because of elbow torque issues. I need to see if the gym has any facilities for neutral grip pullups, or being able to do other things (e.g. a rope or handle over the bar). I’m also thinking about trying a bit wider grip (now I’m just outside of shoulder width). TBD. It’s all details, so long as I do some sort of “up”. And note: all the “ups” are full. I start at a dead hang, shoulders protracted. Then pull up to the chin at or over the bar, then controlled back down, all the way back down to a dead hang (no dropping, nor taking an exaggerated descent — I don’t want momentum, nor to jar my shoudlers). No kipping. No momentum.

The rows felt welcome, however I didn’t feel like I really got it. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of the lower reps and it wasn’t heavy enough? or if maybe I just want more reps. I’m thinking about adjusting the weight slightly then upping the reps. So instead of a 5/4/3/2/1 work up, something like a 8/7/6/5/4 type of thing; a little more volume with the heavier weight. I did like the AMRAP + 50% set tho. Just needs a hair more.

Shrugs were fine. I sometimes feel like shrugs aren’t quite doing it for me, that I need to find a different way to actually get stuff out of it, but for now I’ll stick with this approach.

Then finally pulldowns with the close, neutral-grip (v-bar). These actually felt really good, I felt a lot of work in my lower lats. I just needed to dial in the weight (new gym, new equipment, differences gonna happen). But I dug it.

So all in all, things went fine. I just need some slight adjustments.

• Face Pulls
  • 70 x 25
  • 70 x 25
• Chin-Ups
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 3
• Barbell Rows
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 185 x 3
  • 145 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 145 x 8 (50%)
• BB Shrugs
  • 275 x 8
  • 275 x 8
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
• Close-grip V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 110 x 15
  • 120 x 15
  • 125 x 12
  • 125 x 10