I really do believe a proper arm day is helping with my arm pain.

My arms just feel better, probably better than any day of the week, both during and after my arm-session. I can’t point to why this is the case, but whatever helps me work to alleviate this pain I’m all for.

That said, while I’ve generally been happy with my new programming, I still don’t feel like I quite have arm day dialed in. For example, supersetting the AMRAP/50% gets… weird. Do I superset the AMRAP, then superset the 50%? But then that puts a lot more rest in between. So I dunno. Part of me is thinking to ditch supersetting. Hit triceps first (because close-grips), do all the triceps work, then hit biceps.

I even tried swapping out the incline bang curls. I first thought about doing concentration curls off the back of the incline bench, but 1 set showed me that wasn’t going to work well — I’m wanting a very-high-rep set, and even with 15# I couldn’t crank out a lot (pure muscular contraction to bring the weight up, upper arm remains straight, hard supination, hold/squeeze-hard for 3 seconds, then slow eccentric — you don’t need a lot of weight). Dropping down the weight wouldn’t get me anywhere, so after 1 set of that I opted to grab the EZ bar and do narrow-grip spider curls off the back of the incline (no dedicated preacher bench at the new gym). That worked out ok — higher reps were hit, painful squeezing. Still, I dunno.

I kinda wonder about doing something like a cable curl. Straight bar, cable curl.

I really don’t know. I will think about it. The goal is to have 1 movement that’s heavy weight low rep, one mid weight mid rep, one light weight high rep. That seems to be making my arms feel good, and gives a nice pump (go Arnold).

Anyways, I’m generally good with how things are, just needs a little fine-tuning still.

BTW, I don’t note this in my logs but I’m working to have 2 things to end my sessions.

First, spending at least 20 minutes doing light cardio. These days it’s just on the elliptical, working to keep my heart rate in that “target zone”. But I may work to vary it up with some bike work — there’s an Air Dyne but it’s out of order. While I don’t like cardio, I cannot deny it’s helpful at keeping my work capacity up and my calories/bodyweight in check.

Second, time stretching and rolling. This is primarily to help my lower back towards that goal of using the reverse hyper. But it’s overall helping me feel a lot better. Stretch, and proper stretching like finding a stretch and holding for at least 30 seconds and continuing to sink into it. Foam rolling my back, especially my lower back, erectors, glutes, hamstrings, and even my calves. I will expand this in time to stretch and roll more of my body, but right now I’m focusing on where I’m really hurting, tight, sore, whatever.

• BB Curls (elbows in, wider grip), (superset)
  • 55 x 8
  • 65 x 7
  • 75 x 6
  • 85 x 5
  • 95 x 4
  • 105 x 3
  • 80 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 80 x 6 (50%)
• Close-Grip Bench
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 7
  • 135 x 6
  • 175 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 185 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 185 x 6 (50%)
• Incline Hammer Curls into standing DB curls (with supination), (superset)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 9
• Standing French Press
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 13
• Incline Concentration Curls
  • 15e x 15
• Incline Spider Curls (EZ bar, narrow grip)
  • 25 x 23
  • 25 x 22
• Rope Pressdowns (twist out hands at bottom, then after failure just straight to eek out some more)
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 40
  • 60 x 33