It got better.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping the past few weeks, and it’s evident in many areas of life right now. I’m working on it, but it’s complicated. Anyways, I just felt poopy going into the gym this morning. The 125 set on inclines felt like a ton, and didn’t set the stage well for me. I thought about going easier, dropping some top sets off, or maybe taking an impromptu deload. But then I said nah… just do it and let things happen as they do.

The top 235 set was a little sloppy, but it happened. Overall inclines are in a good place, progressing.

DB benches continue to be fun for me. Small warm-up sets, then it was fun taking the 95’s for a ride. What’s hard isn’t so much moving the weight but not dropping it! These are big rubber hex DB’s with THICK handles, so it’s a lot to hold onto, and adds a nice extra challenge to things. But what’s even more fun is as I drop the weight, I work to move more by pure muscular contraction. So that final set with the 40’s, maybe the first 2/3rds of the reps were me trying to just contract my pecs to move the weight, then as they started to burn letting it become more of a full-pressing motion (letting triceps work, etc.). It really cranks things out hard, as I strive to go to muscular failure.

Flies then were kinda the same thing. First set, so exhausted so I didn’t hit many reps, but a little rest and the reps came. Work each set to (almost) failure, then drop set. Good stuff.

Pressing is just fun these days. I don’t know why, but I’m really enjoying it.

Then the raises. Oof. Continues to be a killer, and adding in burns and other things to really push the delts to failure. For sure I am seeing results here. Even if the weight/reps aren’t necessarily going up, that doesn’t matter — it’s about the work and knocking the crap out of my delts. It is paying off.

So it started crappy, but ended pretty well. Hopefully it’s an indicator for the rest of the week.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 10
  • 125 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 185 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 235 x 1
  • 195 x 8 (AMRAP)
  • 195 x 4 (50%)
• DB Bench Press (pause at bottom, get the stretch)
  • 40e x 10 (warm)
  • 60e x 8 (warm)
  • 95e x 6
  • 70e x 12
  • 40e x 25
• DB Flat Flies
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 15
  • 25e x 17
  • 20e x 6 (drop)
  • 15e x 10 (drop)
• Press
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
• Front Plate Raise (tri set)
  • 45 x 13
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 9
• DB Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 6 (then burns)
• Rear Lateral Raise (tri set)
  • 12e x 12
  • 12e x 12
  • 12e x 8 (then burns)