All things considered, a reasonable day.

I’ve been working on rehab things for the arm pain. There is improvement – slow, but improvement. I did have some pain today, but it wasn’t as bad as it has been, so that’s a good sign. It still got in the way a little bit, but all in all workable.

I opted to wear wrist wraps while benching, just to add some stability and give me a tactile cue to crush-grip the bar — that helps in a lot of ways. It’s possible it contributed to things moving well, don’t know for sure. But getting 6 at 235 with this week being 2/fail (and the arm pain), I can take that!

Here’s the interesting thing. As I benched, it felt like things were coming from the shoulder. That as my arms would flare as I approached lockout, I’d feel stuff. So when I did my DB incline work, I kept my elbows tucked, and despite the increased range of motion, less pain. Interesting.

This is why I know it frustrates people when they see me spending weeks in pain that I could probably alleviate. It’s not that I want to be in pain, but I want to understand the pain. I want to really figure out where and why it’s coming from, so I can work to ensure to not do that thing that brings it around. I think that some contributing factors are things like sitting at a desk all day, that winds up in poor posture, slouching, shoulders rolled forward, etc.. In some regard, it’s why I want to get back to my own programming, because I need to do things to serve my specific needs — like one-leg work, like shoulder stability work.

And I’m starting to think, I may want to bring my bench grip in. I mean, overhead pressing doesn’t bother me. If I remember correctly, close-grip bench doesn’t either — both have narrow grips. I currently flat-bench with my ring fingers on the bar rings. I might try going to pinky on the rings. I also just found this article, and I think it’s worth a quick measurement to see how that fares for me.

Anyways, all in all things went as groovy as I could expect.

What’s interesting about the next 2 sessions? They’re very light, almost a deload. Very light weights, just a few sets, and pretty much all triples. We’ll see how this works into things.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 3

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 235 x 6
  • 235 x 6
  • 235 x 4
  • 235 x 4
• Incline DB Press
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 9
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 190 x 7
  • 190 x 7
  • 190 x 7
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
• Reverse Curls
  • 20 x 10
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 7