Bench 225 x 5

Solid day today! Classes were very long before I got to get to the gym, so I was perhaps a little less focused and single-minded than I would have liked. BUT, still got in some serious lifting.

Started with a nice long warmup, focusing on getting the shoulders loose and warm. Then, got started benching. Pretty much, focused on the big jumps with a rep-out at 225 in mind. Hit the bar, then 95, then 135, all of which felt just a little bit off. Wasn't quite in the right position, hips and ankles were a little tight and it was keeping me from properly setting up. However, by 185 I had loosened up enough that I could better command the weight, and I hit it for an easy 5. So, I loaded up 225, got my attitude straight, and hit it. Got a really solid set of 5, which is a new (and long awaited) PR for me! It wasn't a perfect 5. Definitely could have had a straighter, more perfect bar path (eliminated some wobble), but hey I will take the PR. Really happy with that.

Next, backed off to 135 and did some higher rep feet up close grip bench. No real reason to use the lighter weights, except that I felt like it. First set was a joke, I hit it for 24 reps. However, despite quite a bit of rest I dropped off pretty quickly from there, only hitting 16 on set to and then a mere 9 on the third set. I don't know if lack of focus and intensity played a role, or perhaps I just got really tired out haha. Either way, I think it was good to do some higher reps! really work on muscular endurance and force myself to spend some serious time under tension. However, I think I need to keep the weight on these heavier for the next few weeks at least, in the 175-205 range.

Thirdly, did some lateral raises. A ton of them haha. I just wanted to hit my shoulders, but didn't feel like pressing. I did sets of 10 with: 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 35, and finally 17.5 for a burnout set. So that's around 100 total reps. Granted, weight didn't get hard till like 12.5 and 35 was just way too heavy, but I was working around people and feeling the movement out. Definitely got a pump! But If I was to do this again, I would probably stick to the 15-25 lb range, and simply do more reps with stricter form, only letting it break down to squat in an extra rep or two.

Next, bar stars went well today! Used a different pullup rig, which was SO much better for this kind of thing. I'm still nowhere even close to doing a muscle up, but I hit quite a few pullups, mixed grip pullups, chins, and leg raises, with significantly more monkey-bar type stuff and even some one-arm swinging and stuff. Definitely my three rounds were at LEAST 30 seconds, probably closer to 45. My palms hurt, but grip didn't even get close to failing, and I got a SERIOUS forearm pump from this today, which is a great sign! Building that grip, that back, and that overall upper body athleticism. Can't wait to be able to do a muscle up haha. Might be a while, but I'll get it.

Finally, wanted to do some lat pullovers on the machine but it was busy so I did 4 sets of 15 lat pulldowns. Felt alright, a little rushed cause I didn't really want to do these, but not bad.

Anyways, great day overall. Having fun with the bar stars, and my bench is going up! 225 x 5 is sweet, there was a time not long ago when I couldn't even hit that for 1. Lets keep at it.