Bench 235 x 4, 135 x 33

Two Pr's today, although I didn't get my 5 reps at 135 it was still a very good day.

Hate Demon

I did a good job recovering last night, and actually felt pretty decent today as I started benching. Back was real tight but other than that everything was okay. Warmed up really well, got the lats firing, and aside from that basically focused on my mental state. Yesterday and today, instead of "psyching up" for a lift by just listening to music, I really focused on visualization - thinking hard about terrible things, things I am afraid of, things I hate, and taking power from that, imagining that each time I went up to the bar I had the power to defeat those demons. And this visualization, both yesterday and today, made a huge difference. Never before have I harnessed that kind of adrenaline while benching and squatting. Furthermore, never before has my technique been so good that I could release myself like that and still smash reps.

Anyways, hit the bar, 95, 135, 185 x 5, then smashed 215 for a single and loaded up 235. I hit it HARD, and smashed a set of 4 with so much ease that I surprised myself haha. After rep 4, I took a second to try and compose myself, to tighten the lats and try and make sure I got the 5th rep - and I think this was my downfall. I think I simply hesitated a little tiny bit, wasn't quite as fast down because I was over-thinking. I hit my normal sticking point and, although for a SECOND I thought I was going to fight through, I failed rep 5. I was pretty angry, because based on rep 4 I should NOT have failed rep 5. However, I know that next time I need to simply be as tight as possible from the beginning, and in the middle of the set focus on nothing except SPEED. And, 4 reps is a Pr so that's nothing to be too angry about. Furthermore, maybe 2 mins after failing that rep, I jumped under the bar and smashed a paused single at 235. It was cake, which is a very good sign for me.

Next, dropped to 135 and hit it for a max set of close grip, feet up bench. After my rage at failing that rep at 235, I decided to shoot for an ALL TIME pr at 135 - despite the fact that I was doing CGFUBP instead of normal. And I got it! 33 reps is a new PR, which is awesome. I will definitely have to hit 135 normal again soon, I have a feeling I could get 40+ soon enough.

Next, did 2 sets of 25 close-grip cable rows, supersetted with 2 sets of 25 wide-grip lat pulldowns. Got a lot of blood in my back, and got my shoulders feeling good.

Finally, couldn't do bar starz so I did some deadlift holds instead to work the grip. Held 205 double overhand first, then 285 double overhand to failure, then 285 mixed grip.

So, overall a really good day. Definitely feeling beat up though. Back is sore as hell, legs are crampy, knees and elbows are hurting. But that's okay, this is the week to kick my ass. Then, next monday and tuesday I'll hammer the main lifts, but back of the assistance a bit, and then just recovery central until max days next week. Gotta eat and sleep a lot the next couple days, with a reallllll good stretching session tomorrow, because I really wanna smash a big front squat PR thursday, and hopefully have a really solid, hard, and fun workout friday because I'm getting all my friends together to train with. Should be a good time. Lets keep focus on recovery, and lets keep at it.