Bench

Very solid upper body day today.

Bench felt good. I felt calm, relaxed, and in the groove today. Hit the bar for  few sets, then 95, then 145 x 3, 170 x 3, and finally 190 x 5. It was a solid 5, the 5th rep wasn't cake, but it was no where near in danger of missing. that was a PR, so I didn't even think about going to 6. A new 5rm is enough.

Next, backed down to 170 and hit it for a 3 x 3 of paused reps. Feels really good. I love pausing reps, it makes me feel so much more confident and smooth in my touch and go benching.

Finally, went back to 145 for reps. I felt a little sloppy and unfocused on this set. Managed to get 15, which is a pr and 1 rep more than last month, but still I felt a bit disappointed about this.

That funk carried over to kroc rows. Did the same thing as last tuesday, 15 reps with palm facing in, 10 with the bell at a 45 degree angle, only this time I put my knee up on a bench. It felt really tough and shitty. I think maybe it was a lack of focus and intensity in the first half of the workout.

This man demands focus

Next, threw on some music and tried to get focused for strict press, which helped a ton. hit the bar, 95, 135, then straight to 155. Hit it for 8 singles. First four were with plenty of rest, but for the second 4 I just threw on a song and tried to do as many as I could before the song ended - probably less than a minute rest between these. After that, I dropped back to 135 and hit it for 3 sets of 5 paused reps, which is great. My strict press is really doing well. I think next week I'm going to trade out doubles at 145 for singles, then go back to singles again the week after, maybe try to push a few of them up into the 160 range if I'm feeling good. We'll see.

Here's that 155 PR from a few months ago. It's so much easier already. Already broke it, but I'm gunning for 165 soon. 

Finally, did a bunch of sets of 3 neutral grip pullups. I switched up doing them from a completely dead hang, or trying to hit a stretch reflex at the bottom, and tried to make the reps smooth and explosive. Did 7 sets of 3 and an 8th set of 4 for 25 total reps.

Overall, solid day. Excited to keep working. My gains have been solid, if I can stay healthy I may make a lot of progress before my week break in october.