Upper body day

Today was a cool day. Solid, lots of volume, and a little experimentation.

Started with bench. I was trying to move quickly today so I warmed up fast, hitting the bar for a set, then 95, 135, and then going right to 185 for my ten sets of 3. I also kept my rest down to about 2-3 minutes between sets, which isn't my favorite thing to do but I still destroyed the workout, and managed to press it for 8 reps on the last set - all 35 reps paused and not allowed to sink into my chest. The new tweaks to my form have clearly made me weak off the chest - I used to be able to blast weight for about 4 inches, then hit a sticking point until I could lock it out. Now that has changed, and it is the first half of the press that is hard, and the lockout is solid. Even though I am getting a lot of really good reps and even rep PR's with this lighter weight, I am worried that, as I go up, the slowness off of the chest is going to make it exponentially harder to get to lockout, and I will have a WAY harder time at weights 200+ than I have had with 185. However, I'm gonna try not to worry about it too much, and just take my next few workout one at a time. If I can get 200 x 7 or so, and 210 x 4 or 5 (hopefully 5), then I know I am on the right track for sure. If, as I worry, these weights are a lot tougher than they were with the other style, I'll just have to take the weight back accordingly and build up strength in the bottom again. I'm going to keep hopeful, however. 185 has gone really well this week, and that is definitely a good sign.

Strict pressing went really well, however. Taking the weights back last time helped me make some serious progress, and I'm hoping to really take advantage of this light weight to build up my strength and form so I can smash some new Pr's soon. Today, I warmed up with 95 x 8, then hit 110 x 5, 130 x 5, and finally 145 x 10. That's a PR, and one I am very happy with - and again, I'm doing every set and rep with pauses now. After, dropped to 130 x 10, and then 110 x 12. A TON of volume, and a lot of fun.

Next, did some Pendlay rows, with somewhat awkward weights. Hit 110 x 10, 145 x 10, 165 x 8, 180 x 8, and 195 x 6.

Did some push presses just for fun. I was thinking of working up to a heavy 5, but I don't really like doing these for reps, and I kind of wanted to see how heavy I could get. At first I was doing amazingly well, and smashed 195 for a new pr sort of hahaha. I figured I would be able to hit like 245, so I made a big jump up to 225, and had a lot more trouble with it than I thought I would - missed it, then got it on a second rep but it was sort of a push-jerk, and then missed again on a third attempt. BUT, I had already done a ton of pressing and I worked up too fast. I think maybe next saturday I will try a heavy push press again when I am fresh and take more time warming up to make my technique nice.

Finally, did 25 pullups, kipped, in 4 sets.

Good day, not awesome but good. Lets keep at it.