Birthday Bench: 215 x 3

Today was a nice workout on my birthday. It went very well, and my neck and elbow pain has been minimum, both during and after the workout. Forgive any typos, I have been enjoying Guinnesses, my first purchase as a 21 year old. Yay.

Started with 5/3/1 bench. It went really well. Warmups were good. I was doing 2 things a little differently: first, I wasn't worrying too much about letting the bar "sink in" to my chest. I have kind of decided that this is a stupid thing to worry about much. I don't want t let it get worse and worse as I get stronger, but I really don't think it's drastic enough to be even close to illegal in competition, and I need to be benching the way that I can move the most weight. Secondly, I worked on bringing the bar a little higher on my chest. I think this will help me use my chest better, as well as helping to combat the sinking in naturally, because I'm pausing the weight on my sternum instead of my diaphragm. Anyways, hit 95, then 135 x 10, then 170 x 5, 190 x 3, and finally 215 x 3 - first rep cake, second was a little tougher, and on the third I brought it a little lower and blasted it at least as fast as the second one. Pretty solid 3, very happy with that.

Dropped back to 190 and hit it for 3 sets of 3. Weight moved pretty well, I wasn't resting much so the 3rd rep of the last 2 sets was a little tough, but overall smooth and fast benching. Then, I dropped to 170 ad hit it for 8 - 5 paused reps and 3 touch n go. I really hate touch n go bench, and I don't think I will be doing it anymore.

Kroc rowed the 100's for a single set of 30 today. Pretty solid, nothing crazy. Probably go back to 2 sets of 30 next week, I would have done it today but I didn't get to row friday so I decided to take it a little slow.

Overhead pressing went awesome today. I was focusing on keeping my core really tight, but relaxing my shoulders, arm, neck, so that I was tight but not OVERLY wound up. The weight just felt like it was moving awesome. I got 2 very nice sets of 8, and then pushed hard on the third set and got 10, which beats the last two weeks by 3 reps. Very happy with that. Next week I'll shoot for 3 sets of 9, and based on how that goes start moving towards 3 x 10. Then, when I can hit that 3 x 10 without fail, I'll bump the weight up to 155 and start working on that weight.

Finally, did a set of 13 and 12 kipped pullups.

Overall, great workout. Little bench PR and some awesome strict pressing, and feeling solid on my pulling as well. Time to enjoy the rest of the b-day, rest up, and come back hard thursday. Lets keep at it.