Bench 205 x 3

Interesting workout today. Gave me some stuff to think about.

Also, watched the Hulk for the first time in a while today. God I wish I was the hulk haha

Started with bench. Took a nice warmup, then started benching up... hit the bar, then 95, then 135. then started on my work sets. Hit 163 x 3, 185 x 3 and finally 205 x 3. My new mantra this summer seems to be "it didn't feel as good as I wanted" haha. After, I started the timer and hit backoff sets on the 3 mins - 185 x 3 with a long pause, and then 165 x 3 with a long pause, and I started thinking. Basically... benching didn't feel great. BUT I think the main reason why it doesn't feel great is because it feels different. Every rep was a little slower than I wanted. But, they were all solid reps that moved smoothly, and were pretty consistent. I'm thinking that the reps aren't necessarily hard, they are just different - slower, more controlled, a little more of a grind. While different feels bad right now, maybe it isn't - clearly what I was doing before wasn't great because I'm not great at benching. So I need to get my head out of the way, and not second guess myself. Perhaps learning how to muscle the weight up is going to be a lot better than moving it fast, and failing it fast.

After long pause, did heavy rows, 3 x 10 at 185 on the 3 mins. felt pretty good. Lower back is feeling pretty crappy from yesterday, but other than that these went well. Might push up a little heavier soon, to feel it out.

Next, strict press actually went well. Did pretty much the opposite of last week... I was thinking of doing 10 x 3 on the minute, but opted to shoot for 10 x 4 on the minute. A little tougher, a little more fun. So I took a crack at it, and did very well! got through 7 sets of 4, then got 3, 2, and 3 on the last 3 sets (being a little more lenient with the time). My triceps were roasted by the end, failing in weird places haha. But I'm pretty happy with all that volume in 10 minutes.

Finally, did some lighter rows. 115 for 5 x 10, supinated grip, on the 2 minutes. Banged out 15 on the last set. These felt good, should have pushed a little harder. Light rows have just never felt that great for me. But hey, gonna keep doing them. Feel isn't always the way to judge haha.

So anyways, interesting day. Bench didn't feel great, but that's okay - I'm going to just keep at it, without over thinking too much. If by the end of the summer I'm weaker, than so be it - but I need to commit to something different for a while. But the long pause stuff, the rows, and the strict press all feel pretty great. Can't wait to start losing more weight so I'm looking good, having fun, and hopefully getting stronger in the long run. Lets keep at it.