Bench 210 x 3

Little bit of a slow, stiff, rougher day today. Wasn't feeling great, but still had a good workout.

Started with 5/3/1 bench. Warmed up, then started hitting the barbell. Bar x a bunch, then 95 x 12 or so, 135 x 9, and finally 165 x 3, 190 x 3, and then 210 x 3. Everything felt really solid today, although perhaps a little slower and tougher than ideal. My knee is sore and acting up today, my back is a little beat up today, and I think perhaps these things contributed to it not feeling the best ever.

After, backed off and hit 190 x 3 reps with a long pause, and then 165 x 3 long pause reps on the 3 minutes. These both felt fine. Long pause stuff always feels great. I think perhaps my upper body benching muscles just take a while to get warmed up, and maybe the best thing I can do to try and make bench feel better it to hit more reps on my warmup sets. I think getting a little bit more of a pump in my chest and triceps before moving heavy weight might help me out.

Next, heavy yates rows. I actually kept these a little bit lighter today, hitting 185 x 3 sets of 12 on the 3 minutes. Kept my back and form really tight, and the rows really weren't too tough - hit a set of 15 on the last set. Next week I will probably go up to 205, maybe for sets of 10, then perhaps start pushing up to 225. I just wanted to be sure my form was locked in with a flat back before pushing heavier.

Next, did something a little different with press. Weight was up to 145 today. Goal was to hit it, on the minute, for 5,4,3,2,1,5,4,3,2,1. I got the first 5 sets, but was really doubting I would be able to get the second 5. However, I pumped up and smashed the 6th set, getting all 5 reps! After that I was pretty toasted however, only getting 2, then 0, then making the 2 and 1 round. Overall, only missed 5 reps, so that is a total of 25 reps in like 10 minutes. Not half bad, although next week I think I will do something a bit more traditional.

Finally, light rows I did pendelays, but with my grip closer and a real focus on keeping my back tight and flat. hit 135 for 5 x 10 on the 2 minutes. Man this took it out of me. Didn't necessarily crush my back, but it just sapped my energy. I was totally done by the end of this workout. Hit the last set for 13.

So overall, good day. Not my strongest workout, but solid nonetheless. Still very hard for me to feel like I am progressing at all when I don;t feel particularly strong, nor particularly lean at this point. However, I am losing weight, and I need to just remember that if I can get to the end of this summer and have maintained my strength while losing 10 - 15 lbs of body fat, it will have been a very successful summer. That is hard to keep in mind, because all I WANT is to get stronger and leaner immediately. However, it's not all about what I want, it's about what I know I need. I need to not question myself and just push on. If at the end of the summer I feel I wasted my time, then so be it - I learned some valuable lessons. However, I can't know that until I have stuck with what I am doing. Lets keep at it.