July 10, 2015 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm-ups

Seated Dumbbell Presses
20’sx10
40’sx5
40’sx5
60’sx3
60’sx3
75’sx1
85’sx7
85’sx7
85’sx13 PR+5lbs & 1 rep

Close Grip Barbell Bench Presses
45x10
95x5
145x5
195x3
245x3
300x1
300x4
300x8

Incline Close Grip Spoto Presses
45x10
95x5
145x3
195x1
245x3
265x2
280x1

Neutral Grip Pull-ups
bw+15x10
bw+15x8
bw+15x6

32 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: Between this workout and the last, my lower back started hurting. Not sure why as the amount of work I put on it would not equal the hurt I’m feeling. Bugging the crap out of me and I took some ibuprofen to try and keep it manageable. If doing stuff isn’t causing the pain or making it worse, I’ll trudge forward. Session started off with seated dumbbell presses. Did an additional warm-up set to try and make it feel more normal. Three working sets with the weight I topped off at last week. First set felt slow but looked pretty darn good on film. Second set was slightly better. I don’t know what happened on the final set for max reps but just went to work. I didn’t expect to get past ten reps with how I felt and how last week went so color me surprised. Weight down for benching this week. There weren’t any spotters available until I had already sat on the bench for second set but I had the certainty that I’d get the lifts with no problem. There was someone there for the max rep set but honestly, I perhaps could have done just as well without him. Kept trying to grab the bar any time I struggled when I specifically said not to before the set. Each rep felt machine like in that they felt the same but I had the same power. Only ran into technique issues on the max rep set as my lower back and glutes were pretty tight and I had to move my legs to make them happy. Caused me to lose some tightness and caused that ugly last rep for sure. Not at my best but darn close so progress. Incline spoto stuff followed. I had expected a need for more warm-up sets but after my first two, I just felt as ready as I was going to be and took bigger jumps to the working weight. I knew these lifts were well within my abilities. It is nice that my usual sticking point is more of a lapse in momentum and less of a dead zone as it has been in the past. Still, not easy stuff. I got the bar too far down on my chest on the first rep of the second set so that threw me off a little. Pull-ups followed with a little more weight. I did have to slow down the reps at the end of each set to keep from swaying too much. Essentially had to stop into a dead hang and then get the rest. Other than the lower back having this wandering pain, it was a good session. Hopefully a day off to rest will do my lower back muscles some good.