June 13, 2016 – Week 1, Day 3

Dynamic Warm-ups

Barbell Floor Presses
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x1
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x3

Dumbbell Bench Presses
60’sx6
80’sx4
100’sx2
120’sx5
120’sx5
120’sx5
120’sx5
120’sx5

Super Set: Seated Dumbbell Overhead Presses w/ Fat Gripz Extremes/Dumbbell Lateral Raises
65’sx8/25’sx15
65’sx8/25’sx15
65’sx7/25’sx15

Super Set: Rope Cable Face Pulls w/ Fat Gripz Extremes/Pull-ups w/ Fat Gripz Extremes
100x8/bwx3
100x8/bwx2
100x10/bwx2

McGill Crunches
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
bwx8/8
bwx8/8

37 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: I had been worried that work would be stressful but it wasn’t so yeah to that. I was feeling sore in my legs, back and chest. I wasn’t sure why my chest was sore but then I remember all those dips I did on Saturday. This was to be the “heavy” day so to speak for this training cycle. First up was barbell floor press. No close grip on these and I’m really not sure if this would be my “normal” grip as the bar didn’t have the right markings. Plan was to do 4x3 at RPE 8. I had a weight in mind and it stuck but it was more of a hard RPE 9. Oh well. Good to see I can rep 315lbs when the only upper body thing I’ve done in the last month had been like 15 push-ups. The last rep of each set was tricky. I had to rack the weight on the last set as I was out of my groove (too far down my torso) and was worried that I would dump the bar on my face. A few seconds later I unracked the weight and got the last rep. Then on to dumbbell bench presses. 5x5 with the notation to “get at it”. My concern here was more of the getting the bells to my lap then actually pressing them. Not comfortable to do but no pain. These are heaviest solid dumbbells (I could make plateloaded ones heavier) in the gym. Felt good but I could tell I was getting tired by the end from the pick-ups. Last rep of last set was a struggle. Then a super set. This involved dumbbell overhead presses with the Fat Gripz Extremes and dumbbell lateral raises. I did the presses seated with a back support as I figured it would be kinder to my lower back and it would be easier to shoulder the bells with the ridiculously thick handles. I tried to pick a weight that I would be able to do 8 on the presses and 15 on the raises for all the sets. Hard to factor in how the fatigue of one exercise would effect another and I really didn’t want to lower the weight. Lots to figure in for the shoulder press because of the difficulty in cleaning the bells to the shoulders, the grip and whatnot. First set, the shoulder presses felt light and the lateral raises were just right. Fatigue built quite fast on the shoulder presses and I failed to hit the goal of eight on the last set. I was expecting the sticking point to be the bottom not the top of the lift as that would be triceps. I realized later that the lateral raises were fatiguing the muscles that would stabilize the shoulders for that middle of the lift so it makes sense why the weight would stall there. Another super set after that. This one was going to be interesting and probably low reps. Same superset of pull-ups with face pulls but the order was reversed, each set was to failure and Fat Gripz Extremes on both so a grip intensive one. With the 3” diameter, I really wasn’t sure I could manage a single pull-up fresh, let alone after prefatiguing the grip. The face pulls were awkward, trying to pull fast while crushing the handles. I got the hang of it by the last set. I got a triple on the first set of pull-ups and then doubles on the other two sets. I then did an abdominal exercise to finish off the day. The range of motion is very small and it honestly looks like I’m just bobbing my head. It seems effective though as it works the abs and limits the lower back and hip flexors. Loads of stretching to finish off the day. So far, so good.