My wife's out of town and I'm Mister Mom for my stepson. Took a couple of days off to spend time with him while he's on Spring Break. No one on their deathbed ever wishes they spent more time at the office, so why not? We've had a lot of fun and spent a ton of time on baseball and movies. Tomorrow I give him back to his dad, and it's back to normalcy for me. Sigh.
In the meantime, I needed to get into the gym. I love Days 4, so it was no burden. I did have a big fatty lunch today, though, so I was dragging a little for what I knew would be a tough session.
Started with the usual nutrition, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, eventually briefs (squat) and knee sleeves.
Lots of dynamic work and a lot of bar work to warm up before getting to it. I switched up triceps work today to do something different for my elbows. And I ended up rearranging the order back to the original sequence.
All exercises were 3 sets of 5-7 with 180s between.
Military press, seated, fat bar: 3 x 5 reps with weight up another 5%. Seat was at 80 degrees (more/less). Again I did these in the rack with pins set low so I at least have a bail-out that's not my lap. For whatever reason, these weren't too bad even though this is a weight PR. I had to go back a bit in my log to check, but it was in fact a PR for weight and reps with this weight (obviously). I like that.
Seated french press: 3x7. These were interesting. My elbows didn't complain at all, but my wrists did when letting the weight down. I'll have to figure out a rack adjustment that eases this. My weight today was good -- I truly reached positive failure on each 7th rep. I suspect these will be good if my elbows don't bark. Used the EZ Curl bar to alleviate elbow stress, but need an Elite swiss bar, I think. Now to convince my wife of that...
Squat: 3 x 5, up another 5% from last time. I pushed really hard on these -- saw lots of very interesting colors. Fired them up well, though the walkouts were a bitch. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself so I checked whether this too was a PR for weight. Not even remotely close. Maybe for these reps, but nowhere near my weight PR. Oh well. I felt it for a few seconds.
Tough day but gains continue. I spent some time early wondering why I'm doing this, though the strength gains are too intoxicating to stop. I admit I love it -- it's a mental health thing. But I wonder at what age I might feel ok backing off a little. I think, at least for now, it'll be a while.
Thanks, all.
i'm reading a john maxwell book and i am pretty sure he said the same thing about no one ever laid on their death bed and wished they were at the office more.
ReplyDeleteSolid work! did you use an ez curl bar on the french presses? putting my hands in the wrong place when doing those with an ez curl bar jacks my wrists up. moving your hands out should alleviate the wrist and forearm scream.