Bench day, 3 rep + smolov day 2

Been way, way too long. Too much drama in my life, and most of it of my own making. I hate that. Time to tighten it up, coach.

Bench day. I love bench day. Historically, I have hated it because of so little progress over the last few years. But I do make progress, albeit in tiny increments -- we have to celebrate even the smallest victories or we'll go crazy with despair over lack of change. That in itself is an interesting irony -- we resist change constantly, but we crave it. Guess it's a matter of perspective, in that we tend to change what we want to and resist what would rob us of comfort. How soft.

Anyway, utterly gorgeous, warm day today. Summer is coming, which just means there will be less fog in the morning. Sandy Eggo is like that.

Rubbed up with liniment to fire up a sweat, did a little dynamic work (very little, sadly), and hit the bar. Wore knee sleeves and wrist wraps and that's it.

Bench
150kg x 3 too easy
180kg x 3 still easier than I thought it would be
200kg x 3 not bad

My right shoulder is weak right now and it showed. No pain, but I think I tweaked an old injury throwing baseballs; I've thrown a lot lately and noticed some shoulder pain. Probably have a small meniscus tear. Nothing for it. These were good.

I tried to put on my old Metal denim shirt for a couple of heavier reps but couldn't get it over my forearms. I'll try to stretch it out, but I'm not optimistic -- it wasn't even close to getting to my elbows, which is where things start to get big.

So I grabbed my Overkill and put it on. Barely got it over my upper arms and couldn't seat it in my pits. I'm going to have to soak it and work it on with some help from someone. Nothing else was tough but that, but I couldn't come close to touching with the plate not even on my chest. Needs work.

Squat
310kg x 5 x 7

Everything was great, though I was sucking wind hard. I expected easier wind and tougher muscles, but the opposite was true -- lifting the weight was easy, but not passing out was hard. I rested 3 minutes between on average; earlier sets were closer to 2 minutes and the last was 3 and a half. Sucked wind. Weight came up very easily, though, which felt great.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks for the comments, Bob, and I hope the angst eases. Hold fast.