Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pressing the limits

Today's lifting session felt really good.  I love challenging myself and winning!  Sometimes I have to step back, but today, I got to step forward a bit.  Last time I attempted the alternating BP presses, I couldn't do 35#.  In fact, my log from two weeks ago has the note "Yuck!" by the attempt and I tweaked something in my shoulder bailing out of the attempt.  This time, with only 3 sets, I decided to try again and I came through challenged, but no yucks!  It is so nice that I can almost micro-load my adjustable DBs in 1.25# increments. That capability really helped me out here.  Two weeks ago, I dropped back to 32.25# then last week I used 33.75# and this week 35#!  When I set up my home gym, I thought they would be temporary, now I'm preferring them over a full set of regular dumbbells.  I also used their adjust-ability today for the hammer curls.  I wanted to try to top the 20# I had been using, but 25#, my heaviest regular DB, was way too much.  22.5# worked, though!  I keep thinking back to what I read about some of the strongmen 100+ years ago who had dumbbells and barbells that you could load with sand.  Talk about micro-loading!

I even improved on my push-ups today.  I went down a notch AND felt like I completed them better.  It was an all-around strong morning.  I thought I was really strong when I did what I thought was my first set of lat pulls.  I thought I had 110# on the cable, but miscalculated and only had 95#.  I must have still been asleep :)

Show and Go, Phase 1, Week 4
Foam rolling and Mobility work
Alternating DB Bench Press - 3x5@35#ea
Neutral grip lat pulldowns -  (warm-up 1x5@95# - loading mistake!) 3x5@110#
Push-ups - 3x10 (hands elevated 9.5")
Seated cable rows - pronated grip - 3x10@90#
Dumbbell hammer curls - 2x8@20#ea, 1x8@22.5#ea
Bent over trap raise - 3x10@8#ea
Oly bar rollout - 3x8
Walking Spiderman w/ overhead reach - 3x5

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