My BodyBlog

This is the bench press/shoulder press workout I wasn’t feeling up to doing on Sunday.  What a difference 4 days makes!  I knocked off work early and went to the gym late afternoon - this is getting to be my favorite time to go since I’ve had some killer workouts at this time lately, and today was no exception.

After an upper body warmup I did a set of 12 and 7/8 pullups - the 13th rep I didn’t quite make it all the way up.  The 12 is a new PR and it would have been easy to stop there, but I was inspired by Al’s blog posts to push it as hard as possible.  That’s it for pullups, I wanted to save strength for my primary exercises.

Just got set up for bench pressing when a 17 year old regular arrived and he was about to start a chest workout.  I asked if he wanted to work in with me and he did.  We ended up working together for the entire time so I had a spotter when I needed one and someone to talk lifting with, which I love.  On flat bench I upped all weights for today’s workout.  I did 170×12 and 185×8 cleanly.  Needed a little push on the end to finish 195×6 and 205×4.  But I can really notice a strength increase from a couple of months ago which is great.  My partner wanted to try his max lift of 225, so after he did his lift I decided to do one and it was tough but I got it up.  My plan is to finish the 12 week routine I’m on, take a week off, then come back and determine my 1RM on flat bench.  I’m aiming for an improvement over my current 250 set a few months back.

Next exercise was standing overhead barbell press.  I completed all sets cleanly with more iron than last time, 100×12, 110×8, 120×6, 125×4.  Still felt strong after the last set.  Rest of the workout we did decline dumbbell press, dumbbell pullovers, and cable flyes.  By the end my chest was swole up and felt tight, I guess I had the blood flowing pretty good!  Thanks to my partner, he really helped me to have a great chest workout today.

Next workout is squats, my calf feels good but I’ll have to be careful to see if squatting is going to place too much strain on it.  Hopefully not, but if I have any trouble I’ll do quads and hamstrings another way.  We all have physical limitations, from birth, accident or injury.  Determination to overcome these limitations and find a way to improve our bodies is what makes all the difference.  Focus on what you CAN do, not what you can’t! 

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 7:43 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.