Exerbabble for 10-9-6

I had an anxiety attack this morning, so it took a little longer to get out the door. If it weren’t for lifting, I probably wouldn’t have shown up at county this “early’ as it is. I didn’t want to skip my workout. That A&P exam I have tomorrow is just stressing me to all hell. After class, I’m going to be studying until I drop. Thankfully, I have no workout tomorrow morning, so I’ll be able to sleep.

Today’s Workout:

HGM Phase III “Strong Medicine”, Workout II, Day B

Close-grip BB Incline Press: 5 @ 45 lbs, 5×5 @ 85 lbs

Single-arm DB Row: 3 @ 15 lbs, 5×5 @ 40 lbs

Wide-grip BB Bench Press: 5×5 @ 105 lbs

Ab Rollout (from knees): 5×5 @ BW

BB Cuban Rotation: 2×15 @ 30 lbs

current bodyweight: 154.2 (-.2 lbs, weekly average of 155 lbs)

I wasn’t exactly looking forward to today, as I don’t like benching. It’s partly because I feel silly, like everybody else who benches. But also because I’m afraid of dying. I like dumbbells, and I like dips. I like overhead presses because if you lose the bar, you can just let it come down to your shoulders and step forward to rack the weight.

Middle of first exercise, I realized I wasn’t sure whether my close-grip was actually “close-grip”. I was using a shoulder-width grip, which achieves the goal of hitting the triceps more. The video had the guy using a similar grip. I’ve also seen close-grips where the hands are on the middle of the bar, hands touching. *shrugs* I don’t think it matters entirely. I’ll stick with the grip I used.

It’s painfully obvious why I had “issues” with rows a year ago. I was using too much weight. We all expect more from ourselves sometimes, and I was no different. There was no jerking the weight, and my torso was stable throughout. If I wanted, I could hold the dumbbell against my chest. Control. That, and I didn’t overshoot the weight. I wanted to complete my sets to build confidence. Deloading? Not overshooting the mark, at least. Should go without saying, but the annotations are for both arms. I started with my left, as I’m right-handed. Anything my left can do, my right can surely shadow.

I barely even broke a sweat by the time it came to bench. I’m assuming a “wide-grip” just means a normal grip you’d use, as opposed to some special grip that’s even wider than usual. Felt fine through the first two sets, though I worried through the rest. With so few reps, I was able to focus on exploding at the bottom. If I can get through the bottom portion, I can always lock out, it seems.

I could not do an ab rollout from my toes without my knees giving out, or otherwise falling over. So I did it from my knees. Abs aside, that finished off my triceps. Not something you’d totally expect, but it makes sense.

I tossed in some cuban rotations at the end, as I’d like to keep my shoulders nice and healthy. I forgot what weight/reps I used before, so I just went until I hit a high number.

Overall, the kind of workout I needed today, to build confidence.

Oh, and on a soreness report, my traps are indeed sore from high pulls. My delts a little, too. Amazingly, my legs feel great, no soreness at all. Guess that means I should pull harder next time. ; ) And I’d swear my biceps felt a little sore. Just a little.

Addendum: Bump close-grips to 95 lbs. Bump rows to 45 lbs. I’ll either bump my bench to 115, or hit 5×6 before increasing. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish 115 for 5×5. Just a paranoia, that’s all. And bump my cubans to 40 lbs, that should challenge me.