Lifting for 9-11-9

5/3/1 – Cycle I
5-rep Week
Bench Press Day

BB Bench Press:
5 @ 65 lbs
5 @ 95 lbs
5 @ 105 lbs
12 @ 120 lbs

Alternating Sets
BB Bench Press:
5×10 @ 85 lbs

BB Wide-grip Row:
5×10 @ 85 lbs

Pull-ups:
3, 2, 3 @ BW

Cuban Press:
12, 10 @ 40 lbs

Woo. Today felt so easy. I’m already motivated, but after today, I know I won’t miss a lift for the next four months. (Given the slow monthly progression.) Doing this plan means asking for a spot on bench day. I’ve always been a little nervous doing that. Not because I think I use weeny weights or anything, I’m just a loner and generally don’t bother other people in the gym. It’s something I’ll get over. It was really nice to just focus on each lift, on my form, on my heels through the floor, the weight in my hands, the path of the bar, the feeling of locking out. Beats worrying that I won’t make the next rep and have to deal with a dead bar on my chest. There is simply no way I could ever have gotten 12 reps if I was doing straight sets. You’d think using a lesser weight for lesser reps would feel easy, but I recall feeling fatigued into my second assistant set. Got all 5×10 with no problem, it was just slightly more difficult than when I tested it. That’s fine.

Four months with zero missed lifts in sight. By the time I’m using my actual RMs for work sets, I’ll probably blow them out of the water. I look forward to it.

Rows felt heavier than when I tested them, too. But not a big deal. It did dramatically effect my pull-ups, though. I’m starting to think of whether I should put pull-ups on a lower-body day. I don’t know. I think my body will adapt to being prefatigued and get stronger in a fatigued state. I’ll keep at it. WILL SUCCEED AT PULL-UPS.

I was done really fast, and I had some extra energy, so I tossed in some cuban presses. My shoulders felt like they haven’t been subjected to such volume or, well, benching. So I figured some external rotations would be good. Not a mandatory thing, not a necessary thing, just a little extra without overkill.

Have work in a bit. Already thinking about the quests I’m going to do tonight. My bruiser is level 43, and goddamn it, I have way too many quests in my log. I keep having to delete some. So I want to go back and finish some ones I have partial completion on to make room. I keep hearing about this level curve and how it gets harder to level eventually. Haven’t seen it. Once I turn combat XP back on, and tackle some level-appropriate monsters (or a mob of things I can trash), I’ll be over level 50 in no time. Wonder if I’ll continue to be anal about trying to keep my tradeskill level close to my actual level.

Girl. Girl, girl, girl, girl. Ha ha. There, I said it, and you read it. ; )