Thurs, 26 May 16

I trained earli(er) in the AM today since my girlfriend and I had plans to head to the beach for some pre-Memorial Day R&R before the unwashed masses descend this weekend.  Mostly everything felt better, but close grip bench still felt like yak dung.  I actually made a list of all the factors I could think of off the top of my head that could have been a factor in this and it went a little something like this:

-training in the morning vs. my usual late afternoon/evening time

-less food intake for the day prior to training due to the above

-training the day after squatting and deadlifting versus having a day off in between

-training by myself so had no one to give me a lift off which definitely affected my positioning

-supersetted CGB with my rows today instead of doing them separately

-didn't have my usual pre-training drank

-slept in later than the last couple of days (made it to 0430), but still woke up earlier than my norm

Any and all of these things may have played a part in how my training went today and while it is important to keep in mind that there are LOTS of potential reasons for things not going according to plan in training, it is always a good idea to keep the big picture in mind and not get lost in the minutia of one lift of one training session and being convinced that you suck.  I actually did do just a little bit better on bench this time than last time I did my Assistance I training day and pretty much everything else went better so the fact that I didn't improve as much as I would have liked in just a couple weeks is idiotic on the face of it.  And this is the stuff that athletes and patients and clients get caught up in all the time.  They focus on the negatives in the short term and are unable or unwilling to see the gradual overall progress that they are making - or its just not fast enough for them, which is unbelievably arrogant and unrealistic in virtually every single case (but you usually can't tell them that because it might hurt their delicate little feelings).  Anyway, everything was better today whether I liked it or not, even considering all the potentially negative factors that could have affected today's training.

Close Grip Bench/Single Arm High Cable Row

10x45/8ea x 70

5x135/6ea x 100

5x185/12ea x 80

3x225/12ea x 80

1x275

5x290

10x235

7/5x235/185

Weight on both the short and long sets of rows will theoretically go up next time (depending on how I structure Block 5 of my training).  And close grip bench was better today than last time, whether I like it or not.

Incline Reverse Fly/Scapular Depression

3x{15x15/20x25} - Added some weight to scap dep today.

Incline Reverse Crunch/Paused Band ER

3x{20xBW/15ea x micro} - Time to add either weight or reps to the reverse crunches and I added a little more resistance on the bands today for external rotation.