Mon, 13 July 15

I got most of the essentials moved from the Unit into the garage with the help of Nick while he was here over the weekend.  Stall mats, platform, bars, weights, and other stuff like blast straps, collars, etc.  I also broke down and re-assembled my old, busted rack to use for the remaining couple weeks until the new hotness gets delivered.  Even though I didn't really do anything special or heavy or fancy today, this was the best gym training session I've had in a long time.  Don't get me wrong, I loved training in the Unit and being able to do what I wanted when I wanted, listen to whatever music I wanted, use chalk, have all my equipment at hand, etc.  But there were always a few unavoidable pitfalls to the Unit like lack of a bathroom, lack of overhead lighting, lack of any way to cool down besides to call it for the day, etc.  So having a bathroom, lights, plentiful water, and a heavy duty fan were one helluva nice treat today.  Additionally, even though the Unit was only about 12 minutes from my old apartment and about 7 minutes from my new house, not having to drive there and back makes a noticeably helpful difference.

Kneeling Jumps

3xBW

4x3x10 - Weight held on chest.

Snatches

complex x 45

3x65

2x85

1x105

12x2x115

Seated Cable Rows

12x50

12x95

12x140

2x10x185 - I could feel something was a little wonky in the back on my left shoulder so I eased up a bit.  Nothing major, just enough of a feeling that I knew not to push it today.

SS: Triceps Pushdowns/Pronated Grip Curls

3x{15x50/15x35}

SS: DB Shrugs/Lateral Raises

20x90/15x10

2x{20x90/15x15} - I could feel my left shoulder again on the shrugs so I decreased my planned volume somewhat and did sets of 20 instead of sets of 30+.

I got the Spud Inc. triceps and lat cable with the low pulley cable combo for the new garage gym and tried them out today with the rows and triceps pushdowns and I love them.  The versatility on how and where you set them up is incredible thanks to the materials used to make them and this will allow for an amazing amount of versatility in my assistance work.  This is some seriously awesome equipment and I highly recommend it to anyone with a garage gym or who is forced to resort to using bands for the exercises you would normally do with cables.  This is not to say that bands are bad or that I will never use them again, but rather that there is a difference in muscle activation between the variable resistance of bands and the constant resistance of cables.  Just one more reason added to the list of why I can't wait til my new 3x3 rack from elitefts gets here.  I'll probably spend the entire day in my garage when it does, just basking in the glow of the impending gainz.