Mon, 10 Sept 18

Heavy Upper

Since my shoulder is still not 100%, I decided to do my heavy pressing today with the elitefts American bar because the variety of neutral grip options are a much more shoulder friendly way of pressing.  Plus, I have only had a couple chances to use this bar since I got it due to living away from home for 4 months while I was finishing up PT school.

In reference to the title of this log post, when I worked up to a 3RM during one of the training sessions where I benched with the bar, I was only able to hit 3x255.  No that is not a typo.  Today went significantly better.

Am Bar Bench Press

20x35

10x85

10x125

6x175

3x215

1x245

3x260 - PR

3x265 - PR

3x275 - PR

3x285 - PR

2x5x255 - Down sets of 5x with my previous 3RM

I felt like I could have kept going up into the low 300s, but unracking this bar without a spotter was getting to the point that it was the limiting factor.  This combined with the knowledge that my left shoulder is still not 100% (although it felt great for all of this) was enough to get me to exercise some common sense and stop before gravity stopped me.

Back to the case study.  How did I miraculously put 30 lbs on my 3RM with a funky left shoulder and only minimal bench training for the past several months due to training for nats and then world's?  Answer: I didn't.  My original 3RM was obtained 5 days after my most recent prowler mile on Thanksgiving of last year while I was away on a clinical down in Norfolk.  I also had a pretty bad upper respiratory infection and was regularly coughing up copious quantities of lung butter.  So my CNS was most certainly in a state of total garbage when I did that.  Was it a true 3RM?  Yes, it was the most I was able to do on that particular day.  But that day was not a good day for me to be able to perform up to my full ability for a variety of reasons.

I would like to think I have gotten stronger since Nov of last year, but with the stress of school and living in very tiny one room apartments for 6 months out of the last year while I was away on clinicals and not having much/any control of my schedule for training, eating, etc, I would say that for me to actually have gotten stronger during that time would be a stretch.  But now that I have pretty good control over what, where, and when I train, eat, and sleep my training numbers are mostly back up to where they were prior to starting PT school, if not better.

The negative effects of stress on training and strength levels is something I never fully appreciated until I experienced it first hand.  PT school is the first time that I am aware of that I have been that stressed for that long and it can have a massive impact on physical ability, especially if combined with changes to optimal diet and sleep habits.

Here was the rest of my training:

Reverse Grip BB Rows/High Incline Am Bar Serratus Presses

2x{10x135/10 sec hold + 20x35}

10x155

I kept the rows lighter because while my shoulder didn't hurt, I could tell the stability and strength were lacking.  The serratus presses were very difficult on my left side, but felt like nothing on the right.

Paused Band ER

2x10ea x mini band - 5 sec hold