Cycle 12 – 3s Week: Overhead Press: 4/5/13

Solid 7-7.5 hours sleep before work.
After walking my dogs and taking my son to school after work I was feeling mediocre as I drove to the gym. (5/10)
Energy level went up slightly as I finished my pre-workout warm-ups (6/10) and increased again as I started my OHP work sets (7/10) and slowly diminished as I progressed into my accessory exercises.

Learned some things today and overall a good session despite my energy level dipping as my session was progressing.
I think this was due to an insufficient backload.
I didn’t go as crazy on my backload the night before thinking it was just an upper body day and “may” not need the extra backload.
Really need to attempt a higher backload next time.

Otherwise, I am happy enough with today’s session!

Info:

Body Weight: 168 lbs on 3/31/13

Pre-workout Warm-ups: 20 mins

Training Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Fasting Time: ~11 hours

Pre-workout Warm-ups:

Foam Rolling
Dynamic Stretching
2 minutes Jump Rope

Main Lift:

Overhead Press:

Warm-up Sets (w/ Fat Gripz Superset with Chin-ups):
OHP: 45 x 10
CU: BW x 10

OHP: 50 x 5
CU: BW+25 x 10

OHP: 60 x 5
CU: BW+25 x 10

OHP: 70 x 3
CU: BW+25 x 10

Work Sets (Superset with Chin-ups):
OHP: 85 x 3
CU: BW+25 x 10

OHP: 95 x 3
CU: BW+25 x 10

OHP: 105 x 7 (e1RM = 129)

Training Max:
OHP: 115 x 1


All sets felt real easy today.
I even kept forgetting that I actually do super set with chin-ups on this and managed to do all reps on the chins with at least 1 more rep in the bank!
My energy level even boosted a bit as I started my work sets (7/10)!
With the lighter weight I focused more on form.
Made sure I have a really tight arch, specially with my lower back.
Really filled my belly with air, clenched my glutes like it was holding a pencil with my feet at about shoulder width apart (not any wider) and spreading the floor and toes up!
This I made a real effort to focus on and I think it helped!
Most solid feeling OHP I have had to date!

Assistance Exercises:

Bench Press w/ Fat Gripz & Superset with Dips:
(35% of Training Max)

BP:45 x 10
Dips: BW x 10
–
BP: 65x 10
Dips: BW+10 x 10
Rest: 1 mins
–
BP: 65 x 10
Dips: BW+10 x 10
Rest: 1 mins
–
BP: 65 x 10
Dips: BW+10 x 10
Rest: 1 mins
–
BP: 65 x 10
Dips: BW+10 x 8
Rest: 1 mins
–
BP: 65 x 10
Dips: BW+10 x 7

The bench press part of the super set felt easy enough.
The dips as usual felt difficult afterwards.
Still felt energetic enough (7/10) but arms was dying and not able to finish the last few reps needed on the last 2 sets of dips even with the weight on the bench deloaded.
But I did start doing weighted dips also …

Kroc Rows (w/ wrist straps):

Left Arm:
Warm-up Sets: 95 x (2 x 5)
Work Set: 95 x 31

Right Arm:
Warm-up Sets: 95 x (2 x 5)
Work Set: 95 x 31

My energy level dipped by the time I started doing rows (6/10)
This is when I started thinking that I may have not backloaded enough the night before.
I was at least able to get a rep above 30 but was really hoping to get 40 reps today.
Still better than my 25+ reps from past sessions!

Dumbbell Side Bends (w/ Fat Gripz):

Left Side:
45 x (5 x 10)

Right Side:
45 x (5 x 10)

Rest time was 30s to 60s progressively.
Energy level dipped a bit more (5/10) despite the whole movement feeling easy enough.

Finisher:

Jump Rope:

Work: 5 minutes
Rest: none

Energy level dipped even more by the time I started this (4/10)
Getting fatigued and hungry.
Made many mistakes but finished through it anyways.