Beginning Thoughts:
Spent the whole day moving out of my room. I've put everything in storage and I fly to Houston tomorrow to stay for a day with my cousins. Sunday I fly out to Bombay. Direct flight. 16.5 hours. I plan on sleeping the entire time. Next workout will be on Tuesday. I will workout next week 4 days in a row (because I miss Monday because I lose time when I fly back to India). It's going to be a Very High Volume week so I am pretty tense...But I have learnt a lot from this program and I plan on writing a small summary of my going-away thoughts on it at the end of the 16 weeks. Right now I am not even midway through haha...Workout:
Speed Military Presses @ 45% = 75 lbs x 3 reps x 8 setsOverall Impression:
Close Grip Bench Presses = 165 lbs x 5 reps 3 sets
Hammer Strength Rows = 115 lbs per side x 5 reps x 3 sets
Invertred Rows
Scapular Push-ups
Good workout. I like my CGBP's today. Even though I don't bench press that much (at all actually) I can still hit some decent numbers. 165 lbs was not that hard at all. I reckon I could bench 225 if I wanted to. However, I don't and my shoulders definitely don't want me to haha...
So..I don't know if anyone else experiences this problem but perhaps someone can shed some light on this. I injured my left lower back a year ago playing football (American Football...not Soccer) and I could not bend down to touch my toes because it hurt. I couldn't do any lower body work for 4 months. All I did was GHRs, Pull Throughs and some other assisstance stuff. BUT, I have been noticing that whenever I do a bench press variation - basically when I am on the bench and I have to arch my back, this area gets aggravated again. It's pretty bad because on one hand I have to pull my shoulder blades as far back as I can so as to avoid shoulder pain, but doing so creates an arch on my back (as I know it is supposed to create) but this arch irritates that injured area. It's not like it hurts outside the gym or anything...but it hinders me from adding a lot of weight to the bar because I am juggling shoulder stability and lower back "pain-free-ness" at the same time. I guess this just takes some getting used to and since I havent done any bench press work in 6 months this is an initial reaction. It doesn't happen when I do overhead presses and whenever I max out on them even though my back is still strained and I don't wear a belt...This just happens when I have some weight on the bar and I bench. 135 lbs doesn't aggravate this problem...155 doesHopefully the problem will iron itself out in a bit. Until then I am going to try and be as cautious as possible.
On another note...Since I am going back home, I plan on stopping all protein supplements. For the next 6 weeks I am going to eat healthy natural non-processed meat. And I plan on consuming over 500 grams of cooked meat per day (which should have a yield of 250-300 grams of protein) which is basically all I need. I have also looked over IA's article on Timed Carb Dieting where he discusses how to spread out carb intake...and since I am in no hurry to lose fat I will be trying to follow this to the best of my ability...but more often than not I will break the rules because I am on a holiday
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Cheers, y'all!
