I am stronger than yesterday

There is always a fear about going back to the gym when you are not 100%, but I did not want to delay longer than I had to.  I started my bench press plan again and managed to finish Day 1.  I substituted the floor press and performed them on a normal bench but left my legs straight in front to try to replicate the floor press better.  I am sore, but feeling good.  Though I injured myself in April, I knew I was going to come back stronger.  One point last week I did some pushups and managed to do 60 consecutive pushups with energy to do a little more.  That is a PR for me by far and I was thoroughly pleased with that set.  I did a set of 50 just prior to that one.  All my efforts are paying off slowly, but surely.  I am looking forward to this summer.

Working my way back

It's been about a month since I took off.  Since then, I just sporadically played volleyball and/or did light lifting, pushups, situps at home.  Though I wasn't 100%, decided to hit the gym again.  Started off light with 95lbs and just did some wide, normal, and narrow grip sets and feel like the healing process strengthened those muscles.  Hoping to get back into the swing of things regularly.  Should be back tomorrow unless I have to ref volleyball, which is just as productive.

Hiatus

Not sure how long, but I will be taking a hiatus from the bench press plan as my left shoulder is not healing properly and not worth risking throwing out my shoulder and back again.  I will look into plans in strengthening my rotary muscles for now.  I did try the 7-minute workout plan yesterday.  Seems easy at first, but again, those random exercises you never perform always get you worked up by the end.  I will attempt to do that regularly with my personal crunches and squats challenge.

Another day, another failure. Must try again.

So the question comes down to, "Do I get back up after I fail?" or is the proper question to ask at times "Do I start with an easier plan?"  I attempted Day 2 this past Friday despite increasing left shoulder pain throughout the bench sets, then while attempting my 5MR (max reps) with my 3-board press, I strained my 5th rep so hard I pulled my lower back.  Now, I was excited and glad I managed to overcome my self-created barriers and not have an excuse to avoid the gym on Friday as I used the one hour free I had Thursday night to sand and glue my boards together, and used a belt to tie it around my body while benching.  My work product picture found below:

I was going to start all my update posts with how many hours I had slept the night prior, as I ref volleyball games and got home close to midnight, but I felt capable of attempting the challenge.  I did get through the first part of doing 60% of raw bench doing wide, normal, and close grips but man, having never done wide and close grips, that was quite the challenge.  I feel like certain fitness programs are meant for people that are already fit trying to take their abilities further.  I thought I was relatively in shape, but when required to do exercises you have never performed, injury is around the corner.  I am going to attempt Day 2 again tomorrow and hope my should is feeling at least 90% by then.  Slowly, but surely, I will get through this program and trust in the system.

Day 1...again!

Alright, so yesterday I attempted Day 1 of the 6-week bench press cure again and relatively happy with the results.  The soreness from LAST Monday still lingered but it was fine.  I started floor pressing with the bar at 45lbs and worked up to 105lbs by resting the bar on a bench.  For 115lbs and 125lbs I had someone help me lift the bar into position then dropped to 105lbs again, thought I'd be fine, but needed the spot one last time and finished Day 1 successfully.

As for Day 2 (that I plan on doing Friday), I bought the boards, had them cut for free at Home Depot, bought screws but have not drilled them together yet.  I purchased a 2"x6"x8' and cut them into 14" and 20" pieces.  I am hoping I can do this safely on Friday and look forward to the plan as I am seeing the results of the training.

On my off days, I have been doing crunches and squats (trying to do 10,000 by the end of the year of each) and will try adding in other lifts along with the program.

Detour for fun

As I failed to properly finish my floor presses on Monday, I had planned to try Day 1 again yesterday.  Instead, I ended up playing volleyball for 1.5 hours as it is a rare opportunity to have time to go.  I was reminded how weak my calves have gotten as I pulled a Charlie's Horse several times while playing and the importance of stretching prior to play sports.  As Day 2 of the bench press plan involves board pressing (requires physical wood boards), I will get them over the weekend and start Week 1 over next week and just do other lifting exercises for the time being.  Also, I was surprised I was not very sore the day after I attempted Day 1 only to realize I was more sore the second day after.  Even more surprising is I realize I'm the most sore now (Thursday) from my Monday's workout.  Another reminder that my body is aging and will require extra time and effort in stretching and building these muscle groups.

6-week bench press cure - Day 1

So I have decided to commit myself to the 6-week bench press cure (to overcome my limit on bench press that I mentioned in my last post) by Dave Tate (workout is on page 3) and started today.  In actuality, I started over the weekend when I wanted to remove any barrier I could create for myself when I got to the gym, including packing my gym clothes last night.  It was highly convenient to start over the weekend because while going over the plan, I realized I did not know what ALL of the exercises in the first workout meant.  So, I went ahead and looked them all up:

Floor Press
Dumbbell Extension
Chest-Supported Row
Rear-Delt Lateral Raise

Granted, I have performed couple of these exercises before without knowing what they were called, and one of them not doing them with proper form.  I started with the floor press workout by starting with the 45lbs bar and added 10lbs at a time and doing 8-10 reps.  You can imagine where the problems started coming in when you do not have a spot.  I comfortably finished 75lbs for 8 reps but once I attempted 85lbs, I was having difficulty getting under the bar and lifting it off the floor (I have been using a bench to prop one side up to start for previous sets as I could not go underneath).  Long story short, I almost dropped the bar on face and struggled in holding up the weight long enough to get my head out from under the bar.  I tried stacking plates to make the starting position higher to get my arm underneath, but I already had stacked three plates and it still was not enough to start and I gave up at this point as I was getting tired from moving all these plates around and stealing them all.  I will attempt Day 1 again later this week and try using two benches to prop up the bar to start assuming no one is using them.

I did the other three exercises and completed the sets with relatively lower weights as I was unsure of what weights I was comfortable with.  Used a 40lbs for Dumbbell Extension, 15lbs for the Row, and 8lbs for the Lateral Raise that I dropped to 5lbs for the last set as I could not tell if my form was good or I just have no flexibility.

All in all, a good workout that could have finished faster if I could set up the floor press sets better.  Also, I like how Day 1 didn't even include using the bench press and working on different muscles that are weak for me and different stages of the bench press via the floor press.