Deth

Last night was a very cool night for this time in June. The low got down near 50. It’s not the weather you can really complain about. It’s typically warm or hot and humid in late June here in Pennsylvania. Here at lunchtime it’s about 70 ℉ with bright sunshine. It’s a little warmer than yesterday was, but it’s not raining today.

The front squats today were a bit on the heavier side of things, 225 pounds for five sets of three. They really didn’t feel all that heavy. They were on the tougher side of things for front squats, but never once did I have any indications that I was near a failure weight. I got through my three sets pretty easily today. They were mostly nice fast and explosive front squats for me today except maybe the last rep of the last set was maybe a little slower at my sticking point. Even that squat looked nearly textbook.

Next up, I did my bench press, which wasn’t too bad at 165 pounds. I never find bench presses easy. It’s just not one of those movements that I am good at or in any way comfortable with. It’s getting better, but I don’t really think it will ever be a lift that I like. As strange as it may seem, I am actually much more comfortable with the dumbbell bench press than I am with the barbell.

Lastly, for my strength today, I did the good mornings. I pushed a bit out of my comfort zone with these and used 115 pounds for my three sets of ten. They felt great and looked pretty good too for a movement I don’t like to do with a lot of weight. I had no issues completing my sets today, besides the awkwardness of walking out too far and bumping the plates on the rack. Shit happens. I just gathered my focus and reset.

Music for today’s lifting was Alice In Chains.

Late in the afternoon, after Molly relaxed a bit after work, we did our bro session. I was and have been feeling exhausted and just wanted to take a nap, but didn’t. The bro lifts went surprisingly well considering the way I was feeling.

I feel that I’m finding a better groove with the dumbbell bench than I have been. They’re feeling more solid and stable. With these, I stuck with the fifties. I can and have done higher weights, but I have been feeling that my form was less than optimal, so I backed off a bit in weights.

Nothing was any different with the other stuff until I did the strict presses with the 50s. While they felt good, they were a little tougher than they have been, and I got tired out sooner. I got slightly fewer reps than last time, but days like that will happen.

The curls felt great last time with the 40 pound dumbbells, so I decided today to give the 45 pounders a try. They felt good and doable, I did a few less reps, but that could even have been me feeling so tired today. They really didn’t feel that heavy. It was a nice surprise with them feeling relatively easy.

Before I put away the fifty pound dumbbells, I decided to do a few power snatches with them. It felt easy. No heavier than the 40s that I typically use in a WOD. I’m thinking that maybe in a lower rep scheme WOD with dumbbell snatches, I need to give this weight a try.

Music for this was Alice In Chains too.