UB: Strong Week 1. Press

Defranco upper-body stretches

Neck Machine - 3 sets of 20

Press -
BarX5
BarX5
55X5
65X5
75X5

Upright Rows - 75X12, 7

DB Laterals - 25'sX12, 7

Hanging Leg Raise - 5, 7, 5, 6, 5

Foam-rolling at home afterwards.

First day of Ultimate Beastdom.  A really refreshing session due to the combination of light weights and few exercises.  I guess I didn't realize it, but the 2-day split I'd been doing because of my heavy rehearsal schedule had maybe been wearing me down with two ME style movements per session, plus plenty of accessory and core work.  I just felt great after this.

For the Pressing, even though the weight was light I tried to focus on driving it up fast so that I had the feeling of "coming-off-the-ground" at the top.  Just to make sure I was getting some work in there.

Back in the day, when I used to do poorly thought-out body part splits inspired by whatever article I'd just read in M&F, I used to do upright rows and side laterals like they were the secret to eternal life.  I haven't really done either since I started lifting for strength, so it felt like old home week.  I knew it had been awhile because I screwed up the rows!  I slapped two 25s on an EZ curl bar and pulled those plates hard right into my elbows.  Hurt like hell, but I was having a pretty good laugh at myself.  I went and got the full length EZ bar and used it instead.  I probably should have gutted out one or two more reps on the first set, but I went all out on the second.

I pushed laterals all the way, though.  I will be upping the weight on both these movements next week.

The neck machine is a tad awkward, but fine.  Might take another session to figure out where the weight should be.

Carter doesn't include ab work in the program, but I think he assumes people are doing this at home on their own.  I've programmed for it 3 days of the week.  I didn't go balls-out on the leg raises today because I'd done some weighted core work the day before, and I didn't want to tempt a strain.

Overall, felt really good to start this, and I'm looking forward to the next session.