Inclines

BW - 215

Inclines -
BarX20
95X5
115X5
135X5
155X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Lever Shrugs - 380X10, 10, 10, 10

Rear Delt Machine - X12, 12, 12, 12

P.T. asked me to start working in some workouts in the 3-5 rep range.

Inclines

BW - 214

Incline Bench -
BarX20
95X5
115X4, 3
135X2
155X1
140X8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Lever Shrugs (held at top) -
290X5
380X10, 10, 10
super-set with
Rear Delt Machine - X10, 10, 8, 8

Volume day for bench.  Kept rests at 30-45 seconds between work sets.  Last reps were kind of challenging on the last set.

Shrugs and rear delts were really hard today for some reason.

Overheads

BW - 214

Seated PBN -
BarX21
65X5
75X5
85X12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12
super-set with
Machine Reverse Flyes - X12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

Slow Rack Pulls at the knee - 135X5, 5, 5, 5

Upped the weight on both PBN and Flyes this week, and still got 12 reps on all sets.  Two weeks ago, I fell 3 sets short of that with 75.  Progress.

I'm really surprised, but these really light and slow rack pulls leave my hamstrings really sore the next days.  I know, I know, DOMS does not equal Hypertrophy, yada-yada.  Just surprising.

Overheads

BW - 213

Seated PBN -
BarX20
65X12
75X12, 11, 12, 12, 10, 10

super-set with

Reverse Pec Deck -
Warm-up - X20, 12
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 10 (straight-weight)

Rear delts were screaming by half way through this, and obviously I wasn't able to handle much weight on the sets of 12 on PBN, but it was a pretty good session anyway.

Reps and Volume. Week 7. Press (Office Gym)

BW - 202

Machine Press -
Warm-Ups - X10, 8, 6
Work-Sets - X15, 12, 10, 8 (straight-weight; same as last week)

DB Incline - 45sX13, 10, 10
super-set with
Reverse Machine Flyes - X20, 20, 18 (straight-weight; same as last week)

Rope Curls - X25, 20, 20 (straight-weight; increased from last week0
super-set with
DB Incline Flyes (pronated) - 15sX20, 20, 20

Rope OH Extensions - X20

Good session, I managed to push up either reps or weight on every single movement.  Unlike last week, my shoulders and upper pec area feel a bit sore the next day.

Made good time, so added one AMAP set of overhead extensions.

Reps and Volume. Week 6. Press (Office Gym)

BW - 201

Machine Shoulder Press -
Warm-ups - X12, 10, 10
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 10, 8 (straight-weight, same as last week)

DB Incline - 45sX12, 11, 10
super-set with
Machine Reverse Flyes - X15, 15, 18 (straight-weigh, more than last week)

Rope Curls - X37, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight, same as last week)
super-set with
DB Flyes (pronated) - 15sX20, 15, 15, 15

Reps and Volume. Week 5. Press (Office Gym)

BW - 198

Machine Press -
Warm-Ups - X10, 8, 6
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 10, 8 (straight-weight, increased over last week)

DB Incline - 45sX12, 10, 10
super-set with
Machine Reverse Flyes - X20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Rope Hammer Curls - X30, 20, 20, 20
super-set with
DB Incline Flyes - 15sX20, 18, 18, 18

Went a little heavier on some stuff this week with only a slight step-back in reps.

Decided to try Incline flyes instead of overhead triceps.  Chest isn't getting much work lately with the bench/shoulder issues.  I did incline because I want to see what the effect is if I keep my grip at a similar angle to the DB Incline Bench.  I'm thinking a little more shoulder involvement that may help with the OHP and Incline work down the road.  Also, a minor change for fun.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Press (Office Gym)

BW - 197 (sketchy office gym scale)

Machine Press -
Warm-Ups - X10, 8
Work-Sets - X15, 12, 12, 10 (straight-weight)

DB Incline -
50sX10
35sX15, 13
super-set with
Machine Reverse Flyes - X15, 15, 22 (straight-weight)

Rope Overhead Extensions - X15, 16, 12, 10 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Rope Hammer Curls - X30, 25, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Still feeling the schedule crunch this week, so I got in a session of Overhead BB style work at the office gym.

Solid session.

Only thing to really note is that I've never done OH Rope Extensions and they seemed much harder at the same weight than Rope Pushdowns.  Interesting.

Off Week. Full Body, Machine Day

BW - 198

Leg Press Machine -
Warm-Up - X15, 10, 15
Work-Sets - X15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Shoulder Press -
Warm-Up - X10, 10
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 10, 10 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Reverse Machine Flyes - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Chest-Supported Rows -
Work-Sets - X15, 12, 12, 10 (increased weight between sets 2 and 3)
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X20, 20, 20, 20 (increase weight between sets 1 and 2)

Rope Hammer Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

My schedule was all fucked up this week as I'm closing one show while I started rehearsals for another.  I need some time between work and rehearsals to work on my script, so I took most of the week off.

At the last minute, I decided to hop down to the office gym and get a full-body, body-building workout on the machines down there.  Worked up a good sweat with all the super-setting, and I expect to be fairly sore in places over the next few days.  Decent session.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Press

BW - 197

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X5
95X4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

DB Incline - 45sX12, 10, 10

Cable High Row -
Warm-Up - X20
Work-Sets - X13*, 20, 9 (ascending weight)

French Press - 40ishX40, 35, 12, 14

Doing this every other week instead of benching, along with some other mobility/PT stuff, to see if I can get my left shoulder to STFU.

I'd been doing 8-10 sets of 3 with 95 on PBN the last few months instead of benching.  Going to keep it at 8 sets and try to slowly push the reps per set up starting from the end.  So here I did 7X4 and then 1X5.  That 1X5 was difficult but doable.  Next time, I'll try 6X4 and 2X5, etc.  When I'm doing 8X5, I'll up the weight.

Had to pull way back on the DB Incline after all that Pressing volume.  I did 50sX23 just a few weeks ago.

I thought about doing the same Reverse Pec Deck that I'm doing on the Bench day, but I thought the lighter overall weights that I'm handling here gave me the opportunity to do something slightly heavier for Back.  Decided I wanted to go with High Rows since the recovery shouldn't really negatively impact Deadlifting a couple days later, and it gives a slightly different stimulus than the other back work I've got on the program.
*...Unfortunately they don't have a high-row machine at my regular gym, so I had to set up at a high-cable station.  I took a shot at trying them with just a lean back, but when I got to my work-sets, I was expending a lot of energy just keeping myself in position on the first set.  So I stuck a DB bench up against the cable stack and was able to brace my foot against that.  The jump from 13 reps to 20 reps was with the same weight; just with the different bracing.  TMI.

Triceps were extended repeatedly overhead.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Bench

BW - 197

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
135X15, 8, 4

CG Bench - 135X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5

Incline (45 deg.)-
115X8
95X12, 8

Rear Delt Machine -
X20, 20, 20, 20, 17 (ascending weight)
X30 (back-off)

Hammer Curls - 30sX18, 14, 11

Shoulder is getting really angry again, really quickly.  I'm going to try alternating flat bench with OHP week-to-week.  And probably start looking at some PT.

Despite that, I still made a good jump in reps on my first set from last week, and also managed to meet my volume goal in only 2 sets.  I threw a 3rd set in to ice the cake (and maybe that kind of behaviour contributes to my shoulder problems).

On close-grips I bumped the reps on the 2nd to last set up to 5.  This might be a fun way to go: seeing if I can add reps/set starting with the last set and moving backwards every session.

I was at my 'away' gym, and their incline benches are more standard incline so I tried upping the weight on the first set, but that was not awesome.  Backed off for the next two, and that was fine.

This gym has a really nice dedicated rear delt machine like this one.  The chest pad is at a good height, and instead of grabbing handles, it's got roller pads at elbow distance.  So you're only using your upper arms on the moment and there's not stress from the elbow to the hands.  Really easy to feel the muscles back there and focus on making them work with this one.  Also, last week my shoulder started bothering me on the reverse flye, but there was zero pain in my shoulder with this one.  Maybe because the lower arm being free allows the shoulder to rotate during the movement instead of locking it into a fixed plane of motion?

Upped weight on hammer curls.  That's really the body just getting accustomed to the programming, I think.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Bench

BW - 198

Bench -
BarX15
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
135X12, 8, 5

CG Bench - 135X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5

Incline (steep) - 95X10, 8, 7

Reverse Pec Deck - X20, 20, 20, 15

Hammer Curls - 25sX20, 18, 15

First time benching in 3 months.  Went well during the session, but my shoulder wasn't happy about it later.  I may just push through and see what happens after a few weeks.

I wasn't totally sure how I wanted to approach this as I came in.  I went mostly by instinct, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up doing.  I'll probably make this the bench template for the coming weeks.

Started off with regular bench.  Did a very light over warm-up, and then repped out 135.  My goal is 20.  PRs will start at 18.  I also want a total of 23+reps on the work sets with 135.  Everyone's talking about volume these days, and it's something I'm going to start tracking closely.

After regular bench, I decided to do endless triples of close-grip with my regular grip working weight.  This is some Paul Carter inspired stuff.  It started off ridiculously easy, but get a bit tougher towards the end.  Still, I was able to hit 5 reps on my 8th set.  Will probably move down to 6X4 next week and just start pushing these up.  When I can do 8X5 with confidence, I will up the weight.

Moved over to the gym's steeper Incline bench next and did 3 sets of AMAP with 95.  It is what it is, and this is what it is right now.

Finished off with some rear delts (which is when my shoulder started feeling bad again weirdly) and then some light biceps.  I'll be doing more thorough biceps work on a different training day.