32 kg Presses

It's always when you least expect it. Both good and bad, it seems. I've been on a roll of late, a good one but yesterday I felt like I had been beat up by someone with a baseball bat and a bad day. Everything was sore; in a good way sore, muscle sore not joint or tweaked sore but sore nonetheless.

I figured I was do after the nonstop weekend last week and then extra workouts, very high rep sets on new movments followed by more but heavier hi rep sets and then some really heavy stuff on Saturday. My idea of great fun but I was reminded, over and over in my head of numerous things.

1) Don't be greedy

2) The next step off a peak is always down, step back or fall off.

3) My "tough guy" periodization schedule ' heavy, heavier , heavier, injured, light, light, heavier, etc.

4)You have to balance intensity with recovery efforts and

5) Don't increase loads more than 5% a week at best.

I don't where I was but it was more than 5% of the week before, that I knew.

But I also knew that I hadn't felt this good in years. Really, years. Maybe 15 or more and I was like a kid with a new toy, I wanted to take it for a ride and play with it. I was almost giddy with being able to put some weight on the gas pedal for a change and seemingly take my foot completely off the brake for awhile too.

But rules # 1 and 2 were yelling at me and I didn't really know where the peak was this time, which is always the problem.

Hence, Rule #1.

Travel and teaching always impacts my training, as it has to, and it should because my priority these days is not any meeting on a platform,nor training personal bests or looking to find my limits but staying steady, increasing my function and work capacity and being able to do my job as best I can as often as I can and maximized THAT potential.

Oh and yeah. Stay the hell out of pain. Yeah that.

I haven't pressed the 32 kg since Jan 18 and I've been itching too but I couldn't rush the schedule at all and take a risk of tweaking something so I was really looking forwards to playing with it today, on schedule after a real weekend of training and recovery. Not teaching and airports.

So when I got home from work and gotten progressively more beat up through the afternoon I thought for sure it was the end of the run and really time to back off and lighten up today.

But I woke up feeling pretty damn good, recovered even, with very little muscle soreness stiff ness or joint pain. Wow. Naps and good sleep and great food can do that it seems.Nice

But I knew I still wouldn't know til after the 24 or maybe even the 28 kg was in my hands. Sometimes it's a light gravity day and sometimes gravity is pissed off. Today gravity was on a personal day.

6 am-7 am full stretchout with emphasis on overhead stretches and prepping the lats for later. Full body stretch though. Everything relaxed on cue.

8:30am

one arm swings+ transfers warmup

16 kg x5/5/5 x3

cleans

16 kg x5/5 x2

Clean and press Short cycle

16 kg x4/4

x3/3

20 kg x3/3

24 kg x3/3

x2/2

28kg x 1/1

32 kg x 1/1 x 5 sets!

Strong! I knew I was good when although I was planning on taking two low rep warmups with the 28 I knew I didn't need more than one. The 32 felt light in my hand, on the backswing and and in the rack. EXACTLY how it's supposed to feel. I also knew I could have done multiple reps with it but that was the not being greedy part.

I probably shouldn't have even been pressing it today but it was great! As I was lowering the first rep of the first set with the 32 I actually thought;'this is going to be a regular weight soon and the 36 kg is next.

Almost forgot how good strong feels.

Also here's little video tutorial I made during the warmups on how I use the lats for the press; how I can pull the elbow down to get a good front delt prestretch and a lat contraction at the same time OR JUST flex the lats and still get a good launch with no downward motion of the arm at all after the clean.

Personally, with my shoulder history I'm all for using the safest technique I can and that's pulling the elbow down a bit and flaring the lats at the start. If I need to be tested I can do it but I'm not training like that.

Two hand clubbell arm casts

15lbs x 5/5

25 lbs x5/5

35 lbs x 10/10 x 3 sets PR!!

wow this was strong too! Crazy hard though. The second arm fatigues way more than you expect after how strong the first side is.I probably should do each side as a separate set and just change grips after a decent rest. second side always gets gipped ;))

Bodyblade laterals

3 sets of 8/8

shoulders cooked and done.

Now that I've gotten back and have some down time for awhile perhaps I can cycle my presses like this

week one 24 kg

week two 28 kg

week three 32 kg

repeat cycle then on week seven 20 kg for reps or a special press exercise( stacked press, bottoms up etc)

I can determine the sets and reps for that load that day and based on the previous weeks training. Being able to use the 32 every third week will really set me up for the 36.