Distractions. Time for a change.

Last night I did regular flat bench and standing overhead shoulder press.  Didn't do too well on either of them.  Plus, doing bench first really weakened my ability to press over my head.  I didn't even touch 125... and knew that I couldn't.  Here are the sets.

12/28/11 Wednesday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
195x4
195x3 (barely)
175x4 (barely)

Standing OH press - 3 sets
45x8 (warmup)
85x5 (warmup)
115x3
105x7
105x6

And then I did one set of 10 bodyweight dips.  My tri's were absolutely annihilated at that point though, so I barely even count the dips.

The last time I did both presses on the same day was 11/22.  I had just barely hit 195 for 2 reps on bench and then nailed 125 for 2 reps on overhead press.  So why no improvement, over a month later?  It's strange, I even got fucking amazing sleep the night before, over 8 hours.  And there's been plenty of rest between the last time I did either of these exercises, over 8 days.  I think I have 2-3 possible reasons why I didn't do too well.

1) I've been reading Beyond Brawn, and I'm really interested in his cycling technique, specifically on these 2 lifts because they haven't been improving much.  These lifts have been stalling somewhat lately, but this was the first time I saw no improvement at all in either.  Is it because I'm actually stalling, or is it a self fulfilling prophecy from reading the book.  AKA, I want an excuse to start cycling (as prescribed in the book), so I'm subconsciously showing myself that these particular lifts are stalled.

2) I was distracted at the gym.  A couple of my friends were there, people that I've worked out with in the past but hadn't worked out with in a while.  I could have been distracted by thinking they were watching me, or watching what weight I was doing, something like that.  The one thing I can say, is that my focus was not 100% yesterday.  This could have been a part of why.

3)  Those 2 lifts have finally and actually hit a stalling point.  I need to gain weight, begin a cycle, try something new, whatever.


It's probably a combination of all 3.  Either way, something needs to change.  I think that I'm going to continue doing both exercises on the same day.  What I may do instead is just drop the weight for both, increase the reps a little bit, add in some different stuff, like 20 rep sets, dumbell presses, and slowly build myself back up to 195 and 125 for each exercise.  Hopefully I will have been able to add a few reps along the way.  Then, at least according to what I believe I'm reading, I should be able to increase the poundage and slowly move up over the next few weeks, totaling about an 8-10 week cycle.

As for the other big lifts - Deadlifts, squats and cleans.  They've been improving, so I won't mess with them.  At least not until I'm done with bench and press.

Today's an off day.  Goal is to eat lots, rest lots and prepare for Friday's session.  And what am I doing on Friday?   Definitely squatting.  And I might throw cleans in there.  Maybe even some very light RDLs?  We'll see how I'm feeling.