Week14 - Day40A - I Kind Of, ♥ U Gurl

Weight:  185.4 lbs

Found a nice little gem yesterday.  It's a remix, by C. Justice, of Destiny's Child's classic, "Say My Name".  Absolutely addicting bassline.

https://soundcloud.com/chrisjustice/i-kind-of-love-you-unfinished

Squats:  3x5xBar + 5x145 + 3x165 + 2x185 + 2x205 + 5x230

Still going strong on the squat.  Had to expel a maybe not so little grunt on the 4th rep of the top set.  I've tried controlling these more, but usually my grunts are short and emotionally driven.  When I feel that I must complete a rep and I'm pretty much feeling near or at empty in the tank, my mind shifts gears very quickly, almost like...flooring the gas pedal.  At that brief moment, I'm trying to exert as much contraction as I possibly can and squeezing my core to get that bar up.

Bench:  3x10xBar + 5x80 + 3x100 + 1x120 + 5x5x140

These weren't bad today.  My grip was a bit different.  Middle finger was on the knurling.  Not too wide, not too narrow.  The main focus was to keep the bar at the base of my palms.  In addition, made sure to keep the scapula contracted and prevent it from separating and losing contraction throughout the entire set.  This really helped with removing the load off my shoulders.  Still doing 5 sets across of 5 reps with these.  Definitely think the added dips and incline bench accessories are helping tremendously with maintaining the weight progression on the bench.

Rows:  5x85 + 3x105 + 1x135 + 3x5x150

Messed up on the grip a bit today.  My previous A workout, I noted that I had used a wider grip, 1-2 inches outside of the knurling.  Made the mistake of putting the index finger on the knurling.  Wider grip felt easier.  Stayed with 3 sets as I was using my back.  I was lifting my chest a lot, messy form, not very strict.

Accessories: DB Incline:  10x50 DB Rows:  3x8x55 Dips:  8/8/8/2

DB Incline was pretty easy, but I only did 1 set.  I will make sure to remember to do an additional two next time around.  Made sure to exchange 1 pressing movement with 1 pulling movement.  So, after DB incline, I did some DB rows, going up from last time, 50 -> 55 lbs.  My left arm rows were more difficult than the right side.  After this, I went on to do some dips.  Definitely did quite a bit better than last A session.  I will stay with 3 sets of 8 and increase rep count for each set by 1, workout to workout until I stall.  I'll continue progressing the dips until I can do 3 sets of 15 at which time I'll add weights and drop back down to 8 reps and continue the progression with weights instead of reps.

*Core: *Elbow planks:  1min. 5sec. + 30sec.

Was a bit more fatigued today so the burning started a bit sooner.