As of today’s date, it has been 7 months since I settled in on a bench and proceeded to do that favorite lift of gym rats everywhere; the Bench Press. I’ve done more Push-ups than at any time since I was a soldier, but it’s just not the same. With my home gym now set up, I ordered a flat bench and have been waiting patiently for its arrival. The fine folks at New York Barbell advised it finally came in and has been shipped my way.
To prepare, I decided to replace my Push-ups with Floor Press to at least get a feel for pressing again, and it was fun. Obviously the Floor Press is a partial range of motion lift and the mechanics aren’t quite the same, but it felt closer to the Bench Press than Push-ups do. I didn’t attempt anything heavy, and I won’t when I bench in earnest next week either. Time is on my side.
I did some Overhead Press as well as I was just in a pressing kind of mood.
I’m pretty pleased with how all my lifts are feeling right now, and how my body is feeling after a major tweak in my training. I took out all direct work for my middle and lower traps. I was getting regular fatigue and excessive soreness in my mid back and when I did the math, I concluded I was getting more volume than I could handle. Between presses, pulldowns, shrugs and so forth, there’s so much indirect work that hits the traps, doing Barbell Rows as well may be too much. Since removing the Rows, the pain and fatigue has alleviated so I think I’m onto something.
My weight has stabilized at 163 lbs, up about 2 lbs since I ended my diet at the of August. I had to cut 100 calories from my daily total, which made me sad, but I’ve adjusted and so far, 2200 seems to be the ticket.
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