February 20th, 2014 – Bench Press

Today was a very interesting day. I had no plans of heading into the gym, due to the fact that I was scheduled to work 4-8. Fortunately, I was let off early so I raced home, got changed, picked up Jesse, and got to the gym as quickly as I could. We got there around 8:10 p.m. and immediately started warming up for some week 2 benching. Quickly ran through my warm ups and working sets with little to no time in between sets. I think actually moving quicker helped make the weight feel a lot easier. Pushed my final working set of 130 for 3 reps with ease and as soon as Jesse finished with his working sets, I dived right into the accessories beginning with pushups with hands on DBs. They were exceedingly easy last week, and were again this week wearing only 1 big chain, clipped around my back. Definitely need to increase the weight to 2 chains next week. Just like the main lifts, I whipped my way through the pushups and straight into the lat pulldowns, where I increased the weight to 110 for 3 out of the 4 sets. Running short on time, I decided to begin super setting what I had left. Starting with DB side raises with band spreads and finishing with tricep pushdowns with grenades with hammer curls. I was beyond relieved that I was able to finish my full workout in time. I was really only expecting to finish the main lift and possibly 1 or 2 accessories. Days like today remind me how much I truly appreciate HPF. It’s given me the power and motivation to push through and overcome many challenges.