shoulder-press[1]Well I paid the price for stupidly running yesterday when my IT band was already irritated.  I have been limping around to varying degrees ever since.  I need to do daily rolling of my lower body to try to kick this, no matter how painful the rolling process is. My workout today definitely felt like it had a dull edge from the painful jolt every step sent down my right side.

I was able to distract myself from some of the discomfort watching some real bad form around the gym.  One young, short guy used massive momentum in every single tricep pushdown and bicep curl rep he did.  His pushdowns would start at his forehead before he violently yanked down, using the velocity to reach the lower locked out position.    He also had a rather funny habit of admiring the physique his momentum assisted reps have built in the mirror in between nearly every set.

There was another guy that was doing seated overhead dumbbell shoulder presses.  His range of motion for the movement went down to the top of his head and then back up.  He was probably 5’6″ or shorter so you can imagine how short the stroke was.

Finally there was an older guy that was bench pressing and incline bench pressing.  At first I couldn’t really see him, I just saw the weights moving.  He did 245 for 2 reps which is decent strength but then I got to watch how they were completed.  The man had a very substantial belly that hung out the bottom of his gym shirt.  When he would do his reps he used his inflated core as a springboard for the olympic bar, bouncing the weight severely for every single rep.

It was so bad that for a brief moment the bar would disappear from view as it was enveloped by flesh at the bouncing bottom of the reps.  Doing reps in that manner may help build a false sense of accomplishment which is harmless but I’m not so sure the same can be said of the repeated impact of 240 pounds across your sternum.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

60 second wall handstand

20 pull ups

Seated overhead tricep extension – 50lbs x 12, 60lbs x 10, 70lbs x 8

10 pull ups

Standing overhead dumbbell shoulder press – 40lbs x 10, 50lbs x 8, 60lbs x 3

10 pull ups

Standing cable machine curl – 100lbs x 10

Standing cable machine tri push down – 80lbs x 12

Standing cable machine curl – 110lbs x 8

Standing cable machine tri push down – 100lbs x 10

Standing cable machine curl – 130lbs x 4

Standing cable machine tri push down – 140lbs x 4