Dufisthenics

So today was my heavy bench press day at the gym.  I had felt pretty weak last week, my first time benching since my mom passed. This week on my 1 rep test lift at 225 I didn’t struggle as much so I figured I would bump right on up to 235 pounds, without a spotter.

So I locked in, came down and almost immediately could tell my left side was failing as I tried to push the bar off me.  I immediately started looking for the lower set of safety hooks which I was high enough for on the right side but not on the left.  I already knew this meant an embarrassing situation where I will be psuedo stuck under the bar and have to roll out awkwardly, hoping no one sees me.

Well imagine my surprise when the bar’s downward progress on my left side stopped unexpectedly, short of the floor, leaving me enough room to roll out from under it without making a peep.   When I looked to my left I could hardly believe what I saw.  One of the 45 pound plates was perfectly balanced on top of my water bottle.  I was amazed first at the slim odds of the water bottle being at the right spot at the right time.  Second, I couldn’t believe the bottle supported the weight.  After I lifted the bar off I inspected the bottle closely, not a crack or a dent was to be found. Wow.

After feeling very fortunate at first, I resumed feeling pissed off for not being able to press 235.  I dropped down to 225 and did another rep before doing two more sets at my body weight.  To make sure my chest was well obliterated I threw in some push ups and incline dumbbell chest press action.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 1, 235lbs x fail, 225lbs x 1, 185lbs x 8, 185lbs x 7, 135lbs x 15

25 push ups

Dumbbell incline chest press – 50lb dumbbells x 10, 65lb dumbbells x 8, 70lb dumbbells x 5

3 minutes A2G hold

So today was the first time I have returned to the gym since my mom had a sudden, massive, heart attack and passed away three days later.  To say it was a difficult, life altering event would be an understatement.  My mom was only 66 years old, only two decades older than myself.

The only conventional exercise I did was one treadmill 5K last week, otherwise all of my activity has been from the physical labor of cleaning out her apartment of her belongings.  Obviously it was not a fun. During this time period I somehow managed to lose three or four pounds.  I figured today was the day to get back in the saddle.  The only real choice a person has in this situation is to keep moving forward.

The loss of a few pounds seemed to equate to the loss of a few pounds on my bench press.  I only went up to 225lbs for three single reps and it was a struggle.  After finishing up on flat bench I did a couple sets of incline benching before heading over to the VMX continuous rope machine.

You may recall I tried this out for the first time a couple weeks ago and found it quite difficult on it’s maximum resistance setting.  I did a set of 200 feet followed by three shorter 100 foot pulls if memory serves me correctly.  It was tough.

Well today I decided I was going to pull the entire 500 feet in one set and do so in honor of my mom.  I’m sure there is some symbolism I could draw here but I just wanted to do something hard and complete it.  As I crossed the halfway mark the burn in my scalpula steadily intensified.  I just ignored it and kept pulling.  Short of the skin peeling off my hands there was no way I was going to quit before the meter read 500.  I completed the pull successfully and have a feeling there may eventually be a Mom Memorial 1000 in my future.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 1, 225lbs x 1, 225lbs x 1, 185lbs x 8, 185lbs x 8

Incline barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 3

VMX rope pull – 500 feet