Presses, Pistols and Pull-ups

A minor adjustment today. Normally I do my heavier presses today but with the change to Monday I decided best to wait. Afterall I did Jerks this past monday and I am sure the extra days in between will not adversely affect me, in fact I will press stronger come Monday. So, I substituted some Bench Press for the fun of it.

Bench Press
135/5x6
185/5x3

Nice to just focus on form and go through the motions of the move. For various reasons I am not planning on making BP a part of my routine. The most important has to do with my current goals and plans and the others have to do with the health of the shoulder. If I was to lift the BP I would be doing so for powerlifting goals which makes sense with my DL and Squats. However, it is just that reason that I am advised to protect my shoulders. Now, if for some reason it looks as if I can do real well in PL contest then I would consider adding BP and competing but at this point that is not my goal and that answer is yet to be determined as I need much bigger squats and DL's in order to get to that level. I know I can bench press close to 315 without much work but getting to 400 will require serious focus and lots of stress on the shoulders that I am just not willing to at this point endure.
But, shoot this is sure a fun exercise. :-)

Pull-ups
10, 8, 8, 8 (Forearm flexors tight so I did some thumping, rolling, cross friction and stripping to open them up and felt much better)

Pistol
28/2/2x3

Again keeping the totals down just to protect the hammie and again that philosophy paid off as I feel no pain :-).

A key thing I am doing and thinking when moving any weight is thinking of what I desire to push. For instance if I want to squat 500 I think even when doing the 225 about applying 500 pounds of force to the bar. Now, I do not know what that feels like but I do my best to put my mind in that state and focus my intention on applying maximal force to the bar, bell, etc. I had a great discussion with Rif about Force application and its carryover/effect on how much on can lift, move, etc. As he said just because a person can squat 500 lbs for triples does not mean they can squat 550. The simple reason is that it only takes 500 lbs to move 500 lbs. An very important point/fact.

Next up Yoga, foam rolling and some specific stretches