Portal Venous Shunting

Going home is looking a li'l bit bleak for the snowy weekend, and i've got a ton of time-consuming tick marks to put in li'l meaningless boxes for school with which to occupy it. So instead i'm gun' post up on the week's workouts.

Seems like i got as far as tuesday with the last post. So wednesday, i did p'lups. Got a new max with 110 the week before, so that tweaked my workouts in a dreadful direction for 5/5/5 day. And the cheap, naxty chinese food at lunch didn't help at all. It was supposed to be 85, 90, and 95lbs. i got 'em all with 85, but there was an ill portent--some je ne sais quios about the set. Maybe it was the gangrene swelling in my gut...but i'll get to that. i got through 4 with 90 before i had to drop and jump back on. Didn't even bother with 95. i just snagged another 3 with 90, then cheated up 2 more to make 3 sets of 5. i guess i didn't feel bad about it seeing as my one rep max was 100# three weeks prior. But i also didn't feel super psyched. It's also funny to think i pretty surely gained 4 or 5 lbs over the holiday since i'd fetched that shiny new max.

Anyhow, then i had the genius idea that i'd just combine that with a 5/5/5 day of deads. (This is where the pneumoperitoneum became important.) Thing is, i don't wanna lose ground on deads or p'lups, so it seems like a fair enough combo, seeing as they don't precisely work against one another. Did a nice long workup, then strapped on the belt for the pain. i think i got the first set with 340 when i got something like air trapped in my chest. Hurt like hell, and i couldn't belch. Figured i'd either dissected an aneurysm, or given me new esophageal varices. Gave it a few minutes and tried the second set with 360, and i think i got one before i let 'er go and went home in defeat. Could not get the air out of my whatever. Funny thing was that the weight didn't seem that bad; just hurt to bear down in the Inzer.

So i went back yesterday to see if i could get 'em sans the Broccoli Beef and sparkling mineral water. And they went like butta' --5/5/5 with 340, 360, and 385. In fact, it didn't feel nearly as hard as i remember it feeling last time. Seems like last time i did the 5/5/5 day with those weights i nearly blew an eyeball out of my skull, and i couldn't hear correctly for a few days. And this made me kinda ecstatic because i tweaked my low back something mildly heinous last week doing SL deads--wasn't a bit sure 5/5/5 day was gonna be a go. So i'm visualizing a new pr in the future. Finished that off with bent o'er BB rows: 1 x 10 x 135, then 2 x 6 x 185. i think that's all i did 'cuz i was outta time.

Today i did chest n triceps. This was 5/3/1 day because i missed a day of it a few weeks ago. Called for 5 x 175, 3 x 200, then 1 with 220; but i made it 225 'cuz the two big plates look cooler. That went up easily enough, so i put 10 more on and got a new max of 235. Tried with 240, but failed. And i feel like it was a purely mental fail. Whatever J Lo song they had cranked up on "Defined TV" not only failed to do it for me, but actually sucked the motive force right outta my nostrils. Ah well: it's a new max after many, many months of no forward progress whatsoever. Finished this up with dips and some triceps press outs. Wanted to do flys, but absolutely every bench was taken. So i did straight leg raises instead. Those hurt, so i swam. And that was nice.

Oh, and there were some guys came in and did squats with chains, you'll be happy to know. Reminded me of yous guys. They lifted in full hoodies. First i was thinking Oooo...these guys must be strong, 'cuz why else would they lift in hoodies with their hoods on? But then out came the chains. They had upwards of 185 pounds of steel on the rack already, then lashed chain on that could have easily anchored a motivated, hungry pit bull to its back yard. This was not stuff you could probably get at K-Mart. This was the stuff you'd have to go to Home Depot for. i mean, at the top of every rep they probably added more than one--several--pounds to the lift. That moved me. That there's how you train to squat more than i squat.