I been lifting, bro

Tonight's workout was worthy of documentation. My goal is to get my bench press 1 rep max up to 225 lbs. Monday and Thursday are chest days, but really Thursday is supposed to be an upper body circuit. Yesterday turned into a basketball and church day, and tomorrow is a holiday weekend friday, so it's time to drink beer. So that meant I went ahead and combined shoulders, upper body, and leg day tonight.

So this was my Thursday night strength training workout. Exercise - weight x sets x reps

Incline dumbbell press (chest) 40 x 4 x 8
Military press (shoulders) 25 x 3 x 8
Dumbbell hammer bicep curl 25 x 3 x 10
Flat dumbbell press (chest) 55 x 6 x 8
Deadlift (back/legs) 185 x 3 x 10
Squat 185 x 4 x 10
Calf raise 135 x 3 x 15
Barbell curl 50 x 3 x 10
Lateral dumbbell shoulder raise 15 x 3 x 10
Leg press 395 x 3 x 10

I've already worked abs several times this week, but I think this workout was worth skipping swim practice. Usually I can only get in 5 or 6 exercises. Getting 10 done in almost 2 hours is kind of insane.

My favorite day is chest day

The good news is that it's working! My first test for 1RM had my bench at 185. Last monday I got 195 up twice, so really less than 30 lbs to go. This Monday, I tried to work out with 185 on the bar and only got it up about 5 times. That still feels like some serious personal growth.

So officially I'm trying to lift 3 to 5 days a week, and still get in some yoga in the mornings, swim/bike/run twice a week (well, bike once a month) to get ready for summertime triathlon season. We'll just have to see how that all plays out.