Entry #259
Highlight today: breaking the weight belt from doing weighted dips. The chain broke in two by the fastener. What's the point of a weight belt if you can't use heavy weights on it? Must have been a cheapie. It was a new one replacing the old one that kept randomly disappearing. I have bad luck with these things. Luckily, I managed all my sets.

Also hit 285 on the initial set of bench press. I had a good warm-up using the gym bag. It's soft as a pillow, so I s'pose it's ideal for that. I figured out that the running warm-up wasn't helping my shoulder pain. The cause of it was actually the weighted crunches I do. I rest the 25 lb plates on the floor next to me, and when it's time for the set I reach to the side and twist them up on my chest. I guess the movement of doing so was placing stress on my rotator-cuff. I just realized this yesterday as I was doing them. Next time between sets I'll simply lie flat with the plates resting on me, without placing them on the floor.

Today's session:

1 minute heavy bag warm-up
Bench press: 45 lb bar; 15 reps
1 minute heavy bag warm-up
Bench press: 4 sets; 3 reps (135 lbs, 185 lbs, 225 lbs, 245 lbs)
Max bench press: 4 sets (285 lbs, 285 lbs (failure, help from spotter), 275 lbs, 275 lbs (little help from spotter [I believe I'm stuck in old bodybuilding habits by lowering the bar too slowly without realizing I'm doing so; when I let it go down faster it did not result in failure])
Weighted dips: 4 sets; 10, 8, 6, 5 reps (45 lb plate and 25 lb hanging from belt)
Cable pushdowns: 4 sets; 10, 8, 8, 7 reps (170 lbs [meaningless number -- on the adjacent cable machine I can only do 90 lbs])
Lateral raises: 4 sets; 10, 8, 8, 5 reps (30 lb dumbbells -- kept them at the side rather than in front)
Bent-over barbell rows: 4 sets; 8 reps (145 lbs)
Hammer curls: 3 sets; 8 reps (50 lb, 45 lb, 45 lb dumbbells [hammer curls seem initially easier, but for some reason they make it harder to stand straight -- must work on stabilizing back, rather than using a wall or bench as a crutch])

 I was invited to an all-day pool party tomorrow by someone from school. Thinking about skipping it so I can do better cardio, which I missed today.

By the way, I haven't lost any weight, but my midsection looks less blurry. I'm thinking it's the creatine maintaining that weight.