Entry #722

My gym has pretty much redeemed itself. The kettleballs are awesome, and they put in some new plates. They're not as badass as the old ones, but they're about as good as rubbers can get - much better than what they had. It's a point of aesthetics, but the principle counts here. There was no reason to get rid of perfectly good weights in exchange for what replaced them.

There are two new squat racks. Power racks are more versatile, but at least they aren't Smith machines.

The only conundrum left is that the dumbbells don't go past 100 lbs. They nixed the 105s, 110s, 115s, and 120s. Those were also unrubberized, in contrast to anything below. It's this theme of making everything look "friendlier" by axing the scarred, bare iron weights that gets my blood boiling.

ME upper

Bench press:
4x5    135, 185, 225, 275 lbs.
1x4¾    295 lbs.   
> This was done in the power rack, which is where I'll be benching from now on.
> I've lost some strength from my time out of the weight room. I was supposed to go up to 305 for 5 today, but I could tell that it wouldn't be happening. More than anything, I'm anticipatory of everything I plan on doing to make it up, and then some.
> On the 275, I was too low under the bar, and I kept hitting the pins on the way up. I actually failed one rep in the middle by clanging it into the support and killing my momentum, and then I had to press it up from a dead pause, which wasn't difficult.

Tate press:
4x8    70 lb. dumbbells

Kettleball front raises:
3 x 16    16 kg kettleballs
> These felt about the equivalent of doing 50 lb. dumbbells. The weight disposition made quite a difference, surprisingly.

Horizontal cable rows:
1 x 5    260 lbs.
2 x 10    120 lbs.