Had basically a rest-day yesterday, something I rarely do. Did stretches and some light shadow kickboxing.
Today I spontaneously got the idea to do partials for the bench press. Haven't messed with bench press ROM in over a decade when I used to board press, pin press, and floor press during the wannabe Westside phase. Kept the kegs from squat day and removed all but 2 mats on each. Took some experimenting to get things feeling right (esp not letting the plates bounce), worked-up to a set of 295x5 and then 2 sets of 315x4. Not pushing failure, just stopping before it felt like I might have to really fight for reps. I'll up the ante in follow-up sessions. Didn't really feel easier than benching honestly, feels like the triceps are doing way more work and that I'm pressing from more of a dead-stop each rep. I used to feel that way about floor pressing, which these felt like, while board and pin pressing were unmistakably easier than full benching.
I just realized writing that distinction out that with board and especially pin presses I felt much more comfortable letting the weight unload and then slamming it back up, while floor pressing and now keg pressing I'm keeping my triceps engaged and not letting myself lose control of the bar. In this case, it's because the plates had a tendency to roll on the mats.
After the last set of 315 I immediately went down to 225 and did 8 pause reps. Log pressed 175x8 after, felt pain in my left arm but it's whatever at this point, as long as it's not getting worse. Every press was super-set with T-bar rows, up to 5 plates x 10.
Finished with chest flyes and then a bastardized set of Poundstone curls. Used elbow sleeves for added difficulty and straps that the bar hung down from so they were hammer curls (for the sake of my painful arm bone). Got up to 30, though maybe for the sake of numbers I'll be more liberal with form and really strive to work up to 100.
Got some low-key celebrations with friends going later for Persian New Year, expecting to eat big and show them how we do it.
