Bench press

315 x 1

325 x 1

335 x 1

High incline dumbbell press

80s x 10, 9, 7

Chest-supported dumbbell rows

80s x 4 x 10

Kelso shrugs

80s x 3 x 10

Had exceptionally poor sleep the night before and wasn't sure I would end up lifting today. After failing a bench press rep last week, I wanted to crush some singles with heavy but sub-maximal loads. Weight felt heavy but wasn't a grind, either. 315 felt just as hard as 335.

Going light on the dumbbells was a good move. I got work a harder incline angle and was able to maximally squeeze my shoulder blades at the top of the rows to a degree that I don't quite reach with the 115s and 125s. Experienced a strong upper-back pump.

Have never made a concerted effort to do Kelso shrugs before but it's high time I did. The Shrug Book has been in languishing in my Amazon wishlist for something like 15 years now.

Bodyweight is currently 196.5 in the morning, which is quite a bit lower than I expected. I gained 4 lbs from eating more calories and carbs and then stabilized. It explains my gradual but modest strength increase, a rate that I'm actually quite happy about if I'm still this light.

 Had a packed weekend. Friday was a ramen dinner with coworkers. Went to a wine bar afterwards but only stayed out until 10:30. 

Saturday was home boxing training. Alternated between doing a 4-minute round on the bag and going for a short jog, ending up doing 2 of each. I found a free road bike during the first lap. I haven't had a bike since I was 8 or 9 and had been thinking about getting one to bike to work on occasion, so this was awesome.

Saturday night was a Halloween party on the USS Hornet, a decommissioned aircraft carrier. The second I stepped on it, I paid no mind to the stage and party area on one side because I was geeking out over the WW2 artifacts. Ended up being one of the best Halloween nights I've ever had. I had 2 Chipotle burritos waiting for me in the car to take food breaks and I'm craving the leftovers right now as I type this at the office.

Sunday was a company event at a winery. Ate duck pizza and did felt like doing as minimal an amount of socializing I could get away with before leaving for a Costco run, ending the night by watching some classic Dragonball.

I also had some sleep and recovery items arrive from Amazon: a Manta Bluetooth sleep mask, Biotest P-Well, Loop earplugs, and a Roflex for my elbow. Unfortunately, I ended up having a bad night of sleep after combining everything. I woke up to the earplugs hurting my right ear and the left one missing, so I ditched them.