Thai and Bench

Workout 13 March 2009:

Muay Thai training and conditioning, 30 minutes

Since my back is still healing, we focused on punches today. I was able to do some leg work with my right leg, but my back doesn't want me to do anything with the left yet.

Bench Press 5 sets of 5 reps, 175lbs
Previous best: 5x5, "175" but actually 165lbs (11 Mar 09)

I wanted to do a heavy lift today, but the only thing that won't aggravate my back is bench press, despite how much I dislike the lift. Since I lifted alone, I used my bumper plates in case I needed to ditch the weight. The 175lbs felt much heavier than Wednesday, more than they should. So, I decided to see if my "45lb" bumpers were the same weight as my "45lb" iron plates. The bumper plates were 44.8lbs, which is acceptable. However, the iron plates turned out to be 43.2lbs. In addition, I checked my bar weights. The new bar is 44.8lbs, which is fine since it's supposed to be 45lbs. However, the old bar was 37.6 lbs, almost 7lbs lighter than it should be. So, by using the iron plates and old bar, I was actually lifting about 10lbs less than what I should have been. On Wednesday therefore, I benched 165lbs. Today I did a true 175lbs. While I'm not going back through my previous logs to change values to reflect the weight discrepancy, don't expect to see any gains in lifts for the next couple of weeks while I adjust to using the new weights.

Mark Rippetoe Quote of the Day:
"Women who claim to be afraid to train hard because they “always bulk up too much” are often already pretty bulky (fat), or “skinny fat” (thin but weak and deconditioned) and have found another excuse to continue life sitting on their butts."