Yesterday I went back to the gym for the first time since...probably November.
Here is a weird thing: the tiredest muscles were the ones in my hands. This is a thing I remember from May and June of last year, when I first started lifting. My forearms would tire out then, too, which wasn't a problem yesterday. But my hands hit a point where I just couldn't do it anymore. They were still tired when I went to bed last night, actually.
In my home workouts through the winter I had been doing three sets of band-assisted pull-ups from a hangboard, which requires a different grip -- it's a bigger surface, too big to wrap your thumb around. Yesterday I decided I'd do a version of my fall split, which always kicked off with four sets of machine-assisted pull-ups. I think that was a chunk of the issue: higher volume with a squeezier grip.
Deadlifts felt great and bench felt good. My working sets were at about 70% of my November levels, but I'm optimistic that I'll progress briskly once I'm back in the weight room regularly. And I do want to be back in the weight room regularly. I texted Joe while I was resting between sets to say, "Oooooh the dopamine! Barbells 4EVER!"
I had planned to finish up with a couple of accessories, but my hands had had enough. The first set of hammer curls felt great. The second set felt less great. I stopped in the middle of the third set, totally maxed out, and decided to call it good.
But that's how you tell your body to build strength: you max it out (or come pretty close), and then you offer it protein and rest. I'm feeling optimistic, and happy that I took the plunge.
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