Nathan : 9/8 & 9/9

▼ 1. 9/9/09 - Wed - BENCH

Time: 2:00. Weight: 222 (after dinner). Happy that I did not lose weight on vacation.

  First day doing a full RTS-style template. It is my first day back in the gym after going to the ER with heart palpitations, so I decided to keep things light. This will continue until next Monday, when I will wear a 24-hr heart monitor to make sure that nothing funny is happening during workouts.

  Saw general practitioner and cardiologist today (same-day referral, awesome). Diagnosis is supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). This is a non-life-threatening condition where my heart rate suddenly increases or starts acting funny, in my case during exercise. It is apparently caused by a "short-circuit" in the nerves that control the heart muscle. There are treatment options available, but since my case is fairly mild, the side effects or potential side effects of those treatments are worse than the condition itself. So unless things change, the plan is to just deal with it.

  Also, since my "attacks" last only a couple minutes at worst, drugs that break the tachycardia are useless. I was shown a couple things to try that can possibly help by inducing reflexes that drop the heart rate. To help with prevention, I will do a semi-long warm-up (for me, at least) and make sure to stay very well hydrated. Ultimately, this is the diagnosis I was hoping for and there is really no way that it isn't good news.

  It was a big relief to be back in the gym. Nothing worrying happened at any point in the workout, and it was cool to see how concerned many of the people were.

  With all of that out of the way, it was a fairly easy workout except for the stupid stuff at the end. We'll see if RTS gives me results. I didn't exactly follow recommendations for RPE in RTS because I am keeping things light for the short term.

• Warm-up bike x 10 mins

• 2-sec pause bench 45x10x3, 135x5x2, 185x5x2, 205x5x5 @ 8

This is my main raw movement. A regular-grip bench press with a 2-second pause counted out by the spotter. Will move up weight on these.

• Close-grip bench 135x5, 185x3, 225x3x6 @ 8

Raw assistance movement with full ROM. I was surprised at how easy this was, but it felt a little awkward after not doing any close-grip presses for over a year.

• Dumbell military press 50x8,8,8,7

I can't believe how terrible I am at overhead pressing after the long lay-off. 50 was supposed to be a warm-up. I was sitting up without any support from a bench and my stabilizers were firing like crazy. That still doesn't explain how terrible this was, though.

• Pull-ups BWx8,8,6,5

Also disappointing.

▼ 2. 9/8/09 - Tue - CARDIO

• Bike 30 mins

• Flexibility - soleus, gastroc, adductor on leg press, hamstrings, hip flexors, seated groin

Not stretching for a week makes me really inflexible.