Was This a Wasted Workout?

Training Bodybuilding
1

Got into the doctor today to follow up some stuff, he basically told me i was good to go if i felt good.

so of course, i went to the gym.

so i decided it would be chest day. the past month or so i have been more or less following an HSS-100 format. today went a little differently.

i had a feeling my elbow tendons might get a little achy, so i threw on the “arm socks” or whatever we call them. turns out the left was a little weird, so i actually took off the right one and doubled on the left, which felt better.

so my workout went like this…

flat bench
185lbs x 8
225lbs x 5
275lbs x 3
315lbs x 4

incline dumbell press
80lb bells x 8
90lb bells x 8

got a phone call from my brother, who had the talkies, decided to talk to him and roll out.

now, my best bench was 355lbs back around feb/march…lost a lot of strength attempting to lose fat too fast, etc, so lately ive really been wanting to get that strength back, so im happy with my 315lbs x 4, but i have never done a workout with this low of a volume, and the intensity was pretty low on everything except pretty much the 315lbs, which were 4 hard, intense reps.

so did i waste a workout? normally id say hey im at the gym, let me call you back, but he was excited about something, and i wanted to let him talk, so i went with it.

wasted workout, or anyone think something like this is beneficial every now and then? either way, doesnt matter, not like i can get the workout back or whatever. guess im just wondering peoples opinions, perhaps it was a case where i accidentally did something that could pay off? thanks.

2

Not bad considering you hadn’t been in the gym. I would rather do too little than too much when coming back from some time off.

3

No it is not wasted, it is good every now and then to back off, it should be part of the program. A single workout rarely makes much difference, your muscles adapt to a steady progression of overload over a period of many workouts, plus rest and nutrition, and a period of backing off, where you do things a bit lighter - but your muscles, dumb as they are, think that this “light workout” is a chance to grow more and more because they think there is some hard stuff coming up.

OR to put it simply,

hard workout → repair, grow a bit
… for weeks

lighter workout → hmmm not so much repair required, might put more into growing this week

You can get away with that for awhile before they catch on.

4

interesting. thanks.

5

A lot of time after a break, just getting myself to the gym is a good start. I wouldn’t say it was wasted. Just don’t make it a habbit.