--- title: 2026-04-23 — Day A, Week 1 of 16 (hypertrophy phase begins) description: University gym at Stony Brook. First structured session of the sixteen-week hypertrophy block. Five of seven exercises hit. Grip was the ceiling on everything that pulled. section: body tags: [body, lifts, session, day-a, hypertrophy] genre: log lastUpdated: 2026-04-23 url: https://fardiniqbal.com/docs/body/lifts/2026-04-23 --- First real session of the hypertrophy phase. Stony Brook's university gym, not Powerhouse — which means the weights are informational, not baseline. Half a scoop of pre-workout for the first time in months, and it hit harder than expected. Sat in the car for fifteen minutes sipping it before walking in, which is the part of going to the gym I like most. ## Hamstring test [#hamstring-test] Not part of Day A — ran it first to clear the right hamstring for Day B's lower work. * 55 lb × 12 * 70 lb × 12 * 70 lb × 15 * 85 lb × 12 The twelfth rep at 85 was the only rep that felt close to the edge. Fiber movement on the right side — the kind you feel when you wake up tissue that's been sleeping for a week. No pain. Tight only at end range. Cleared for full loading. ## Barbell bench press [#barbell-bench-press] Prescribed 3 × 6–8 at RIR 2. One plate per side. * 135 lb × 8 (RIR \~1.5) * 135 lb × 7 (RIR \~1.5) * 135 lb × 7 (RIR \~1.5) The first set was the one where I heard blood in my veins late — the Valsalva response from holding breath across too many reps. Fixed from set two onward: inhale on the way down, brace, exhale on the press. Do not hold across multiple reps. Setup corrections that helped: shoulder blades pinched hard and pulled down into back pockets before unracking. Eyes on the ceiling, not the bar. Bar unracked out over the shoulders rather than stuck over the face. Lowered to mid-chest, not the neck. Real working weight is probably 140. Bump next Day A. ## Chest-supported row [#chest-supported-row] Prescribed 3 × 10–12 at RIR 1–2. Seated chest-supported machine at the university gym — not the T-bar at Powerhouse. * 70 lb × 10 (warmup) * 100 lb × 10 (RIR \~3.5 — too light) * 130 lb × 9 (RIR \~1 — grip-limited, slippery handle) * 130 lb × 10 (RIR \~2 — regripped after rep 9) Chest pad height rule: top of pad at the collarbone, nipple line at the middle, chin clears comfortably, chest stays glued through every rep. The back had more capacity on every set. Grip was the bottleneck — slippery handles, not fatigue. Straps will fix this. Real working weight is 130. ## Incline dumbbell press (30 degrees) [#incline-dumbbell-press-30-degrees] Prescribed 3 × 8–10 at RIR 1–2. Fifty-pound dumbbells. * 50s × 8 (RIR \~3 — unstable, collarbone irritation) * 50s × 8 (RIR \~2.5 — collarbone gone after setup fix, left shoulder tight) * 50s × 8 (RIR \~2.5 — left shoulder slightly better, still unstable) The collarbone irritation on set one was a setup issue, not a weight issue. Pinching the shoulder blades harder and starting the dumbbells at forehead height instead of touching at the top fixed it completely. The left shoulder stayed tight through sets two and three. Pulled the left scapula down exaggerated, tracked the left dumbbell straight up instead of curving it in toward the face, shortened the range of motion slightly at the bottom where tightness began. Improved but not resolved. This is first-session-back detraining — it'll clear in two or three sessions. Hold at 50s next time. Clean reps before loading. ## Pull-ups (bodyweight) [#pull-ups-bodyweight] Swapped in for lat pulldown, which was taken. Prescribed 3 × 10–12 at RIR 1–2. * BW × 8 (RIR \~1 — grip-limited) * BW × 6 (RIR \~0.5 — logged as 2, corrected) * BW × 6 (RIR \~0.5 — same issue) This is the exercise that exposed the RIR drift problem. I logged sets two and three as RIR 2, but the math doesn't work: same weight, more fatigue, no extra rest, and the rep count dropped from 8 to 6. Real RIR was zero or close to it. Pull-ups fail silently — the rep doesn't happen, but it doesn't feel dramatic either, so you call it "had more in the tank" when you didn't. New rule: RIR 0 means "I tried for one more rep and it didn't happen." Not "I feel like I had one left." ## Lateral raise [#lateral-raise] Prescribed 3 × 12–15 at RIR 0–1. * 15 lb × 15 (RIR \~2.5 — too light) * 20 lb × 12 (RIR 0) * 20 lb × 12 (RIR 0) Cleanest-calibrated exercise of the day. Honest RIR throughout. Slight forward lean, lead with elbows not hands, shoulder height only, slow two-second negatives, no swinging. Start at 20 next session, target 13-plus reps. ## Skipped [#skipped] Overhead tricep extension (3 × 10–12 at 42.5 lb) and incline dumbbell curl (3 × 10–12 at 20–25 lb) — ran out of time. Day C picks up the arm work except for overhead tricep extension, which only lives on Day A. One session of tricep volume lost this week. Acceptable. ## Retrospective [#retrospective] Five of seven exercises. Fifteen of twenty-one prescribed working sets. All heavy compounds landed — bench, row, incline press, pull-ups, lateral raise. The primary movers got their stimulus. Two things to carry forward. First: order lifting straps. Grip was the ceiling on the row, pull-ups, and probably would have been on anything else that pulled. Ten dollars on Amazon fixes the highest-impact limiter from today. Second: the RIR honesty rule. The pull-up sets were the first real confrontation with a pattern I've been running from — stopping short and calling it conservative. Today was the day it got a name. Next Day A: bench to 140, row at 130 with straps, hold incline at 50s, pull-ups honest, laterals at 20 for 13-plus. Add back the two arm exercises.