No Rest For Chest

Here lately my chest has made some great gains, I've developed more outer and upper. So all day yesterday I was envisioning another great workout that lead to further gains in my journey of building my body. Got to the gym normal time, quarter til eight. Before I start even warming up I hear someone complaining about how cold it was in there. First exercise flat barbell bench. I get under 225 for the first warm up set, everything felt great. Next, I got under 315 for the second warm up set . . . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 BLOOOOP felt a warm sensation run in my left out pec towards the armpit, well I thought I just might of popped it so I did a few more reps but I felt a burn each rep I did so I had to admit to myself I had a little problem and racked it. In denial, I told myself well maybe its just the angle, so when we moved on to incline dumbell I banged out a set with 110lb dumbells which would be a extremely light weight for me. It honestly didn't burn as bad as the flat position but still enough to get in my head. So I faced reality and chose not turn a minor injury into a severe one, so I ended my chest workout and told my partner to go on without me. At this point I was angry as a grizzly bear who got their picnic basket jacked! I've delt with numerous injuries in my short journey so far, so I'm pretty happy with the way I handled this one. Bodybuilding's great Arnold Schwarzenegger said it best :

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

I found this quote when I thought I dang near tore a tendon in my knee over a year ago hack squatting. This quote can't be more true, the adversity I faced made me stronger not only in my training, but also my character in life. Whatever task I'm going to do I give 100%, whatever obstacle comes at me I overcome. This was running through my mind when I was about to lose it, so I told myself time to hit some calves. I worked my calves til they mooo! By the time I was done, my partner finished working chest, and we began abs. In abs we did another drop set on the decline sit ups. Starting with a 60lb dumbell, 50lb dumbell, 45lb plate, and then finally body weight all counting as one giant set. We also used a "shock" method by using different weight in a different order. This method has your muscles asking "which way did he go!?" Surprisingly I had my partner beat on this I went til I could not do a situp with my own body weight. Next we moved on the lower ab leg raise machine and banged out 3 sloppy sets. We were both beat from the giant "shock" sets we performed, so we called it a night. In conclusion, I must practice what I preach: "you got to do workouts that work for you, just because they work for one, does not mean they will work for you." Some reason for me incline barbell has never bothered me, and every time I do flat barbell it does more damage than good. If you ask any bodybuilder what they use to build their chest very few will say flat barbell bench. In an article in Flex Magazine, on Phil Heath's 2008 Olympia prep, his trainer Hany Rambod (who is also trainer of present Mr.Olympia Jay Cutler and many other pros) said he never encourages any of his clients to perform flat barbell bench. Next week I plan just getting blood to the area using the machines with light weight. Then hopefully in two weeks of trial and error of what I can or can't do I will go back into using dumbells and hammer strength equipment. If things go well after that I will be back doing barbell work, flys, dips, but the barbell will only be incline.