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| Always funny. Deal with it. |
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| Coach Rippetoe (the Starting Strength guy, aka the Iron Samurai) coaches Eva T. on some of the finer aspects of the bench press. Good stuff MUST have come out of this. (CrossFit) |
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| The benefits of setting up properly for the bench press: By pulling the shoulder-blades back, you get a more stable surface on the bench AND decrease the overall range of motion for the movement. So, improved positioning AND a slight "gaming" of the movement for your own benefit. Chest muscles will still move through the same range of motion, so its not a detriment to the exercise. |
WoD: Max bench press - 3 attempts
My first visit to the gym since the birth of my second daughter, Abigail Grace, at home. Sleep still wasn't great, but my body was rapidly going into decline by not being physically taxed in nearly two weeks. My mind was going with it (we have a LOT going on right now... the new baby is almost the least of it, which you with kids should realize is a huge tell-tale sign. Or maybe just a sign of our experience now that we're on our second! Hmmm...), so my wife basically told me "set your alarm and go to the gym in the morning, we'll make it work." So I did. Just in time for max bench day! Wheee!
My only goal was to get to a clean "bodyweight" bench. Admittedly, I haven't weighed myself in some time, so I'm not entirely sure what to shoot for, but I know that at my heaviest (pre-adding on CrossFit Muscle), was around 230#, so 225# really ought to do it. I warmed up with the empty 45#, 135#, 165#, 185#, and 205#, the last of which was my previous PR. I did it for two reps, which meant I definitely had gas in the tank for a new PR.
215# proved to be pretty easy, so after a few minutes, I jumped up to 225#. While this lift was definitely tougher, I got it to lock out, still feeling like it was "too easy." So, I shot for my 3rd PR on the day, but rather than being conservative and just putting 5 more pounds on the bar, I went up to 235#, and earned my first failed rep of the day to close out the session. No real worries, I increased my bench PR by 20 pounds, and will be whining the next time we have to do reps with a percentage of that...
| Weight | # of Reps | notes |
|---|---|---|
| 45# | 20 | |
| 135# | 10 | |
| 165# | 7 | |
| 185# | 3 | |
| 205# | 2 | Previous PR |
| 215# | 1 | PR |
| 225# | 1 | PR |
| 235# | Fail |
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