Benching

Today was pretty good

Decided to make some changes to my bench form, as I have talked about. The cliff notes are 1) Decided to do all of my bench work paused, because why practice touch and go when it tends to be less consistent AND I will never have to do it in competition, and 2) Decided to work on my pause, because I have a little bit of a habit of letting the bar sink into my chest and losing tension, so I'm going to fix that. I was a little bit nervous about making the changes, because it might have been a hit to my ego. BUT I actually did very well. Keeping the tension on the pause is definitely harder. I feel my chest working a lot harder than I have in a while, and it feels like I have less speed off the chest than before for sure. For example, I feel like if I tried a really heavy single, like 235, I might not have enough speed off my chest to get me through the sticking point right away. HOWEVER, I hit 145 x 5, 165 x 5, and then 185 x 10 really strict paused reps, which is a PR. Not bad at all. After, I did 3 sets of 10 at 165, and then a max set at 145 which ended up being 11 (a little sad). So right now, the changes feel a little harder and my muscles get tired out. But I think that after just a few workouts like this, my body is going to start responding right away and I will keep progressing. I'm a little antsy now because I want it to be fixed AMARACH but if I'm patient and put the work in I think it's going to pay off.

Next, Kroc rowed the 90 for 2 sets of 30 each side. Shit these were hard after not doing them for a while.

Thirdly, strict pressed. Started off with 135 and did it for a set of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, then did a rep out on the 6th set. I really like doing this. The first set is a little creaky, but overall I get 15 reps that are fast and  with great form, and then when I hit that rep out my form is on point and the weight feels light. Today, I only got 10 reps on the rep out but not bad considering I had a lottt of pressing volume already.

Finally, did a bunch of pullups, mostly kipping, and a couple heavier singles in between my sets - hit 155, 165, and 175 for solid singles, then 135 one last time.

Overall, nothing too thrilling today, but a lot of quality volume and a PR on that 185 bench even with the changes to form. Hopefully, next tuesday I'll be able to rep that 200 out for 6 or 7. We will see. Lets keep at it.