Friday, July 12, 2013

Long Pause bench 205 x 3 x 2

Good day today. So much benching.



Started with a nice warmup, then hit the bar for a set and 95 for a set. Then switched to benching with a long pause (around 5 seconds at bottom). I decided to do this just to work on my tightness, and my explosiveness. Hit 95 x a slew, then 135 x 5, 165 x 4, 185 x 3, all of which felt solid. Then, loaded up 205 and attempted to triple it - first two reps went up nice and solid, and then I failed the 3rd. A little bit of a bummer, but I really wasn't sure whether triples or doubles would be better - and that answered my question lol. So, I rested a bit and hit it for 2 more doubles. Felt good! The second reps of those doubles were very hard and grindy, but I feel like it really gave me a chance to work on my tightness and explosiveness out of the bottom. Plus, I think handling the heavier weight, for reps, with a difficult variation, is good for my confidence and comfort benching.

Next, dropped back to 135 and switched to touch n go reps. However, I really tried to focus on keeping form really nice and precise, and really maintaining tightness/control over the bar - basically, keeping everything the same as with the long pause reps, except no long pause haha. This went great! My focus on each rep was really good, form stayed beautiful, and I ended up hitting 135 for 20, 19, and then 18 reps. I'm pretty sure my PR at 135 was only like 17 haha, so that's really pretty cool! It's pretty light weight, but still that is a LOT of quality volume - really nice reps, fast reps, and a TON of them. Felt really good. I need to remember - focusing on each rep individually is always the way to go on bench.








Now I just need to get my 225 bench to where my 135 is lol. Then I won't be so depressed about my pressing. 


Next up, basically supersetted pullups/chinups and klokov presses. For pullups/chinups, I basically did a pullup, then did a chinup x 10 rounds. Felt pretty good, not too hard, but I ended up being REALLY sore after doing those chins on wednesday, so I feel like it is genuinely working. On the final set, I did 2 pullups and 2 chins. Definitely felt a little shy of clearing the bar on those second reps, but hey not too bad.

For klokov press, I started with the bar x 12, 75 x 12, then 95 x 8, 105 x 5, 115 x 3, then back down to 105 x 5 and finally 95 x 8. I really love these, but they definitely are a little rough on my shoulders. There is a reason I stopped doing them for a while lol. I think I just need to keep in mind that this variation is a lot better do do with light weight for high reps, to burn out my shoulders and really make my rear delts grow. However, if I want to go heavy I need to do regular strict press or a variant, not behind the neck stuff.

So overall good day! I look good, feel good. Tons of hard work today. Didn't pull as much as I wanted to, so I'm thinking that tomorrow I will cardio, stretch, and then maybe do some light pulling/bicep work if I am up to it. I definitely need to focus on recovery this weekend, though, I have really been working my ass off this week. Having so much fun, looking big, feeling strong, eating well... stuff is good man. Lets keep at it.

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