Bad Bench Press

Today was a bad day benching. It seems that my fears were accurate. With the tweaks I made to my form, I am just really slow off the chest, and even though I had a couple good workouts at 185, my ability to rep weight out drops exponentially as the weight goes up. I am a little disappointed.

Started with 5/3/1 bench. Felt shitty at the start, but as I moved along, I felt better. 155 and 175 for triples were no problem. Then I went for 200 and managed to get 5 solid but tough reps, and that was it. Definitely a little disappointing. After the 10 reps at 185 I was really hoping for 7 at 200. Losing 5 full reps at only 15 lbs heavier sucks. However, I think that it is just a matter of me adjusting and it is going to take some time before my muscles start to get stronger. I am using my chest a lot more pausing in this way, and I think in time it will allow me to FAR surpass my old numbers. And I have to keep in mind that 200 x 5 isn't bad at all - my old PR is only 205 x 5, so I'm still right there. I just need to keep at it. However, next week is 210. If I don't get at least 3 reps, I think I may repeat this cycle, just to give myself more time and room to grow. But who knows, maybe it will go better.

Next, did 3 sets at 175, 9-9-and 8, failing the 9th. I actually am going to back off these sets starting next week. These were never meant to be sets to failure. Originally, I was just doing 3 relatively easy sets to practice pause work. My strength blew up so fast that I started chasing PR's and pushing these sets every workout, but now they are making my workout take forever, and are sapping all of my energy when I still have 3 movements left. I need to stop pushing these to failure, and instead do 3 moderately difficult sets, MAYBE pushing for an extra rep or two on the last set. It will be better in the longrun for morale and for the rest of the workout to not suck.

Finally, repped out 155 x 10.

Kroc rows hurt like a mofo. However, I rowed the dumbell more to my chest today than I have in the past (I tend to pull lower, to my ribcage), and I liked the way it felt better in my back. I have a feeling I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. 2 x 30 each side.

Strict press went alright. Started right at 145 and hit it for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. First set of 5 blows and is super stiff, I think I should probably do a warmup set first. But the rest started moving pretty nicely, not super fast but fairly smooth and the weight didn't feel heavy. On the 6th set I got 7 solid reps, didn't push to 8 cause I don't think I would have made it. Not bad.

Finally, did 25 kipped pullups, but I was really pooped and these blew.

Overall, a rough workout. I am sad about my bench, it was progressing so nicely and I wish I wasn't having this setback. However, I really think that it is simply a matter of getting used to the slightly different angles, and my chest getting stronger. Which will simply take time. I may have to pull my numbers back even further in order to get my bench started moving again, but maybe not. And either way, I'm sure once it DOES start moving I will be able to make continual progress for a good while. And, I think that taking it easier on those backoff sets will make benching less miserable on tuesdays, and maybe even speed up my progress. Either way, lets just keep at it.