Bench 185 x 20

It's been a good week of training. Very cold out in the garage, but I'm surviving. Yesterday, I hit front squats. I tackled 275 beltless again yesterday, did a pyramid up from one to 4 reps, tried to hit a final set of 5 but I could only manage 4. Which was a little annoying, but at the same time it was significantly more volume at 275 than last week, when I only hit one set of 4. I think it's time to start belting up again. I need my legs to be growing, and the belt just allows me to use so much more weight. I'm still going to be careful to keep the load reasonable though, to work on athleticism and building, not just testing strength. Also, I hit some deadlift assistance at 225 - just trying to work the middle of the movement a lot, with half-and-half deadlifts, still leg deads, and 2 deadlifts with a 10-second pause off the ground.

Today was bench day, and I tentatively decided to do another rep-out at 185. My short term goal these last few weeks has been to hit 185 for 20-25 reps, then work my way up to 225 and try and start throwing that around for reps. I was tentative about repping out 185 because I have been doing a good job of keeping my focus on building the lift, through rep work, bench variations, pushups, bodybuilding work for biceps and back, etc. So, I worry about testing my bench cause I don't want to get into the habit of getting all worked up and focused on testing strength, when it is clearly increasing. However, on the other hand I don't want testing my strength to become this big bad taboo and scary thing, so I just went for it. Ended up hitting a set of 20. Here's the weird thing: I failed rep 17 because I was trying to maintain touch n go, and I think that my triceps are just too weak for that. They tire out too quickly for me to sustain touch n go. However, after failing 17 I switched to paused reps, taking a few seconds to rest at the bottom, and managed another 4 reps. So I hit the big Two-Oh, which is a 3 rep PR. However, I feel kind of annoyed by the failure. It makes me feel like I'm sneaking out those last few reps, like I haven;t actually gotten stronger, I just figured out a gimmick that allows me to sneak out more reps. Obviously that's pretty stupid, but we are always hyper critical of ourselves.

Next, I hit 5 x 10 floor press at 185, to target my triceps more specifically. I decided to do this after noticing that floor press was a real weakness of mine - a few weeks ago I hit floor press at 185 and a set of 6 was challenging. Since then, I've hit it a few times, and today I was able to do my 5 x 10, even after that set of 20. So that is some clear improvement. I still think I need to be really focusing a little more on my triceps, they seem to be the weak link. I'm going to try and do more close-grip variations when I bench and do pushups, and maybe even add in a little specific tricep work. Hopefully in another few weeks I can hit that 185 for 22-23 reps, and then I think it would be time to work my way up to 225 and make that my new working weight.

Speaking of 225, I did something stupid today. After the 70 reps at 185, I put 225 on the bar and took a swing at it. I benched it for a regular single, a feet-up touch n go single, and a feet up paused single. The first rep moved nice, but the others were a little slow and tough, and that really ground my gears. That, combined with the failure on rep 17, makes me feel like what I'm doing isn't working. Which is completely stupid. Of course 225 didn't move great. First of all, I haven't handed that weight in a long time. I need to be prepared that, even though I'm getting much stronger with what I'm doing, I'll still need to adjust when I switch to heavier weights. The movement will feel a little different for sure, the weight will feel heavy. However, after a few workouts with the new weight it will start to feel comfortable again and I can start to treat it with the same confidence and control with which I have come to treat 185. Secondly, I hit 225 AFTER 70 reps at 185, 50 of which were specifically targeting my triceps. Of course 225 didn't move like a dream. But it is going to feel significantly different once I am fresh and taking a crack at it.

So, I think I'm gonna try and take a little bit of distance from benching. Put some focus on pushups, triceps and biceps for a couple workouts, try and get those arms growing and get my speed and athleticism up. I'll hit another couple bench workouts at 185, try and take it up from sets of 10 to sets of 12 to increase the difficulty and practice dat stamina, and I'm gonna focus on close grip or tricep-dominant variations. Then, I'll bang out another PR set of 23 or so before February is over, and start working my way up to 225. Lets keep at it folks.