I don’t know much about Dark Horse. Read it once yonks ago.
I respect that. But ultimately, reality will win. If a program is telling a person to do something that they just cannot (yet) one doesn’t have to switch programs one could just adapt to reality and trust that the stimulus is nevertheless there as long as the adaptation is driven by ability (can/cannot) rather than trying to be comfortable (I. E., I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t put in hard work but rather the hardest work that they can without injuring themselves).
Just to be completely honest, I’m way too dogheaded to heed this myself all the time but I’m trying…
I’m sweet to animals (more so than children), but that doesn’t stop me from eating them
Whenever I visit an aquarium, all I can think of is “seafood buffet”
Barbell complexes (5 rounds @ 40kg):
8 x row
8 x powerclean
8 x front squat
8 x thrusters
8 x press
8 x back squat.
10 mins of abs
Notes:
One more week with nothing planned for press day 2, until gyms reopen, so just made stuff up that sucked or I’d been skipping.
Moved press grip in slightly (about an inch, maybe less), and it felt stronger, but also definitely like the bar was moving further. I’m sure there’s some sort of placebo going on there.
Complexes were just awful, really awful. I remember about these every half a year or so and promptly block them from my mind. I had weird ideas about strict rest times here that very, very quickly went out the window.
10 mins of abs was another thought that just went horribly wrong. Basically I set a timer for 10mins with the idea that I would just do “something” for the entire time. 10 mins is a long time, it turns out. Lots of sit ups, leg raises, planks, dead bugs, inch worms, v-ups etc. Later and I regret having to play catch up in the ab game.
I have actually been meaning to ask you about this. Most people I observe at the gym are, in my opinion, doing it “wrong” in terms of grip. At least wrong if moving more weight is the goal, BB is a different matter. It is not a placebo. Despite the ROM increasing, you will engage your lats more and all of your power will be compacted instead of spread out, especially if you bring in a lot of air into your chest cavity.
Good rule of thumb is to try to place the back of your hands on your shoulders. That might not be strictly possible, but it gives you a good idea of where your hand position should be. In my case, that means my thumbs are actually brushing up against the smooth part of the bar.
I suspect you still want to bring them in as far as is comfortable to do so. A BTN press is different, because there your elbows will be pointing out to the sides, and it makes more sense mechanically to have a much wider grip. For a strict press, your elbows should probably be pointing forward as much as you can manage.
I am not saying you cannot or should never go wide. I would just say that is a bodybuilding movement.
I have a pretty big wingspan and I’ve always done hands bang on shoulder width, but I also have a fairly narrow grip for benching and I’m weak so take that for what it’s worth!
