Session went pretty well. Considering odd eating and a reduction in calories, I did good. Went to a diff. gym.
Decline bench press
135lbs x 15
185lbs x 10
225lbs x 10
245lbs x 8
275lbs x 6
315lbs x 6 (all by myself, minimal help on the lift off (asshole), came very close to touching chest. These were solid… I want to be doing 315 for 10 god damnit)
Incline DB press
70’s x 10
90’s x 10
115’s x couldn’t get them up
115’s x couldn’t get them up
115’s x 8 finally. I woulda been good for 10 if I hadn’t fucked up my first 2 attempts)
Pec deck thing (maybe this is why yalls numbers are so high… usually I do my RP with like 140-160)
100lbs x 10
150lbs x 10
190lbs x 6
220lbs x 11 + 6 + 4 (21RP)
Killed time doing calves and checking out some fine ass girls.
you ever bring the bar to your neck on a decline? i feel it a lot more that way but sometimes i want to be lazy and only bring it down to my chest, like a 3 inch ROM and i have fucking long arms lol.
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
you ever bring the bar to your neck on a decline? i feel it a lot more that way but sometimes i want to be lazy and only bring it down to my chest, like a 3 inch ROM and i have fucking long arms lol.[/quote]
Well, I bring it kind of between chest and neck, so the finish point is probably about halfway up my chest, but hovering about an inch off. I know what you mean you can be lazy and just basically bounce is off your ribcage haha.
Well I wish I could say my chest day went well like Bug’s but it did NOT!
HS Incline:
365x8, 3, 1 (12 RP)
*Only 1 rep more than last week, I’m noticing the first rep on the 2nd and 3rd minisets really sucks. Might use those manpads I made for this.
Smith Low-Incline:
245x8, OUCH!
*Fucking popped something in my right shoulder on the 6th rep, I pushed out 2 more anyway… I know why - I was using a very wide grip and my elbows were flared rather than tucked in and it felt straining on my shoulders, and sure enough there was a pop.
Had my buddy who has Sports Medicine credentials look at it. He said its nothing major but to definitely make sure I get the elbows in if I’m going to do that lift again because if I keep doing that eventually it will lead to a serious condition he explained to me.
For feeling it in your back on rows, tried going with lighter weights and more reps? Or something like a drop-set or two? It helped me improve my mind-muscle connection to my back.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
I don’t need any kind of studies or anything personally. I can FEEL the bicep more stretched when it is underhand vrs overhand. Its pretty much impossible to feel any kind of stretch in the bicep while holding anything overhand…now hold it underhand - you will FEEL the bicep being stretched.
Take a supinated (underhand) BB curl for example…at the bottom portion of the lift you will feel a stretch in the bicep. Now take that same BB and hold it with a pronated (overhand) grip. Do you feel a stretch in the bicep at all? Nope.[/quote]
I get what you are saying Josh, but I think the example of the BB curl really doesn’t relate to deads. Of course you are going to feel a stretch in the bicep doing curls, you are working the bicep, you are suppose to feel a stretch. But when you pull you shouldn’t be involving your biceps much, if at all. So you shouldn’t feel a stretch in the bicep. Right? I could be really wrong here.
All I’m saying is this, I’ve never felt anything in either bicep while pulling, so I’M not too concerned with pulling a bicep. I think this is a you say potato, I say potahto kinda thing.
Bench - don’t remember exact numbers
135x8
185x5
225x3
245x2
265x1 - decided to go for 300
285x1
300xmiss - needed help at a sticking point, about one or two inches off my chest
300xmiss - same thing
300xmiss - nothing left
stupid sticking point, once i got it moving it was easy sailing
dumbbell bench
60x10
70x10
80x6
80x4
barbell curls
95x6
95x6
105x2
one arm cable curls
30x6
30x6
30x6
I didn’t do any other chest exercises because flyes or cable crossovers have been hurting my right shoulder recently. Weird.
All in all a good session. I need to work on that sticking point though on bench. I don’t know if I need a tighter setup or more leg drive or both. I’ll have to mess around with it.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
Well I wish I could say my chest day went well like Bug’s but it did NOT!
HS Incline:
365x8, 3, 1 (12 RP)
*Only 1 rep more than last week, I’m noticing the first rep on the 2nd and 3rd minisets really sucks. Might use those manpads I made for this.
Smith Low-Incline:
245x8, OUCH!
*Fucking popped something in my right shoulder on the 6th rep, I pushed out 2 more anyway… I know why - I was using a very wide grip and my elbows were flared rather than tucked in and it felt straining on my shoulders, and sure enough there was a pop.
Had my buddy who has Sports Medicine credentials look at it. He said its nothing major but to definitely make sure I get the elbows in if I’m going to do that lift again because if I keep doing that eventually it will lead to a serious condition he explained to me.[/quote]
Wide-grip pressing is damn tricky business… There are ways to go about it and one can learn how to do it properly but that’s not for you guys yet. Just stick to regular grip for now.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
josh86 wrote:
Well I wish I could say my chest day went well like Bug’s but it did NOT!
HS Incline:
365x8, 3, 1 (12 RP)
*Only 1 rep more than last week, I’m noticing the first rep on the 2nd and 3rd minisets really sucks. Might use those manpads I made for this.
Smith Low-Incline:
245x8, OUCH!
*Fucking popped something in my right shoulder on the 6th rep, I pushed out 2 more anyway… I know why - I was using a very wide grip and my elbows were flared rather than tucked in and it felt straining on my shoulders, and sure enough there was a pop.
Had my buddy who has Sports Medicine credentials look at it. He said its nothing major but to definitely make sure I get the elbows in if I’m going to do that lift again because if I keep doing that eventually it will lead to a serious condition he explained to me.
Wide-grip pressing is damn tricky business… There are ways to go about it and one can learn how to do it properly but that’s not for you guys yet. Just stick to regular grip for now.
[/quote]
What is considered wide grip? Does height and arm length make a difference? It does right?
I use to bench with ring fingers on the power rings, I switched to having my pointer fingers on the power rings and everything feels better. I’m stronger, my pressing movement is more natural and I feel like I have more control over the weight.
Was my old grip too close maybe? I experimented with grip while doing a program from Elitefts. I varied three grip widths and I found that moving my hands out slightly really increased my bench.
I think it was a combination of going fairly wide, pointer finger on the rings and doing it in the Smith. For some reason Incline benching with a freeweight BB with the same grip doesn’t feel awkward but in the smith it does. Going wide in the smith doing inclines just felt weird trying to tuck my elbows in, so I just let them flare which felt more natural but felt straining on the shoulders. Stupid me decided to push it anyway and sure enough there goes the pop.
If its still bugging me tomorrow (shoulder day) I am just going to do some left side only shit. Its pretty sore right now…hopefully I can still get my back workout done. If not I’ll do some left side only lat pulldowns and cable rows and then should be able to hit Rack Pulls at the end still. My right side is my larger/stronger side anyway so itll be good to do some left side only shit I guess. lol
I’m thinking next week either try to get the elbows in…OR go with my HS Incline RP’d followed by BB flat bench done heavy 6-8 rep, then 8-12 both strait sets. Then the usual pec-deck done RP’d.
Dre - Just some more insight to this. I grip flat BB bench about the same as I was last night except on flat BB I can grip very wide and still tuck my elbows in and it feels very natural, no shoulder strain at all.
This just further makes me believe it was a combo of the wide grip AND the being incline in the smith. Hell I can grip it that wide on a freeweight incline BB press and it feels very natural too, maybe I just don’t like the smith for this lift.
Went to the gym yesterday to do some treadmill work to help my quads be less sore today. 10 minutes in, I got bored and decided to lift shoulders. Here’s how that went:
[quote]josh86 wrote:
Dre - Just some more insight to this. I grip flat BB bench about the same as I was last night except on flat BB I can grip very wide and still tuck my elbows in and it feels very natural, no shoulder strain at all.
This just further makes me believe it was a combo of the wide grip AND the being incline in the smith. Hell I can grip it that wide on a freeweight incline BB press and it feels very natural too, maybe I just don’t like the smith for this lift. [/quote]
Yeah, I hear ya. Lately my right shoulder has been giving me issues. The other day I did some incline bb bench and used the same wide grip I do for flat bb bench, well that bothered my shoulder too. I’ll have to move my grip in a bit. Also, any shoulder presses I do are hurting a tad too lately. WTF?
Do you have really tight shoulders? My shoulders are like ridiculously tight (especially my right one), I try to stretch them really good using the handcuff stretch after my shoulder day, but its not really helping. I really need to start doing the broomstick stretches regularly I think, need to get a stick first though.
[quote]josh86 wrote:
Do you have really tight shoulders? My shoulders are like ridiculously tight (especially my right one), I try to stretch them really good using the handcuff stretch after my shoulder day, but its not really helping. I really need to start doing the broomstick stretches regularly I think, need to get a stick first though.[/quote]
You weren’t doing the broomstick stretch regularly before? Fool
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
josh86 wrote:
Do you have really tight shoulders? My shoulders are like ridiculously tight (especially my right one), I try to stretch them really good using the handcuff stretch after my shoulder day, but its not really helping. I really need to start doing the broomstick stretches regularly I think, need to get a stick first though.
You weren’t doing the broomstick stretch regularly before? Fool
[/quote]
I know I know, I would do them sometimes - like once every other week. It fucking sucks doing them with a big bath towel though…I need to go buy a broom so I can take the stick out of it. lol
Oh I have been meaning to ask…is it normal for them to make my traps burn more than anything else? Because every time I’ve done them I mostly just feel my traps burning like they are on fire.
That’s just because you aren’t used to shrugging the weight of the bath towel.
It’ll go away in a few weeks, but you might need to do some decline medicine ball sit ups and lateral raises to ease off the traps a little. Don’t forget decline clap pushups for active recovery.
