Late to the party, but I’ll jump on the incline love train. The first time I ever benched 3 plates I spent 6 or 8 weeks getting my incline and close grip up to 225 for 4 sets of 6-8. I’ve never been able to grip wider than pinkie on rings and close grip was one finger on smooth. Literally my first day back to flat bench I crushed 315 for a deuce. I’m not the pressing freak of nature that Ecchastang and HeavyTriple are, and Ryan’s pretty strong as well, but I vote keep the inclines in.
[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
You know my feelings on ROM, but I agree with limiting something like an incline. Work is force times distance and your ape arms do a shit ton of work in a bench press even with stopping off the chest, haha.[/quote]
Work the stretched rom with something better. Incline bb is not that movement IMO [/quote]
What do you suggest? I’ve been doing some band flies and some wide grip stuff, that’s all I really came up with lol[/quote]
which ever fly movment feels the best. I like fly press hybrid as well as fly machines the most
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Late to the party, but I’ll jump on the incline love train. The first time I ever benched 3 plates I spent 6 or 8 weeks getting my incline and close grip up to 225 for 4 sets of 6-8. I’ve never been able to grip wider than pinkie on rings and close grip was one finger on smooth. Literally my first day back to flat bench I crushed 315 for a deuce. I’m not the pressing freak of nature that Ecchastang and HeavyTriple are, and Ryan’s pretty strong as well, but I vote keep the inclines in.
Your wingspan is nuts.[/quote]
That’s awesome to hear, that’s kind of what I’m hoping for. I think I have to genuinely just make my entire shoulder/tri/chest area ridic strong to press anything substantial, just because as you said my wingspan is stupid, so leverages aren’t going to ever be on my side unless I’m like 250 lbs lol.
[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
You know my feelings on ROM, but I agree with limiting something like an incline. Work is force times distance and your ape arms do a shit ton of work in a bench press even with stopping off the chest, haha.[/quote]
Work the stretched rom with something better. Incline bb is not that movement IMO [/quote]
What do you suggest? I’ve been doing some band flies and some wide grip stuff, that’s all I really came up with lol[/quote]
which ever fly movment feels the best. I like fly press hybrid as well as fly machines the most[/quote]
Yeah I miss machine flies, the ones with pads were probably my favorite iso chest movements.
Squats: Finally threw on a belt. I could just tell I was going to need it, and I usually put it on once I start getting near the 300 mark on squats.
295x2x5
Front Squats:
195x2x5
Light stuff, like DB Single leg RDL’s and some abs/calves
So a few notes: I’ll definitely probably keep 3-4 weeks of beltless (and I guess sans wrist wraps for pressing) work in the beginning of my training cycles from now on, or at least not use it for stuff under 80% unless I’m going for like a big rep PR. I think it helped with me learning my positioning a bit better. And once the belts on, I can kind of concentrate on my knees more, and IMO they seemed to be much better in this video.
Also this week I’ll be doing little to no heavy assistance work, just the Coan stuff. I figured every 4th week doing a semi-deload by just lessening the volume on that stuff would be good to keep me going. It’s also so fucking cold outside, took me 30 mins just to get warmed up to Squat today.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
It’s so very cold outside, the bar freezes my hands so bad lol.[/quote]
Mechanix gloves have worked well for me here. Just enough warmth, but not too thick to really screw with your grip. I don’t know how cold it is there right now, but that was definitely my go to when lifting in my garage last winter. Plus they’re just really useful gloves.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Late to the party, but I’ll jump on the incline love train. The first time I ever benched 3 plates I spent 6 or 8 weeks getting my incline and close grip up to 225 for 4 sets of 6-8. I’ve never been able to grip wider than pinkie on rings and close grip was one finger on smooth. Literally my first day back to flat bench I crushed 315 for a deuce. I’m not the pressing freak of nature that Ecchastang and HeavyTriple are, and Ryan’s pretty strong as well, but I vote keep the inclines in.
Your wingspan is nuts.[/quote]
That’s awesome to hear, that’s kind of what I’m hoping for. I think I have to genuinely just make my entire shoulder/tri/chest area ridic strong to press anything substantial, just because as you said my wingspan is stupid, so leverages aren’t going to ever be on my side unless I’m like 250 lbs lol. [/quote]
Have you ever thought about bringing your grip in? Know it seems counterintuitive, but I’ve personally seen quite a few long armed lifters benefit from less arch and a narrower grip. I personally bench damn near flat backed with grip never wider than thumbs length from smooth anymore and my bench (and shoulders) feel pretty damn good.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
It’s so very cold outside, the bar freezes my hands so bad lol.[/quote]
Mechanix gloves have worked well for me here. Just enough warmth, but not too thick to really screw with your grip. I don’t know how cold it is there right now, but that was definitely my go to when lifting in my garage last winter. Plus they’re just really useful gloves.
EDIT: you can still hook grip while wearing them.[/quote]
Huh, I’ve never even considered gloves, given I always hear how useless they are for lifting. I may have to though, just because how cold it’s getting. lol
Have you ever thought about bringing your grip in? Know it seems counterintuitive, but I’ve personally seen quite a few long armed lifters benefit from less arch and a narrower grip. I personally bench damn near flat backed with grip never wider than thumbs length from smooth anymore and my bench (and shoulders) feel pretty damn good.[/quote]
I actually tried that for a long time, always hearing it’s safer. But for some reason, frequent CG gives me some cranky bicep and shoulder pain, no idea why. Maybe just because it puts even more ROM on my crazy ROM that I already have.
I took some vid of my CG and Incline, though, so if any of ya’ll think it ‘looks’ stronger I’d be opening to giving a closer grip as my default a grip for awhile.
Sumo: Bar was soooo cold thumbs were almost burning. Had to reset grip for a second after 4 reps.
395x8
HB Paused Squats: Wish I had videoed these, because honestly pauses were probably a bit short haha. But whatever, happy with this beltless and all after DL’s
275x3
Did some easy pump work for Chest and Delts. Usually I do Chest and Back together, but I’m going out of town for a bit tomorrow and will be hitting Back and Bis with friend.
I did some slight Decline Bench, just put a 25-lbs plate under the end of my Bench. Felt alright, did some paused high rep work with it, but honestly wasn’t great, just because trying not to slide down it, my upper back was kind of poppoing in and out of proper position. I then did 2 drop sets of DB High Incline → Low Incline → Flat → Decline
For delts I did 2 sets of 50 rear delt flies, really got a burn going, then hit 3 sets of ‘plate’ laterals, which I’ve seen some OLY lifters do. Then I hit 3 sets of traditional laterals, followed by 3 sets of 15 with just the bar with standing Snatch Grip BTN presses. So just got a really good pump, not real work in.
Honestly may switch my Light Days of Legs, Chest/Back, Delts/Arms to Legs, Push, Pull. It honestly just seems to ‘feel’ more natural to just do delts after Chest, and my elbows being a bit wonky, so maybe having my tricep stuff after pressing will be helpful.
Sumo: Bar was soooo cold thumbs were almost burning. Had to reset grip for a second after 4 reps.
…
[/quote]
Since the steel barbell contracted due to the cold, you really had a better mechanical advantage. Gripping a bar with less circumference and all… Whereas I suffer from the fat grip that 70 degrees in January brings. You really should feel sorry for me.
Sumo: Bar was soooo cold thumbs were almost burning. Had to reset grip for a second after 4 reps.
…
[/quote]
Since the steel barbell contracted due to the cold, you really had a better mechanical advantage. Gripping a bar with less circumference and all… Whereas I suffer from the fat grip that 70 degrees in January brings. You really should feel sorry for me.
[/quote]
Ohh that horrible terrible 70 degree weather… you’ll be in my prayers…
Back Squats: So this is not a PR, but I feel this is the first time doing over 300 and my knees not just going every which way. So I guess that’s a sign I’m fixing some of my issues? Idk I was very pleased with how these felt and how they looked.
305x2x5
Front Squats:
200x2x5
SLDL’s:
155x3x15
Split Squats:
50x2x12
Abs + Calves
Good solid workout. Really feel I’m strengthening some weaknesses, so happy about that.
Macros aren’t bad at all right not. Hit a low (so far) of 205.9 this morning, and still taking in north of 350g of carbs daily, so very happy with the way things are aligning right now.
Back Squats: So this is not a PR, but I feel this is the first time doing over 300 and my knees not just going every which way. So I guess that’s a sign I’m fixing some of my issues? Idk I was very pleased with how these felt and how they looked.
305x2x5
Front Squats:
200x2x5
SLDL’s:
155x3x15
Split Squats:
50x2x12
Abs + Calves
Good solid workout. Really feel I’m strengthening some weaknesses, so happy about that.
Macros aren’t bad at all right not. Hit a low (so far) of 205.9 this morning, and still taking in north of 350g of carbs daily, so very happy with the way things are aligning right now. [/quote]
Good job, bro, that looked really easy too.
Good job, bro, that looked really easy too. [/quote]
Thanks brother, It felt pretty easy too!
Coan Sumo + Light Legs
Sumo: 4th rep I tore something on my thumb, started bleeding everywhere haha
405x5
Paused HB Squats: These got easier each set
185x4x12
Banded Wide Stance Goblet Squats: I’m wondering for how long I need to do these, before they mostly ‘fix’ the weakness?
50x3x12
Split Squat Partials ~SS~ Banded Leg Curls:
2x25 each lift
Good workout. Everything felt great, but workouts sometimes drag out a bit long. I feel like after 6-8 weeks of doing iso work and all that, I crave short, 45 minute compound movement workouts, and 6-8 weeks of that I crave this iso/pump style stuff more. I’m just never satisfied lol