Upper workout - Small Bench PR

Nutrition
1

Started benching again 6 weeks ago.
I only bench with a close grip, 14inch grip, and finally hit 4 reps with 225lbs yesterday - clip below

14inch grip bench 225lbs x 4 PR clip



Right click and save to avoid errors!



http://www.members.optushome.com.au…5x4_25Nov03.mpg

Here is the clip of the eccentric paused sets - the clip shows the 2nd set. Seems I went slower than 8 secs on the way down.

And I pause half an inch off the chest, before firing up. Quite tough :slight_smile:



Right click on the link and save to avoid errors etc!

http://www.members.optushome.com.au…5x2_25Nov03.mpg



Man my chest is sore! Bodyweight is up to 96kg this morning, straight out of bed, 211lbs. I’m not any fatter as far as I can tell so maybe it’s muscle? :slight_smile:
Was hovering around 95kg recently.



It’s been raining the last 5 days, so that puts a damper on my tempo sprint runs and medball work work. Trying to lean up and improve conditioning for the sprint speed work to come.

Post workout from yesterday later

2

Another excellent workout, felt pretty strong. If I continue to gain as this rate I’ll be benching 315lbs with a 14inch grip in Februrary :slight_smile:

BenchPress

Warmups - 14inch grip Bar - 3 static holds for 6 secs each on the way down then x8
Pushups on bench - 3 static holds for 6secs each on the way down then x5,
95x5, 135lbs x5

Tempo - 10X0 - alternating sets with rows 1.5 to 2 mins rest between each

14inch grip - 185lbs x 3, 225lbs x4 New PR!! + 1 rep

Tempo 82X0
175lbs 4x2 - 8 sec down, 2 sec pause with tension, explode up

Tempo X0X0
Plyo Triple Cluster set -
135lbs - 3 reps, rerack/rest 10seconds, 3 reps, rerack/rest 10seconds, 3 reps

First 3 reps with 225lbs were pretty quick, last one slowed down in the top third. On the 4th rep I was really flexing my abs hard!
2 reps away from my goal of 5 explosive reps.
Just made the last rep of the 175lb sets.

Rows

  • alternating sets with bench 1.5 to 2mins rest between each

ReverseGrip Single Arm Dumbell Rows
warmup - 6kg - 3 position iso hold for 6 secs each then x5, 30lbs x5, 45x5, 70x1
Tempo 20X0
70lbs 3x5 - didn’t feel too hard, stay here another session

Elbows out Single Arm Dumbell Rows
Tempo - 20X0 50lbs 2x7

Bits and Pieces

Rest - 1min

45 degree Incline Dumbell Snatch raises - face down, thumbs up
Tempo - 2010 5kg 2x10 - going up to 6kg next session

Low Pulley Face Pulls to chin
Tempo - 1010 10lbs x20

3

That 225 looked pretty easy for you. I’m sure you could do 230 or 235 for 4 as well…

4

Everything always looks easy for me, even when it isn’t for some reason :slight_smile:

5

Col, are you doing some type of march isometric’s that CT wrote about? or just using isometrics for a couple of sets?

the 100kg looked well easy and you could easily get to 140 by feb if you drove with the legs more!

Looks like the training going well, v well, what type of diet you following at the mo, just curious as you seem to be matching me in weight gain at his rate and i’m eating 3400 kcal/day!

STU

6

do you always use such a relatively close grip? and if so, are you doing so for specific goals or is that whats comfortable? lookin solid brotha, WATCHING those 10 sec negatives made me want an extra day of rest
peace, flash

7

You know, it’s becoming a common happening that for every workout video CoolColJ posts, somebody will tell him he can do more than what he lifted :slight_smile:
(More serious than encouraging I assume)

I think T-mag has its “I killed Kenny” type gag now

8

Well I like a closegrip because the ROM is longest, the shoulders are in a safer position, plus the load is more evenly balanced between the muscles and put in a more useful position.

Yeah those 10 negative sure induce a lot of DOMS! Pecs and delts still sore as hell 2 days on, triceps less so.

DrStu -

I just do some iso holds for warmup, they are excellent for that. I basicly just hold 3 point in the ROM for 6 secs each and then follow these with full range reps. Iso are great for getting the juices flowing fast and msucle temp up.

I don’t like to use leg drive myself. I don’t find it all that comfortable to do.

Yeah training is much better now. Main changes were smarter training and more sleep! I never used to sleep enough and I was pretty much overreaching most of the time. I used to average 5-6 hours of sleep, but now I’m up to about 7-8 now. 8+ would be better but I’m working on it :slight_smile:

Well as far as diet goes, I have no idea. I just eat whenever I’m hungry and don’t bother counting calories etc. I just grab anything that’s available Somedays I hardly eat anything and others I eat a lot more. I have a fairly slow metabolism anyway, so don’t need much food to keep me going :slight_smile:
I pretty much stablised around 94-95kg for a few months.
I just started doing tempo sprints etc and bodyweight did start to go downwards slightly from the slight fat loss
But once I started sleeping more and training better it has gone back up and then some from the lean body mass gains.

9

dude, no offence, but your dreaming if you think you can increase your bench by 40% in 2 months. esp if you refuse to use leg drive, and continue with your current technique.

also IMO your stroke length is way too much on your bench attempt, shoulders are lifting off the bench at the completion of each rep, whereas the yshould be driven back into the bench. and altough you are using a ‘close grip’ your lats dont seem involved at all?

if you begin to use your lats to lower the bar, decrease stroke length, and use leg drive, you might hit 115-120 within 2 months, but that would require a lot of work.

moving from 220 - 315 was the hardest jump for me, and most of the people i train with.

i congratulate you on your progress, but i just think your goal is a little unrealistic.

davidian

10

My max is about 265lbs right now I think. 265 to 315 is 50lbs, which while quite a bit isn’t out of reach. I tend to max out a lot higher where I can do 3-4 reps at.

Well yes I get a lot of people saying that my shoulders come of the bench, but not much I can do about that. I have tried keeping them down, but nothing works.

Lats? I don’t know, I just push the bar up as hard as I can :slight_smile:
I don’t use all the powerlifting “tricks” and techniques.
But I do tuck my shoulder blades together.

11

ha, sounds like you’re the antipodean version of me. I find that when I’m at work i eat all the time and follow my diet well but at weekends i tend to eat bugger all, though after rugby i do force some malto and prot down my throat!

Training looks like it’s going really well, as for me i need to increase my aerobic fitness for rugby whilst keeping the strength gains coming.

STU

12

Well I’m feeling stronger and stronger every week. The last time I felt like this, my full oly squat jumped from 315lbs to 345lbs in an 8 week training cycle! :slight_smile:
Looking forward to finally nailing 405lbs!

I think that if your training well, you should feel stronger every week. makes sense to me.

I found an old bench clip of mine a long time ago. I noticed my calves are quite a bit larger in the newer clips :stuck_out_tongue: