Dsher10’s BodyBlog

Went to my bench workout today with some trepidation: Would I be able to do anything? Was my meet in jeopardy? Apparently not. My trainer had me do a series of light, wide-grip benches with a curved bar. I worked up to reps with 175 without pain, though my left elbow was still touchy at full lockout. My trainer thinks I’ll be OK for the meet; I just need to watch things closely until then and not overdue my training weights. He feels I’ll be able to do near my max at the meet even if I don’t work that heavy between now and then.

I sure hope so!

My overstressed elbows are beginning to mend, slowly. I limited my Monday session to just shrug work, as that did not require me to bend my arms. Even so, I still re-stressed my left arm a bit and had to stop. This Thursday at my bench workout all I did was 200 reps with a broomstick, then about 8 sets of 10-15 reps with the 45 lb bar. Hopefully, this helped loosen me up. I will do nothing else until next Thursday, except icing and pain medication. Hopefully I will be able to resume my regular training by then.

Damn. Here i am just about five weeks out from my bench meet and I have two injured elbows, especially my left! I have felt  over-stressing coming on the last few weeks and, as usual, tried to work around it. But to no avail. I really blew it about two weeks ago doing sets of eight reps of lying dumbbell presses, working up to 90 lbs. About a day later my elbows were so sharply painful I could barely move them. Now I can’t train! I tried workouts that didn’t involve bending my arms, like shrugs, but even those put a pulling strain on my arms.

Now I’m about to see my physician and physical therapist. I expect them to say DON’T WORK OUT! So, I will just need to assess the impact on my meet. I’m afraid it won’t be good.

Had fun at the lift meet and met some great folks. Nearly all lifters were in shirts; I was RAW. My starting weight was 236 lbs, a warm-up weight for me, and I nailed it easily. Second lift was 260 lbs, a weight I do often in the gym. I got the lift, but I threw the weight back toward my head and out of my groove, turning the lift into a triceps contest. So my right arm, with the detached triceps medial lobe, lagged a bit at lockout and the lift wasn’t a smooth as I would have liked, though the lift was good.  My third attempt was 270 lbs, again a weight I do for 2-3 reps in the gym and less than the 275 I lifted at the May meet. I got the weight off my chest with no problem, but with a repeat of the same groove issue as with my second lift, my right triceps lagged at the transition, the lift went squirrelly, and it did not satisfy the judges.

Of course, I really wanted 285, so I didn’t hit my meet goal, but I can see where I need to work: keeping the lift in my power groove. Once I conquer that issue, I should make a competition 270 lift, and more, OK. I did, however, out-lift my shirted competition to earn a 1st-place trophy for my age/weight class. I also earned an invitation to the WABDL® GOODSON/HONDA WORLD BENCH PRESS AND DEAD LIFT CHAMPIONSHIPS to be held in Reno, NV, October 27 – November 1, 2009.

Nine weeks to go until my next meet am I’m still focusing on board and floor-chain presses, altenating between them each week. This week was floor preses, and I worked up to two reps with 305. Not the most perfect of lifts , but the weight went up!

I’m eight weeks out now from my lift meet in Winston-Salem, NC and working hard toward my 300lb RAW bench goal. My trainers suggested I enter the WABDL Monster Energy Southeastern Record Breakers meet to be held in Kennesaw, GA on July 25th. This would give me more experience on the platform, as well as some indications of what I need to do to improve my lifts for Winston-Salem. The meet is not a RAW meet, and there is no RAW classification, so I will be competing against a bunch of shirted lifters. I don’t expect to break any records. But the practice will be good, and I’ll feel fine if I can get in a good RAW competition lift of 285 or so, maybe more.

CLICK HERE -> My intervirw with Gunrock for “Senior Citizen Health and Wellness Tips”.

It looks like I need to concentrate on the top-end of my lifts, so I will be doing a lot of 3-board lifts augmented with chains. I’m about 11- weeks out from my next competition and look forward to breaking through my old nubers; I’m tired of slogging through the 200’s! Time for a change! 300’s, here I come!

I’ve been at the same Monday routine for quite some time now; traps and lats which, of course, are important for big benches. However I haven’t directly worked my chest or shoulders for several months. Unfortunately there are not enough days in the week to hit all the necessary muscle groups and still give my body time to recover, so something had to give. But I feel my benching may be suffering from the lack of chest/shoulder workouts.

So I’ve decided to alternate between back (traps/lats) and chest/shoulders, every OTHER Monday. This should give each area time to recover yet allow me to work both muscle groups. I hit chest today with both flat and inclined dumbbell presses and decline machine presses. As I haven’t done these in a while I worked up the weights slowly and didn’t push to my max (plus my darn back was acting up). I ended up with two setgs of four reps with 90 pound dumbbells on the flat press (I’ve done 110 previously) and eight reps of 70 on the inclined (I’ve previously played around with 85’s but never really pushed it).

Hopefully I will recover in time for my bench training on Thursday.

After my warm up today I began what will be a series of workouts with floor presses and chains designed to help me with my lockouts. In this first workout session, which introduced me to chains for the first time, I had to find my "working weight". Doing triples, I started with a base weight of 185 pounds on the bar. I first added a pair of 20 pound chains (40 pounds total), raising my lock-out poundage to 225 (pretty easy). Next I added another pair of chains for an 80 pound addition, raising my lock-out poundage to 265 and did three reps (a bit harder). Finally, I added a third pair of chains for 120 pounds total addition, raising my lock-out poundage to 305, and did three reps - my max. I proceeded to do three more working sets of triples with the 305 total, but had to have some assistance on the last reps.

As with all new exercises, the chains take some getting used to. But I’m quickly getting a feel for them, and they are fun! I look forward to blasting through these workouts, making some great gains!