My BodyBlog

I won’t call this workout a failure - anytime I get myself to the gym, pump some iron, and work up a sweat, I call that a success - instead I’ll call this bench workout a learning experience.  Here’s what happened.  I did the first two working sets of 215×3 with no trouble.  I felt strong and was confident.  Then I went up to 230×2.  First rep was fine, but trying to push up on the second rep the bar started to swing forward and I needed a save from the spotter.  I took a break then tried the second set of 230×2, with almost the exact same result.  The first rep was completed, the second rep I lost it.  After another break I attempted the final lift, a single 240.  No trouble with the liftoff, but once it got down to the lowest point I couldn’t do anything with it and the spotter saved me again. 

Here’s where the learning part comes in - my spotter was an experienced bencher.  He pointed out a flaw in my form - when lowering the bar I’m moving my arms and shoulders in such a way that the bar is coming down too far towards my head.  He said on the 240 attempt it was almost up to my neck!  I was forced to push the bar up and out, so I can’t lift as much weight as I would if the bar were going straight up, and with a heavier weight it throws me off balance.  I know better than this.  I try to focus on good form every time, but I can now realize that when I’m doing the heavier lifts I’m thinking more about how much weight is on the bar and not enough about the mechanics of what I’m doing.  My next workout I’ll focus harder on doing every lift with the best form I can.

Only 4 workouts left in the program, and it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, but I am getting stronger and now with the experience of yesterday I hope I’ll be able to lift better from here on in.  Whatever happens I’m so glad I started this, and I plan to finish it by attempting every set and every rep called for.  

This is it, I’m officially a gym rat.  On a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon I headed to the gym for my bench press workout and there was not another soul there!  Either I need to get a life, or I am living life to the fullest by staying committed to something I love so much.  I’ll say it’s the latter, LOL!  Anyway, being alone at the gym with no spotter to watch me through my lifts and the failure test posed a problem.  I wasn’t going to postpone the workout which would put me off my schedule, so instead I worked around it by setting up my bench press in the power rack.  First time I’d done bench press with it, and I have to say I wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the normal bench and rack.  I had to set the safety rods so that I had a full range of motion, but yet allow me to fail on a lift and be able to get out from under the bar.

It worked out ok, but I noticed that if I did not have the bar perfectly level on the descent, then either one side or the other would touch the safety rod before I reached my chest.  This was a minor annoyance that took away from my focus somewhat, but I still completed all the required sets and reps, and on the failure test using 215 I did two good reps and failed on the third.  That means I stay on the same level in the progression table for my next workout, which is great.

After benching I did some box squats, stiff-leg deadlifts, hamstring curls, and some biceps work with cables and dumbbells.  A great workout, and I was beat at the end.  I have five bench press workouts left in the program, and I’ve timed it so I’ll finish up right before I go away for a week’s vacation at which time I’ll take a break from lifting. 

Working sets required: 2@ 210×3, 2@ 225×1, 1@ 250xNegative.  Result: Wow!

By far the best bench press workout I’ve ever had!  I felt very strong going into it, and my confidence built as I went along.  What a difference from my last bench workout, where I felt tired and struggled to get through it.  Last time, lifting the third rep of 210 was a great challenge, but last night it was smooth, and I won’t say easy, but far easier than last time.

I had a spotter for the whole workout, and as I was lifting up the third rep of my first 210 set, he said "come on, you’ve got a couple of more there for sure!" When I stopped at three I told him about the program I was doing to explain why I stopped.  Lifting 225 went great, it was something I’d been aiming to achieve for a long time and although I had one rep as high as 230 last year, I wasn’t lifting with proper form (using more triceps than chest) so I don’t count that as a good benchpress.  Since I started this program and have improved my form I feel like I’m bench pressing right for the first time, so this time 225 really means a lot.  The spotter, who is a regular bencher, said, after watching me do 225, that I could easily lift another 10-15 pounds.  I did the negative lift of 250 and I had no trouble on the liftoff and was able to keep a slow and steady descent right to my chest.  The spotter has seen me benching several times, and he commented that he can see me getting stronger.  I told him some more about the program and he said he should try it since he’s having trouble getting through a plateau on his benchpress.  Maybe we can work it so that we’re on the program at the same time, it’d be great to have a regular workout partner.

So, why was this workout so much better than the last?  All I can figure is that I had an extra day’s rest on upper body, oh yeah, and I wan’t lugging rocks around the backyard the day before this workout!  Next bench workout is another failure test, interesting to see if my strength carries over to it!    

I wasn’t feeling particularly strong going into this workout.  I had done a heavy workout the day before, and had done a lot of lifting (rocks, soil) in the backyard over the weekend.  In spite of this I’m happy to say I pushed through and completed all the sets for this workout.  On the 210×3 sets, the third reps were the most difficult lifts I’ve done since I started the program.  I just barely pushed them out.  The failure test was using the same weight, so I knew I could do the 2-4 reps required.  The way I felt I had no hope of doing 5, the minimum I needed to move up one step in the program.  Well, the first two reps were clean, but on the third my right side just didn’t have enough strength left and I needed the spotter to help me finish.  So, the 2 reps were enough to keep me on the same track in the progression table, which is a great result.  My right side failing first is the same thing that’s happened to me in the past.  It’s on my right side that I’ve had all my minor injuries since I started lifting - rotator cuff, arm, wrist sprain - I guess this side has progressed a little slower due to the effect over time of recovering from these injuries.

So, looking back over the first half of the bench program….I started with a 1RM of 220.  Yesterday I was able to to lift 210 8 times in total - that indicates a good increase in strength to me!  I hope I’ve improved enough to handle the heavier lifts coming up in the second half of the program.

After benching I just did a few light sets of decline flyes, dumbbell biceps curls, and finally some pull-ups.  Interesting to note that I did 4 sets of 5 pull-ups with little trouble, whereas a couple of months ago I was struggling to do a couple of sets of 3.  I was told by someone at the gym that once my back got accustomed to doing them I would start to improve quickly, I guess he was right!

I felt good doing squats today, decided to try to improve my personal best of 335.  I got up to 330 where I was just going to add five pounds at a time and do one rep, but I ended up doing 2 reps at 330 and felt like I could have done more.  Feeling brave I put on 20 more for a total of 350.  I was using a cage so knowing the safety bars were there if I had to bail out helped my confidence.  When I got that bar on my shoulders and felt the weight pressing down I was determined to do it.  Before I knew it the rep was done.  I was watching myself in the mirror and I wasn’t happy with how deep I went.  So I did another!  And this time I went almost to parallel, and coming out of the hole was hard, but I did it.  Two reps at 350?  I would never have guessed I would get that result today.  During my workout I also did some traps, some quad work on a couple of machines, and some high rep sets of calf presses on the leg press machine.  I focused mostly on lower body today, I want to have my upper body at its strongest when I do a failure test for my bench press program.  That will be tomorrow, if the day goes as planned.

I snuck away from work today (you can do that sometimes when you’re self-employed!) to do a mostly back and abs workout.  I’ve been reading about rack deadlifts so I gave them a try.  Not as much fun as regular deadlifts, but they isolate the lower back more so they were good to do for a change.  In total I did 23 sets for back, about half for lats and half for lower back.  I’m very happy with my pull-ups, I’m getting better at them and blasted out 8 in my last set!  I did 17 sets of abs using 7 different exercises to hit all ab muscles from all angles.  For a change of pace I threw in a few sets of power cleans.  A great workout, I was sweating all through out.

I’ve been doing more back, shoulder and triceps work lately to help improve my bench press.  I’m almost half way through a seven week bench workout program and I want to get the most out of it I can.  Seems to be going well so far.

Last night’s benching went smoothly until I got to the first set of 220×2.  I got through it, but I get an F for form.  I think I had myself so psyched up to push a heavy weight that I put too much drive into the first rep and it was way too fast.  I slowed up for the second rep but by that time I had used too much energy and I struggled badly to get the bar up.  I pushed through and did it though.  During my rest period before the next set I had a good talking to myself (in my head, the gym was crowded so I couldn’t talk out loud this time LOL!) and I basically told myself to settle down and focus on lifting the right way, keep the reps smooth and at a moderate pace.  I said to myself that it is more important to lift the right way and if I fail on the second rep so what?  I decided to get a spotter for the set, just in case I needed help.  I focused and successfully did 220×2 with good form and although I exerted maximum effort to push up the second rep, the bar only slowed a little.  What a difference between the two sets!  I know my form was the key, and having a spotter for the second set helped my confidence.  I finished off the bench workout with a solid negative of 240.  I then did some triceps, biceps, and hamstring work, in a very good mood!

My one rep max starting the program was 220.  Last night I did 4 reps of 220 total, feeling strong at the end.  Proof that the program is working?  Seems so!  Another failure test next workout, which won’t happen until Sunday.  I think that one will be tougher than the first, but I’ll be well rested, so who knows?

I completed working sets of 1@ 180×6 and 2@ 190×5.  Time for the first failure test with 200 pounds.  If I could do 5 reps I would move up one step in the progression table for my next workout.  I was confident, but still took my time setting up and focusing before starting the set.  I did 5 solid reps, then pushed through a 6th rep before failing on the 7th.  A very successful failure test!  Looking at the workouts to come the weights and reps start getting into ranges I’ve never even thought about doing.  I think I’m up for the challenge.

The title of this blog says it all - I achieved a goal on deadlifts last night and I feel incredible - so for anyone who might be interested I’ll recap my journey to this point and describe last night’s session.

I had little knowledge about deadlifts until I started reading about them on this site last November.  Up to that point I had tried them a couple of times out of curiousity, just trying to copy what I’d seen a couple of others doing.  I had only lifted less than 135 and I found it hard and unpleasant.  When I started reading about the deadlift I quickly realized I wasn’t doing it right - the flaws in my form were too numerous to mention.  So I printed off an article and took it to the gym with me one day and tried again - what a difference!  I can’t remember what I lifted but it felt so much better than my previous sessions that I was encouraged to try again.  I broke the 300 mark on December 23rd and it felt great!

Then in January a minor setback - I sprained my wrist so deadlifts were out for awhile.  I did deadlift again on February 8, which was a six week break, and I was able to again break 300, with a 302 lift.  It was then a full month before I did deads again, I was travelling a lot for work and I had other priorities at the gym.  I did a 324 lift that day, and I remember being surprised by the result, and starting to wonder how much would I could do if I actually trained regularly.

Since March 7 I’ve done deadlifts every two weeks faithfully.  During the five months leading up to yesterday’s result, my knowledge of how to train and my skill at doing the lifts has increased greatly, thanks to all the info on bodybuilding.com, and thanks to the kind advice given by many bodyspace members that I contacted with questions.  I could not have done it without you.

My goal for each session was to increase my maximum lift by 5 pounds, and I did that for 5 sessions, bringing my best lift up to 355.  I remember how I felt when I did 350 - I was on top of the world!  It was then I set my goal of lifting 400, it was the first time I truly believed I could do it if I kept working.  I set a goal of lifting 400 by the end of 2008, and as you can see I surpassed that by a mile!  An important reason for my quick advancement is what I did between deadlift sessions.  I did a lot of lower back and especially hamstring exercises, the primary muscle groups used in deadlifting.

Could I have advanced more than 5 pounds every two weeks?  Probably, but don’t forget this was all still very new to me, and I’d read all the warnings about injury, so I was being very careful to lift the right way.  A little progress each time satisfied me greatly.  On July 5, I got a little braver and added 10 more pounds, successfully lifting 365.  On July 19, I remember feeling particularly strong and energetic, and after completing a 375 lift I added 5 more pounds and to my amazement I did a strong lift of 380!  After that I knew I was very close to reaching my goal, and I was anxious for deadlift day to arrive again.

My last blog about deadlift explains everything that went wrong the next time I did them.  I could only lift 345 that day, and I knew very well what happened.  It affected my confidence ever so slightly, to the point where my next session, yesterday, my goal was to get back to my personal best 380 lift and then to try 385 if I felt good.

So that brings me to yesterday.  I went to the gym at 7:30, almost two hours after eating a meal high in protein.  There were a couple of guys there, regulars that I chat to sometimes.  I had my lifts planned out and I was very relaxed, talking between sets.  I did a 350 lift with ease.  One of the guys complimented me on it.  I set up for 365 and as I started the lift I realized I was looking down at the floor instead of looking ahead!  I corrected and did the lift but I was pissed with myself.  I was thinking about my next lift instead of what I was doing.  My achievements so far were due to me focusing on my form and taking one lift at a time.  Focus and concentration are everything!  I was feeling good so I skipped 380 and went right to 385, a new personal best attempt.  My focus was back and I did the lifting up part fine, but what happened then was a first for me.  I lost my balance a little and that was enough for the bar to start moving forward and I knew I was going to lose it so I just dropped it.  I ended up doing a little hop over the bar to avoid falling down myself.  I didn’t hurt myself in any way, it was just a little puzzling why it happened.  The only thing I could figure is my feet were a little closer together than they should have been.  So, I lifted 385, but I wasn’t satisfied with the lift.  I wanted a clean smooth lift from start to finish.  I was still feeling great, so I decided to do another.  But what weight?  Add 5 pounds?  Then I thought…I’m only 15 away from 400…dare I try it?  At worst I’ll just abort, and at best….

I put on the plates needed to bring the bar to 400.  I used chalk and straps to make sure I had the best grip possible.  I stood over the bar, getting focused.  As I set up my grip I could see in the mirror the other two guys stop what they were doing to watch me.  When this happens it makes me more determined and helps me focus even more.  I widened my stance a little, moved into the bar, took a few deep breaths, and then I nailed that sucker!  No problem with balance this time, I even locked out at the top before lowering the bar smoothly back to the mat.  I wasn’t feeling euphoric as I had on previous best lifts, I think I was a little in shock that I had done it and that it went so well!  The two guys congratulated me on the lift, and I was soon cleaning up the plates and moving on to the rest of my workout.  It wasn’t until after, on the drive home, that it hit me - I just deadlifted 400 pounds, over 4 months ahead of my goal, and although it was a challenging lift it was well within my capability.  I felt deeply satisfied, but more than that, I felt the desire for more.

I still feel that way as I write this.  Where do I go with deadlifting from here?  I’ll keep training, but should I focus on more reps and volume, or keep trying for heavier weight?  Probably a combination of the two.  I have other goals that I want to achieve in other areas, and what I achieved deadlifting gives me confidence that if I keep working I can achieve those goals too.  Whatever I do though, deadlifting will stay a part of my training and the memory of lifting 400 will stay with me forever.

The weights required for this workout were the highest of the program so far, although the reps were lower, so going into it I was wondering how I would be able to handle it.  The working sets were 2@ 195×3, 2@ 210×2, and a negative at 230.  A month ago during a bench workout my one rep max was 205, and here I was, about to do 4 lifts at 210.

The 195 sets were no problem.  The 210 sets were more of a challenge, but I really focused on my form and I think the lifts were smooth and well done, the major difference being the speed.  It took me longer to push up the second rep of 210 than the first, but I’ll take it.  The last set, a negative of 230, I think was executed really well.  I had no trouble with the lift off and I did the descent very slowly, was able to bring the bar right to my chest, then I let the spotter take most of the weight getting it up again.

So workout #4 is in the books and I am really enjoying the program so far, I feel like I’m laying the foundation for some great lifts later on.  The next workout calls for the first set to failure, and how I do on that one determines if I stay on the same track or if I move up one step in the progression table.  I’m very optomistic I can do that!

After benching I did some back work (bent over barbell rows, straight arm pull-downs), and some light chest work (barbell pullovers and flat bench dumbbell flyes).  It was my third workout in four days and my main focus, apart from benching, was on back, shoulders and triceps.  I want to strenghten all of the muscle groups used in benching so I can achieve the best gains possible.

Next workout though I’m going to give upper body somewhat of a rest.  I’ll do deadlifts and some leg work, maybe some abs too.