My BodyBlog

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!    

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.