snlewis25’s BodyBlog

When people find out that I workout I always get asked the famous question…What is your max on the bench? In my mind I say “I don’t max out, I workout”. I always tell them about 3 or I say I can’t take any chances maxing out back here by myself. My Friday workout is full body with heavy weight with special emphasis on the chest. A week and a half ago on Friday the 13^th I miss my workout that night and I decided I’d make it up Saturday morning. When I woke up that morning I knew I was going to try and break some records. I’d been taking Halodrol for about two weeks and felt I really needed to add weight to get the full effect of it. Ok, in this workout I always start with a 3-set superset for the quads and hams then 10 sets for the calves. After that I start benching. It’s normally 4 sets that goes140lbs 15 reps, 190lbs 12 reps, 235lbs 10 reps, then 265lbs 8-10 reps. Well, on this day I wanted to move up from the 265. I don’t know how I decided on 290lbs but I loaded it up there. I looked at it for about 5 minutes trying to get my mind right. Let me say that the last time I maxed out was 2005, I was able to get 290lbs with a “generous” spotter. Back to the present, I had my friend to stand at the door as I was getting ready to lift it off the rack. I thought if I could get 5 that would be great. Here is how it went: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, (it was at this time I went to thinking about 10) Six, Seven, Eight, Nnnine, Tttten! I couldn’t believe what I had just done. According to a bench formula I have, my max should be about 385, which was hard for me to believe. I said that the next week I would get a spotter and finally max out. I finished my workout with 4 sets for the back and 6 more “finisher” sets for the chest. (incline and decline bench)

So the following Saturday I was at it again. This time I loaded 300lbs on the rack and was able to push it 8 times. I was able to find a spotter to come other for a special max day on Sunday the 22^nd. I started with warm sets of 140lbs for 10 reps, 190 for 8, and 225 for 3. Then I went to 315lbs. This was the most I every lifted and I got it with ease. Next, was 325, no problem. Then 345, I said why not make it an even 350. My spotter watched me carefully as I lifted it off the bar and pushed it back up for a clean rep. We moved up to 360lbs. I lifted it off the rack and eased it down. At this point I already knew I wouldn’t get it back up, I told him to “get it”. I was very satisfied and impressed with myself. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had too many warm up sets. I thinking next time I should have to light warm up sets, then move straight to 325 or 345. Then I wondered was it the Halodrol pushing the weight or did I already have that strength stored in me. Either way I lifted 350lbs, at 6’0 19Xlbs and no one can take that from me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 6:12 am 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.