This was my first heavy lifting day in a while. I was aiming for sets in the 5 rep range on flat, close-grip and incline bench presses. Between my hospitalization for pneumonia and today, this was my first heavy day in at least three months. Most definitely today’s session will shock my body to do some growing. As I’m not trying to gain weight, I’m planning to go heavy once a month, with other days dedicated to sets in the 10 to 12 rep range.
- barbell flat bench press
- warm up
- 1 x 12 @ 45 lbs
- 1 x 5 @ 135 lbs
- 1 x 5 @ 155 lbs
- 1 x 5 @ 175 lbs
- work sets
- 1 x 5 @ 185 lbs
- clean, picked up the pace a bit
- 1 x 5 @ 195 lbs
- sorta difficult, paused after 3rd rep
- tried snapping at the bottom (needs work)
- concentrate on exploding
- keep hips down
- Felt alright on flat bench. I can tell there’s work for me to do to get back to heavy weights.
- close-grip bench press
- warm up
- 1 x 5 @ 155 lbs
- work sets
- 1 x 5 @ 175 lbs
- get rid of pause near the top
- 1 x 5 @ 185 lbs
- get rid of pause, keep hips down
- Felt good. 185 sounds heavy if flat bench is at 195 but I felt strong with this weight.
- incline barbell bench press
- work sets
- 1 x 5 @ 155 lbs
- 1 x 5 @ 165 lbs
I need to develop a scale by which I can quantify how I feel during a set, maybe multiple metrics. The focus of my notes on a specific session’s lifts should be to guide subsequent sessions – today’s lessons should guide me tomorrow, not depress me by dwelling on recent mistakes.
