She Walked Out in Silence

BENCH DAY

I've talked before about my annoyance with my bench. There was a time a few months ago when I was struggling similarly with the squat, until one day it just "clicked" for me, and the form fell into place. That hasn't happened yet with my bench, so I'm taking Jim Wendler's advice and resetting my max.

I had previously been working with a 265 actual max, and admittedly I struggled to hit a decent number of reps on my final set of the day. Rather than increasing the max by 5lbs, as is recommended for each upper body exercises in each cycle, I dropped my max 10lbs to 255. This places my working max (90%) at 230. The percentages for this week, using the second option are:

75% x 5

80% x 5

85% x 5+

Additionally I'm sticking to the "Boring But Big" assistance work with the Bench, in order to really drive home the technique. I figure if I'm looking to up my bench, then I should simply shut up and bench. So I'm going with 5 sets of 10 for assistance work, and I'll use incline from time to time as well, in order to get this light switch to flip.

Bench:

45 x 10

95 x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

135 x 5

175 x 5

185 x 5

195 x 5+ (Hit 10. Estimated 1RM of 260. Meh.)

Bench:

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

Kroc Rows:

50 x 10

75 x 10

100 x 25 (Felt great after this. For whatever reason rows are a strong point for me, and they're one of my favorite exercises as a result.)

Dips:

20

20

20

I think one problem I have with the bench is the presence, or lack thereof, of a spotter. With the deadlift I really push myself to hit the last rep, because if I fail, so what? I'll just drop the weight. With the squat I have safety bars. With the MP I can just let it down. But for bench I need to have a spotter, so I don't kill myself or, which is more likely, staple myself to the bench like a jackass.

The problem is I work out at Bally's. Everyone in there, for the most part, is a pud. Even the bigger, and you would assume more experienced, lifters spot like shit. They're all too quick to grab the bar, and sometimes they get so close to me they're almost placing their testicles on my forehead.

All in all I just don't trust these morons to spot me, for whatever reason. This results in a general lack of confidence in my lift, which then spits out a pretty crappy bench. Though it still falls on me to hit it intensely, I think this is one spot that will benefit greatly from my upcoming move back home.