For anyone who is curious about how much mental work goes in to getting stronger at a certain level. Im a 36 year old weight lifter training twice a week to improve a single exercise. --------------------------------------------------------- My historical best for the bench press has been 305 lbs. I very much want to do 315 lbs, however I never quite made it there the last time that I was at my strongest. My world went to hell in 2012 which disrupted my training. Constant travel, sleeping in the Del Sol, and infrequent training along with poor nutrition as a result of not having steady access to a kitchen killed my forward progress and eventually lead to something not begin quite right in my left shoulder and triceps which kept me benching no higher than 225 lbs out of concern for injury. In early 2014, things started to stabilize a bit in my life and by this point I had already given up on my bench for a while, instead working on rehab exercises. On January 31 I started to test the water again. My endurance was shot, but I cleared myself for bench press training again. *** Period One It was important to figure out where my maximum strength was, so a session where I did singles at a conservative weight, and then added an extra five pounds before another single, and going until failure allowed me to set a base line top strength. The next session, I started where I missed at the previous session because the lower volume made it all but certain that I would hit that weight. I then pushed ahead another five pounds. The session after that, I bumped up my warmup set 20 lbs and then added another 5 lbs to my max. A further attempt at 5 more lbs resulted in a miss, and then I dropped down to 225 to do a high volume set of 5. The next session after that I got the max lift that I missed on the previous session. Then I did a higher volume of lifts at 235 for 5 sets, which is a sane approach for building strength. At the end of a three week period, training chest twice a week, I managed my top lift of 290 lbs, just 15 lbs short of my historical best. *** Period Two A miss at an attempt at 295 lbs triggers a new training period. The next session I increase the volume a lot at the lower weight ranges until I fail at 265, 25 lbs lower than my maximum lift a week prior. The next session, I continue the higher volume, starting just 5 lbs below the weight that I failed at in the previous session. I get four sets in. Additionally at this point I feel that I am conditioned well enough and my lifting technique and neurological control has resumed sufficiently to leave out the 225/245 lbs lift from my normal warmup. I continue with the higher volume of training with 3 reps at the weight that I had failed at a week ago. Anticipating that I’m only going to be able to do 2 reps on the next step, I add on five more pounds of weight. I get a second set like this, and anticipate that I’ll only get one rep on the next lift, so I add another five pounds. The next session I get a triple at the weight that I only got one in at the last session. I add five pounds and just barely get one rep which wears me out. Finally I get a double with the weight that I only got a single last time. I add five pounds and get a single. I then do another five pounds and this equals my top lift of the first period. I go for a new one rep max and miss, then I do two more sets at lower weight and crank out as much volume as I can, but it’s not much because I’ve taken my body to failure already. So the progress is clear because I’m at the same top weight with a significantly higher volume during the workout. *** Period Three Moving ahead I should be able to mirror the latter half of period one, where I come in rested and go for the heaviest I can do with the most minimal warmup. Then once I reach my top lift, drop the weight down by fifty pounds and do 4 or 5 sets with as much volume as I can manage. I’ll keep this going as long as I’m making progress and then the session after a miss I’ll drop it back down and restart more like Period Two. I’m pretty confident that I can hit 295 fresh during my next training session. However, I might even be able to hit 300. However there is a possibility that I’ll only have one shot. So I’m going to have to decide whether I’m going to be ambitious or conservative. As long as those numbers keep getting bigger, I’ll just keep zig zagging my way up until finally I can add that third wheel and press 315. ————————————————————————————————— Bench Press: Period One 135x6, 225x1, 265x1 (Jan 31) 135x12, 225x1, 245x2, 255x1, 260x1, 265x1, 270 x miss 135x6, 225x1, 270x1, 275x1 135x6, 245x1, 280x1, 285 x miss, 225x5 135x6, 245x1, 285x1, 235x3, 235x3, 235x3, 235x2, 235x1 135x6, 245x1 290x1, 240x4, 260x2 (Feb 22) ————————————————————————————————— Bench Press: Period Two 135x6, 245x1, 295 x miss 135x12, 225x8, 255x2, 265 x miss 135x12, 260x3, 260x2, 260x2, 260x2 135x6, 265x3, 270x2, 270x2, 275x1 135x6, 275x3, 280x1 135x6, 280x2, 285x1, 290x1, 295 x miss, 265x1, 225x3. (March 16) —————————————————————————————————
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 12:20:13 +0000
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