Because it seems as though my last 3 posts have been about benching, I was trying to think of what I would rename my exclusively all bench press all the time blog. I'm just a sort of in-shape, sort of better than average strong dude...not the massively swole ex-football players over on the tier 1 bench who have 3 or 4 plates per side of the bar. No, I wouldn't be able to move the bar an inch off my chest if I was lifting with them. But I'm not at the bench with the skinny wannabes with the cut-off Affliciton tees and dopey lifting gloves struggling to use good form and a full range of motion with anything other than a plate on each side either. I'm at the bench in between: the B-Bench. I'm a B-Bench All-Star.
Ok, let's just stick with B-Court All-Star. Flows better, and seems to be applicable to all areas of my life anyway.
I've hit on why I've obsessed with my bench numbers and working out chest all these years, but to reiterate, I've always been no-chest guy. I was always on the skinnier side anyway, but at the same time I thought I had decent shoulder, arm, and upper back strength/definition for a guy my size. Chest? Big Bench? No go. Plus, while it's widely known that true strong guys probably worry more about squatting than benching (never skip leg day, bro), nothing looks more badass in the gym than a guy loading multiple plates per side of the bar on the bench press, and pumping out 8-12 reps.
To bring this back around to me, I never really had a goal for a 1 rep max bench number in mind...I just want to keep getting stronger and improve the number little by little. But a pie in the sky goal I've always had is to actually do a working set of 225 lb. Why 225 lb.? I mean, that just always seems to be the standard by which people are judged. 2 plates per side just seems like such a neat and tidy amount. At what weight are prospects compared on the bench at the NFL combine? 225 lb.
What do I mean by a working set? A working set means different things, but in this case I just mean a set of more than 2 reps...so, even 3 would be a working set. Anything less than 3 kind of seems like you're pretty close to working with your 1 rep max. Really, my lifetime goal would be to do a set of 8 reps of 225 lb. Again, a set of 8 just seems like a normal working set you would do for any ol' exercise.
Whenever I have tried to do an as many reps as possible set of 225 lb. over the past year, I've always got stuck on 2 reps. It's not just that I've gotten stuck on 2, it's that those 2 reps have actually felt pretty easy. I get the 2nd rep up no problem! And then on the 3rd rep attempt, it always felt like someone came and sat down on my bar mid-lift. I have even been able to do a 2nd or 3rd set of 2 reps of 225 with relatively no rest in between (1:00-1:30 rest) pretty easily, but 3 reps was always out of the question.
Well, yesterday I finally got it...and again...and again. 3 sets of 3 reps of 225 lb. (with 4:00 rests in between sets). On the 1st 2 sets, I even positioned the bench shittily so that I was banging the bar against the hooks on bottom of the rack on the way up on the 3rd rep...no matter. I powered through it and locked out those reps anyway (no big deal). There have only been a couple times I've been more hyped with myself after a lift (the 1st time I ever benched 225 lb. maybe, as I thought I'd never even get there).
Anyway, if anyone ever reads this, this isn't bragging. Obviously, there are guys with lifting numbers that would make me look silly. Just using this blog as my own personal therapist and collecting the ramblings of a guy in his mid-30's doing things he never thought he could.
