Incomplete

That's today's max-day grade. I hate lame excuses, but the other day I slept wrong and woke up with a very stiff upper back. It had been feeling better yesterday and I didn't feel it at all this morning. Until I squatted 315 lbs. It's not at all a heavy weight for me. Two weeks I did 345 lbs for 8 reps. This morning it did cause my back to stiffen up, though, so I decided to take the intelligent approach (see! I am getting smarter) and call it. I'll do my squats and deadlifts next week.

Bench was encouraging and disappointing all at once. I knew I could get 245 easily. (See below)



That was no big deal. My next attempt was 270. Probably too big a jump. (See below)



I then tried 265 and 260 and didn't get either.

You may ask how I could be encouraged at missing all of my lifts. Well, let me tell you.

The first thing is that none of these lifts felt heavy off the rack. The last time I went this heavy, I really felt the weight off the rack. 260 kind of felt heavy, but at that point I was tired. 260 also was the closest one to going up, so that tells me that I should have that one if I go up in weight in smaller increments.

Another encouraging thing was that I got the weight off my chest very well. Before, that was a big sticking point for me. In fact I thought I had all three lifts until I just couldn't lock them out.
I was also happy with the fact that my technique didn't really change much between the lifts I got and the ones I didn't. Everything looks solid and now I also have something concrete to work on. That thing is:

What that means is a lot of floor presses and pin presses and board presses. I'll know about my whole program next week when I finish up on the squats and deadlifts, but I'm pretty sure that the next few months will be very bench-oriented. Can you say fun!

In any case, although I can't say I'm thrilled with this morning's training, with bench, at least, I do know where I'm going. I'm getting closer. 275 can't hold me off forever!

I'm coming for you 275. I'm coming for you!!!!

Mitch Rothbardt

MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com

510-754-7113

Discover Your Strength!