Day 1...again!

Alright, so yesterday I attempted Day 1 of the 6-week bench press cure again and relatively happy with the results.  The soreness from LAST Monday still lingered but it was fine.  I started floor pressing with the bar at 45lbs and worked up to 105lbs by resting the bar on a bench.  For 115lbs and 125lbs I had someone help me lift the bar into position then dropped to 105lbs again, thought I'd be fine, but needed the spot one last time and finished Day 1 successfully.

As for Day 2 (that I plan on doing Friday), I bought the boards, had them cut for free at Home Depot, bought screws but have not drilled them together yet.  I purchased a 2"x6"x8' and cut them into 14" and 20" pieces.  I am hoping I can do this safely on Friday and look forward to the plan as I am seeing the results of the training.

On my off days, I have been doing crunches and squats (trying to do 10,000 by the end of the year of each) and will try adding in other lifts along with the program.

Detour for fun

As I failed to properly finish my floor presses on Monday, I had planned to try Day 1 again yesterday.  Instead, I ended up playing volleyball for 1.5 hours as it is a rare opportunity to have time to go.  I was reminded how weak my calves have gotten as I pulled a Charlie's Horse several times while playing and the importance of stretching prior to play sports.  As Day 2 of the bench press plan involves board pressing (requires physical wood boards), I will get them over the weekend and start Week 1 over next week and just do other lifting exercises for the time being.  Also, I was surprised I was not very sore the day after I attempted Day 1 only to realize I was more sore the second day after.  Even more surprising is I realize I'm the most sore now (Thursday) from my Monday's workout.  Another reminder that my body is aging and will require extra time and effort in stretching and building these muscle groups.

6-week bench press cure - Day 1

So I have decided to commit myself to the 6-week bench press cure (to overcome my limit on bench press that I mentioned in my last post) by Dave Tate (workout is on page 3) and started today.  In actuality, I started over the weekend when I wanted to remove any barrier I could create for myself when I got to the gym, including packing my gym clothes last night.  It was highly convenient to start over the weekend because while going over the plan, I realized I did not know what ALL of the exercises in the first workout meant.  So, I went ahead and looked them all up:

Floor Press
Dumbbell Extension
Chest-Supported Row
Rear-Delt Lateral Raise

Granted, I have performed couple of these exercises before without knowing what they were called, and one of them not doing them with proper form.  I started with the floor press workout by starting with the 45lbs bar and added 10lbs at a time and doing 8-10 reps.  You can imagine where the problems started coming in when you do not have a spot.  I comfortably finished 75lbs for 8 reps but once I attempted 85lbs, I was having difficulty getting under the bar and lifting it off the floor (I have been using a bench to prop one side up to start for previous sets as I could not go underneath).  Long story short, I almost dropped the bar on face and struggled in holding up the weight long enough to get my head out from under the bar.  I tried stacking plates to make the starting position higher to get my arm underneath, but I already had stacked three plates and it still was not enough to start and I gave up at this point as I was getting tired from moving all these plates around and stealing them all.  I will attempt Day 1 again later this week and try using two benches to prop up the bar to start assuming no one is using them.

I did the other three exercises and completed the sets with relatively lower weights as I was unsure of what weights I was comfortable with.  Used a 40lbs for Dumbbell Extension, 15lbs for the Row, and 8lbs for the Lateral Raise that I dropped to 5lbs for the last set as I could not tell if my form was good or I just have no flexibility.

All in all, a good workout that could have finished faster if I could set up the floor press sets better.  Also, I like how Day 1 didn't even include using the bench press and working on different muscles that are weak for me and different stages of the bench press via the floor press.

4/16

As for my workout, I did some brief research on bench press and was guided towards Dave Tate and a YouTube video of Jennifer Thompson teaching techniques.  I am not going to say my form has been horrendously off, but there was definitely room for improvement, especially in the area of warm-up, back arch, pushing off of heels and having the entire arm under the bar.

After going through the T Nation pages and videos, I distinctly remember him stating that people would come in, he'd fix their form, and they'd bench 50 lbs more by the time they left.  Now, I'm not going to say it's impossible, but I am certain those people were already lifting heavy and had all their muscle groups worked out.  Personally, I tried this on Monday, but putting more strain on my back and benching in an uncomfortable position and having to think about all those techniques made it difficult to concentrate and I did not end up putting on any additional weight.  Hopefully going forward, I can build those muscle groups and break through my barriers.

The First Step

This blog is dedicated to the average Joe's who believe physical strength is given to the elite and the capability to train yourself was handicapped by doubting yourself.  It may be true that very few have a physique, genetics and the mental capacity to reach Olympic levels, but I want to prove to myself, and to others who think a task such as benching 200+ lbs is a goal that they cannot attain, that it is not only attainable, but can be exceeded.

A little bit about myself, I would like to consider myself an average Joe, but in reality, I am not.  Fortunately, for those looking for encouragement, I am far below average.  I am a 29 year old, 5'4" Asian male that weighs roughly 135 lbs as of today's date.  I have been the shortest in my class since Kindergarten and you can imagine I was not the most athletic either.  If that is not enough, I have had joint problems and chronic pains since I was 12 years old.  This included my neck, back, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles.  Though I could have simply remained bitter at my circumstance, I decided to not let my handicap since around high school and tried my best to not only compete against others, but surpass them as well.

I will try to structure this blog as my training/diet/sleep and overall journey, of successes and failures, of reaching 200+ lbs in the bench press.

History to this point:

The main reason I am starting this blog now, is because I had felt like I have reached a cap in bench press.  Literally, almost the only exercise I did was bench press (threw in some other lifts once in awhile) and I knew that possibly I am near a cap doing something as foolish as just bench pressing three days a week.  After starting again at the beginning of the year, I could bench 165 lbs for about 5 reps, but have not been able to pass that as I do not have a spot.  I hope through rigorous training and research, I can break past 165 lbs and lift my mental block in going even further.  My training up to this point, for anyone that wants to get started, is actually to do pushups.  Before I got into benching, I could probably max around 115 lbs.  After starting the hundred pushups plan, I increased my bench to around 135-145 lbs within 4 weeks.  I never finished the plan as I started getting shoulder injuries between Weeks 4-5, it definitely defined my triceps more than I have ever seen before.

Some Psychology:

Though it may seem silly to just bench press, I have been going to the gym either during or after work at a gym located in our building...in my work clothes.  I never enjoyed exercising so I wanted to remove all psychological barriers in going so I removed any excuse I could, such as forgetting my gym clothes.  By not doing cardio or too many other lifts, I never really sweated so I could just return to work after my sets.  Since I have been going regularly for the past four months, I have decided to just leave gym clothes at work now, but if that is a deterrent, just check out the gym and do some light workouts (unless your gym has a strict and enforceable clothing policy).