Jim vs. Bench Press

Traveling, and at a hotel with a decent gym. They comped me today, but will charge me $10 tomorrow. So I took advantage of the bench press station.

Bench press
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5
165 x 5
145 x 5

Peaked at 95% of my 5RM, and it didn’t feel to tough at all. Nice.

Jim vs. Bench Press

This one never gets programmed, and my knee was feeling wonky after yesterday.

Bench press
135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3
195 x 2
185 x 3
165 x 3
145 x 3

Frustrating that I couldn’t get three reps in on what should be only 95% of my 3RM. But it is what it is.

Jim vs. Bench Press, Weighted Pull-ups, Weighted Hip Thrusts

Today’s felt disjointed, and my workout was no different.

Bench press
190 x 4
170 x 5
150 x 6

Weighted pull-ups
BW + 50 (245) x 3
BW + 25 (220) x 6
BW (195) x 11

Weighted Hip Thrusts
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10

Part of feeling disjointed is that I did these in a cycle, rather than one at a time. Another was that something was off about the WHTs: I couldn’t seem to do anything with 115 as originally planned, and trying to get a full range of motion had the barbell bumping into the bench and me sliding off the bench, and… yeah. Just awkward. Even for an exercise called “weighted hip thrusts”.

But, my bench press numbers were nice. So there’s that.

Jim vs. Deadlifts, Bench Press, Rowing

Long workout today. Started with 5×5 deadlifts, which are just unlike anything else.

Deadlift
235 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 5
295 x 5
255 x 5

The third set was 95% of my 5RM, and this was just brutal. My legs and back were just wiped after this. So I moved onto the bench press.

On the minute for 10 minutes:
Bench press x 2, 145lbs

Used more weight than last time, and still didn’t really feel like I was pushing myself. Truth be told, I should probably just do three reps on the minute if I’m gonna do bench this way.

Finally, went upstairs to finish up.

500m row – 2:20

Not a great time at all, but by this point I was sweaty, tired, and had no pop left at all. Good time to stretch and call it a day.

Jim vs. Bench Press, Weighted Hip Thrusts

Technically a third day in a row, but I felt the need to get into the gym today. Decided to focus on strength.

Bench press
145 x 3
165 x 3
185 x 3
175 x 3
155 x 3

That felt like good work to me. Finished all the reps, but only the first and last sets felt anything like easy.

Weighted hip thrusts
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10

This was the same weight and rep combo as last time I did these. The main difference was using 45lb plates to weigh down the bench so that it didn’t buck on every rep. Made a big difference, actually.

Jim vs. Bench Press, Weighted Hip Thrusts

Back in for some strength work.

Bench press
165 x 1
185 x 1
205 x 1
195 x 1
175 x 1

Went well, but again it’s weird when my middle set is a high percentage of my max — 95% in this case — but also my 3RM.

Weighted hip thrusts
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10

Decided to give these a go with the barbell. Oof.

Jim vs. Deadlifts & Bench Press, Two on the Minute

I liked Friday’s workout so much, I decided to use the format again today. Twice.

On the minute for 10 minutes:
Deadlift x 2, 225lbs

On the minute for 10 minutes:
Bench press x 2, 135lbs

Oddly, though the loads I used for these were higher percentages of my maxes for these exercises, they felt easier than the back squats did. Still, good workout.

Jim vs. Overhead Squats, Push Jerk, Bench Press

Ugh.

Overhead squat
120 x 3
110 x 4

No problems there.

Push jerk
145 x 1
165 x 0

And here’s where things went pear-shaped.  Not only did that rep not go all the way, up, but I felt a sudden, harsh tightness across my upper back. Not pain, per se, but… not right, either.

For better or worse, I went on to bench press, but lightened the loads.

Bench press
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Honestly, it felt good to just move the muscles a bit. I’ve also been doing some PT moves and taking ibuprofen. It doesn’t feel like too serious, and tomorrow’s a rest day. We’ll see how I’m doing on Wednesday.

Jim vs. Bench Press, Push-ups, KB Swings

Three days in a row? Why not?

Bench press
195 x 2
175 x 5
155 x 5

Sets #2 and #3 tell me to bump the weights up, but set #1 is reticent. I’ll probably go 195-175-160 next week, if I do bench press at all.

21-18-15
push-ups
KB swings (52.5lb dumbbell)

Finished in 3:07. Amusingly, after doing bench press the first set of push-ups felt like nothing, but the second and third were brutal. Amusing, but not really surprising.

Jim vs. Push Jerk, Overhead Squat, Bench Press

Changed things up a bit, as this particular program encourages. (OK, I regularly change up the scheduling of workouts more than the program encourages, but this is the first time I really started trading out some exercises for others.)

Push jerk
140 x 1
160 x 1

Overhead squat
115 x 3
105 x 4

Bench press
185 x 5
165 x 6
155 x 7

First off, the reverse pyramid worked nicely for the OHSs. Second, my bench press seems to be back, to no small extent. Both are duly noted.