had a great w/o tonight, just 5lbs from my old squat PR, which will be toast next week and although my bench is still pitiful something happened tonight which hit me like a ton of bricks . . .

i'm doing my warm up sets and getting to the last few of the heaviest ones and it hit me . . . i subconscioulsy work to NOT use my tris when i bench!!

seriously i was like dude what the fuck is wrong with you!!! and of course i knew the answer right away . . . . years of reading BBing mags, BBing books, listening to other BBers and of course Mr Metnzer himself, all of whom constantly refer to the bench as a 'chest' exercise, used in 'chest' routines on 'chest' day to build up your 'chest'. it's like the answer was written on a black board in front of me it was so clear!

now consciously i let go of that notion after i read SS but i guess subconsciously the old brain washing was there and old habits die hard as we all know even if we arent aware that we're doing them!

so when i get to my 3 working sets, i used my entire upper body, probably for the first time ever on that lift and wouldnt ya know, bang, those 3 sets go up like almost nothing. it felt heavy sure but i seemd FAR more in control of the bar and my strength out of the bottom, where the tris take a huge amount of the work, was waaaaaaaaaaay better.

nothing earth shattering i know but just strikes me how we think we have all aspects of something in order and yet some little 'thing' is holding us back or causing us to miss the mark or whatever it is. the bench has always been the bain of my training but maybe that'll change now? we'll see!

__________________