ME BENCH:
Felt pretty good today. Close Grip Bench I BARELY scraped by with 355 x 1 with a super light spot. I had the spotter stay with me with only his two fingers (sides of fingers) touching the bar. Off the chest I smoked it, then halfway up I started really stalling. My workup was: 225 x 5, 275 x 3, 325 x 1, 355 x 1. DROP set with 325 x 4 reps today.
Max effort triceps today was 4 board press. I've done 350-355 for a while now with a max of 5 reps by myself, so today forward I'm sticking with 365-failure. Whatever I get, I get. I did a set beforehand with 315 x 5 easy, then loaded the bar back up and got 3 of those fuckers. The board moving over my face didn't help. From now on, I plan on doing 315 x 5 every time, then the workset with 365, before finally doing a drop set with 315 (again) for however many reps. I really need to blast my triceps more than I have been.
Pendlay Rows I increased to 275 for 3 x 8. Got 'em all, but I want to stick with this for a few weeks until it becomes as easy as 265-270 was.
Seated DB Presses I increased as well. The first set 70 x 10 reps, then increased to 75's for my final two sets of 10. Nice and easy still. For these, I still use the really short-backed chair and practice looking slightly upward so these can better translate to my standing OHP's.
Face pulls with the stack +10 more pounds for 3 x 10, followed by barbell curls ss w/ some pressdowns. Again, I usually do some 20 rep banded pressdowns to end the workout, but I'd like to really start smoking my triceps so I can overcome my sticking point about halfway up. Pressdowns I used a short straight bar w/ the stack for 3 x 10.
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I've been thinking about a lot of my set PR's, and I think I'm very close to my absolute max for a lot of them. So from now on, if I don't feel AS strong, then I'll try to hit a weight that's right around my max for that exercise. If I feel great, then I'll shoot for a small 5 lb PR here and there. This mostly pertains ONLY to my PRESSING exercises. Squats and deads still have a lot of room for increases.
I just cannot realistically go on trying for PR's for my presses when I'm slinging a TON of weight IMO already. My max bench is around 395, so I can't get down on myself if I cannot beat it on a scheduled day.
So that's on the docket for me. If I don't think I can make it, I won't bother trying and instead nail the weight around my max to get the extra work in. Sooner or later, the PR's will come... But I cannot compare my first 20 weeks hitting PR's every time I enter the gym to now because NOW the bar is SOOO fucking high.