ME Bench Day

Awww Fucking bench pressing,I am officially annoyed with benching as of today.Had a shithouse workout today,was doing Med grip flat benches today, and with no spotters I planned on just working up to fairly heavy weight and accumulating singles for a small volume affect.Well I got to 100kg on the bar (236lbs or so) and did 2 singles that I absolutely smoked,so I thought why the hell not try a PR so I loaded up 106kg a tiny 2lb PR attempt and missed, Twice.Fucking bullshit,teach me to change my plan midworkout tho I guess.Moved to Banded Dumbell tri extensions next hrese kick ass I did 6 sets fairly tough but my tris loved them.Finished with som lat pulldowns with a couple grips.

ME Bench Day 5/11/08
MG Bench 1x1 90kg 2x1 100kg 2xM 106kg
Dumbell Tri Ext 6x10 10kg+ Yellow Band
Pulldowns WG 2x10 70kg 2x8 80kg Palms Up 1x6 80kg

So my plan for benching is to do my similiar rotation but use doubles and possibly triples for a while. I think singles has become stale so unless anyone has better ideas please feel free to flame me if you see me doing singles before a good 6 weeks of doubles.Cheers.

How many singles had you planned?

I was thinking around 6-7 singles,but I was gonna play it by ear.The idea was not to get stapled which has been happening too often to me on bench days lately.I am not sure if its form related too,I am not so confident under a heavy bench.

Well let me start by saying, by all means, lol, take a break from singles for a bit. But second of all...

Make sure you have plenty of time set aside for these kind of sessions. The best thing is to realize that the circa maximal work is the bread and everything else is just the butter. If you are pressed for time you can always turn the workout into supersets or trisets after the ME work if you have to.

Just because you miss an attempt doesn't mean your are getting "stapled". It's just reality. Those two misses in my max book would have counted simply as one single. I would have taken plenty of rest...even up to 7 minutes if needed..drop back down the weight and continued getting my singles. So that would have been 3 and I would see about the 3 more.

In this case the 100 kgs (220 lbs) may have been your max for the day. So one hundred percent.

The two 90 kgs lifts (198 lbs) are both 90% so that is to pretty good singles.

Do you have fractional plates? If not get some. Or get some washers or something.

You know it seems to me that so many people aren't getting just how much difference there is between a couple of percentage points in these near max lifts.

When you're doing the 5x5 a very small jump does not make a huge difference. You're relying on progressive overload over time. It is not the same with this kind of stuff. A couple of pounds is a big deal.

Just because you miss a pr attempt doesn't mean you have to scrap the whole plan. Changing the plan like you did is part of it. You NEED to be able to say, I smoked that, I think I have more in me. But you also need to be able to say, oh, well, I missed but I'm still getting quality work in. You know, it's kind of like crying over spilt milk to lament a pr you never really went in planning to make anyway.

You are not at the point, imho, that a missed lift represents a huge investment of energy. Misses tend to cost more the more advanced you get. But it ain't like a missed deadlift or something, either.

Ok cool E I see what you mean,I wasnt pressed for time i stopped out of sheer frustration I think!! I always have at least 5 mins between singles (max singles) and more if I need it.

I do have fractional plates the lowest is .5kg I am very seriously considering going back in there and working up again to finish my singles plan!! I'm still pissed about that workout LOL

Todays benching minus the 2 missed attempts I taped over them by accident.What a frustrating day LOL.

Well judging by the vids I wouldn't say you "smoked" those singles. Not to be rude or anything but maybe you just misread your lifts.

IronWorker

I thought the same thing Dub when I reviewed the tape LOL maybe I just "talked " myself into thinking they flew up.The 1st single at 100kg is very slow to lockout actually.

Well spotted mate.Way to keep me honest.

Yeah, lol, you didn't smoke them. So the pr attempt was a little wishful thinking but it still doesn't mean you should give up.

Many times after more rest you can actually "smoke" a single like that due to potentiation effects. You'll know when you need to call it a day.

On the rest and time in the gym thing I figured I'd just throw that in there just in case you gave me the inevitible excuse of not having enough time :D.

Eric covered everything nicely. :D

Just to play devil's advocate...If you thought you smoked those singles and couldve hit the pr but, you didn't go for it you probably wouldve kicked yourself in the ass anyway.

The nice thing about maximal singles is that they're 90% of "Today's" max. Progression is nice, but its not always necessary. So long as you're not showing a decrease in ability.