initial.ize

And that challenger is 175 lb bench press. WOW. I got put in my place by this weight.

Barbell Bench Press: 175 RP: 5+2
Barbell Bench Press: 145: 9, 8, 7

Smith Incline Press: 52.5 per, RP: 8+5+3 (for 16 total)
Smith Incline Press: 40 per: 12, 8

Skull Crushers: 70: 10 +15 close-grip bench press
Skull Crushers: 65: 10 +15 close-grip bench press

Dips: 10: 13

My previous chest workout was done using 170 lb on the bench press, and I hit my goal of 15 total across the initial rest-pause set, so this time I had to bump it up to 175 lb. I don’t know why, but it felt so much heavier. I think I might have scared myself into thinking it was too heavy or dangerous because I was experiencing a bit of pain in my left shoulder rotator cuff. That seems to have dissipated a bit today though, so next time should go better. After the rest-pause set, I rested for 2 minutes, then did a few regular sets at 145 lb (with 2 minutes rest between each set.)

Inclines on the Smith machine went very well as you can see from the numbers. I got 16 on my rest-pause set, so I’ll bump this up to 55 lb per side next time. For the regular sets, I figure I should go up to 45 lb per side since the first set got me 12 reps after resting only 2 minutes.

I am still having trouble getting good form on my skull crushers when using 70 lb. My elbows flare out, and the last couple reps are always really hard, slow, and sloppy. As usual, I jumped into some close-grip bench press immediately after the set of skulls without stopping to rest. For the second set of skulls, I dropped the weight down to 65 lb so I could have better control of my form. These ended up feeling much better than the first set.

For dips, I decided it was finally time to start adding some weight. Last time, I got 15 using just my bodyweight. So last night, I put on the dip belt, and put on 10 lb as an initial test, and wound up getting 13 reps. That doesn’t seem hard enough, so I will put it up to 20 lb next time.

I then finished up by doing some extreme stretches on my chest and triceps for 60 seconds each. Tonight’s workout will be shoulders and biceps.

Tags: chest, triceps

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.