UB: Reps Week 3. Bench

Defranco Shoulder mobility

Bench -
BarX30
65X10
105X6
135X3
170X1
135X10, 6, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3 (31 total reps)

Pull-Downs - 5 sets of 8-10

Standing Abs - 5 sets of 12

Because I failed to hit my target reps in Week 2, and then had to do a lot of singles on my way to 30+ reps, I decided to back-off the first work-set a little in the hopes of bumping up the following sets.  I had mixed results here, as you may be able to tell.  I got more reps on the 2nd set than I had the previous two weeks which is good, however it immediately devolved into triples and doubles.  Also the total reps for the first 2 sets combined isn't any better than the first two weeks, nor did I beat the total number of sets needed to reach 30+.  All in all it kind of seems like I just rearranged the deck chairs. 

I think there are two factors at play here:  1)  because I train alone, I just don't feel comfortable taking every set to the limit, and 2)  I seem to be trimming up.  I don't really weigh myself, but I pretty clearly look leaner in the mirror.  Some of this could be diet.  I haven't been paying any more attention to what I eat, but I think there's a chance I'm not eating as much as I have been.  This may be having the effect that I'm not getting growth in my pressing muscles due to a lack of nutrition.  Also, less mass means less area to distribute the load over, meaning the muscle I do have actually has to work harder to lift the weight.

All in all, I'm not super worried about this becasue I don't really care about the bench press that much.  As long as my squats and rows show improvement, that's the main thing for me, and I haven't stalled on those.  If my squat stalls out 2 weeks in a row, I will eat more going into the following week.  For now, I probably prefer being leaner to making a lot of bench progress.

Starting this week, I decided to do two weeks of lat pull-downs.  I'd originally programmed to alternate OHP and chins on bench day, but I'm so gassed at the end of the benching that my chins sucked ass to the point I felt like I wasn't getting any actual work in on them, and I did 5X5 OHP the first two weeks instead.  So now I'll do two weeks of BB style lat-pulldowns.  Meaning a steady concentric, really "feeling" the muscle, and a slow, controlled eccentric.  The last two-weeks I may switch to a triceps movement.  Probably either dips or OH extensions.

I think I've almost always done pull-downs in the past in sets of 3, so on the 4th and 5th sets today I was really feeling it right underneath my armpits to the point that it felt like my triceps were getting worked.  Foam-rolled the hell out of this area later that day and the following day, and that felt awesome.

More standing abs in the hiz-ouse.