UB: Reps Week 5. Bench

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Bench -
BarX20
65X10
105X6
135X3
180X1
135X16, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3 (30 total reps)

Standing OH Extensions - 55X12, 45X12, 12, 12, 15

Cable, Neutral Grip Upright Rows - 3X10

Strange bench session.  135X16 is a Rep PR and an increase to my projected 1RM.  So yay, BUT that 16th rep was so goddamn hard I only locked it out as it traveled back into the J-hooks.  Then on that last set of two, I didn't set my feet far enough back and my heels came all the way to the floor on the presses.  The result?  MORE STABILITY AND A STRONGER PRESS.  This led to being able to close out the bench with two sets of triples.  So, I guess, this was a really awesome session because of the big PR and the improvement to my form, but it felt crappy at the time that I could barely even get 16 reps on my first set.

I should note that the 180 felt pretty easy, which was comforting.

I decided to do triceps work as my follow-up the last two weeks of benching to get a jump on the clean-and-pressing I'm going to do on the next cycle.  It's three days later, and my triceps still feel fried from the CG bench and the OH extensions.  I kept the weight light to make sure I could exceed 10 reps on each set.

Looking forward to the upcoming pressing cycle, I also decided to try out some cable rows with an EZ handle that has a swiveling attachment.  This was so I could use a more neutral grip to externally rotate my shoulder a bit during the movement.  I still loaded these heavy enough to be hard in the rep range, but it still feels like a nice "break" to do stuff like cables or DB's every now and then.