Reps and Volume. Week 8. Bench

BW - 209

Incline -
BarX20
95X5, 5
115X3
135X2
155X1
115X21, 10

Reverse Cambered Bar Bench -
135X5
155X5
175X5, 5, 5

DB Bench - 50sX14, 11, 10
super-set with
Bent Over Flyes - 25sX20, 20, 14

Hammer Curls - 35sX15, 14, 11, 10

Trying to find a way to work some benching back in without aggravating my shoulder too badly, and this is my first shot at that.

115X20+ was my target for that weight, so I'll move up to 125 next session.

We've got a cambered bench bar at my gym that's meant for extreme range of motion benching.  I used it myself for that a lot last winter to try and build strength off the chest.  It's got a foam pad taped to the camber that sinks into your chest and naturally "suggests" a pause at the bottom when you use it.  I'm flipping it around and using it for partials to work triceps strength at lock-out.  That's some geared-style stuff that I've never considered doing before, but since I can't do full ROM barbell benching without aggravating my shoulder for a week+, I'm just trying to get something in.

And despite all the OHP I've been doing, this movement told me how weak I've gotten in the flat bench.  Last winter, I was doing full ROM bench with 175X10, 185X8, 195X6, and 205X4.  These 175X5 sets were all grinders to lock-out.  Anyway, my initial thought is to see if I can push the weight on these up closer to 200+.  Then we've got a pin-bench at the gym, and I can switch over to that and try to start hitting the same numbers on ever lower pins, and see how that works out.

Oh, and yes.  My shoulder does feel a little crappy a day later.