Sorry for the pop psychology in the title but I firmly believe this to be true. If you don’t understand your shortcomings, how are you supposed to become a stronger version of yourself? Where the heck are you supposed to start? I’ll go ahead and wait for an answer to that while I keep typing away and I promise the title is relevant to my post today.
On Saturday, I completed my maximum effort (ME) bench session for the week. On deck for training was to work up to a max 3x3 on the 2 board and then hit accessory work after. Ideally, I would have been able to do a 3 board but since I started my training for the competition a week late, we decided to skip the 3 board during this 4 week wave and move on to the 2 board.
Today, I learned 1 of my weaknesses in relation to the bench press and found my sticking point. I was only able to work up to 365 for a 3x3 and struggled on the third rep each set. This is interesting because Ive hit 415 on a full bench with the bow bar which creates more range of motion then a regular bench press, so for whatever reason, pressing from 3 inches above where I normally start is a weak point. Moving forward, I am going to have to program movements to address this lagging point and get stronger overall.
After benching I hammered the triceps. Tricep strength is the most important part of your bench in terms of locking out the movement and I make it a regular part of my training. I hot a 4x15 on tricep press downs and followed up with a 5x5 on banded J Press plus 1 AMRAP at the end to really get the blood going. Thanks Jacob for the suggestion.
Finishing up, I hit a couple movements to address the lats. First, a 4x15 on close grip pull downs. I like this movement because I can also address the upper back area and not just the lats. Another movement I did (thanks again Jacob) is a banded movement that helps practice engaging the lats during the bench. I’ll have to take a picture next time I do it because it’s hard to explain.
Overall, today was a good session. It gave me opportunity to evaluate one of my weak points and figure out what to do to get stronger moving forward. Until next time...