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Road to a 400# bench


Tommy J.

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Sorry for the loss of the old thread. Still in this tho!

quick recap off the top of my head from the old thread. Got up to 200.8lbs for a 10x10. Raw max when I left off from the old thread was 320. SS max 365

got pretty lazy during my time not posting. You guys didn’t miss anything. 

Still in love with volume on the bench. And have also brought my grip inwards about an inch. Unsure of current T&G max. But will get a max soon. Finally doing my first bench only meet next month with a USAPL sanctioned meet. I will get vid and post after it happens. My hopes for the meet are over 300. Pausing knocks a ton off my bench when compared to T&G. Even if my max is still 320 T&G, I’d be lucky to hit 300 with a pause in a meet.

Edited by Tommy J.
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Small disclaimer, I said before that my goal for 400 is only T&G raw. Have no intents to hit that in a meet paused any time in the next year or two.

still natty also. But that could change at any time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today

paused

135x10,10

185x3

205x1,1

251.7x6 - vid below

T&G

215x16

 

 

Edited by Tommy J.
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1 hour ago, Tommy J. said:

Today

paused

135x10,10

185x3

205x1,1

251.7x6 - vid below

T&G

215x16

 

 

Looked good, strong presses.

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Bench

 

135x15,15

185x3

205x2,2

229x14

249x9

all T&G today.

 

Estimated 1rm T&G should be right at 330’ish based off these reps. So, gonna keep my fingers crossed for 314 paused at the meet.. 🤞🏻

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I did some quick math; you’re gonna annihilate 314!

 

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4 hours ago, EricMilfeld said:

I did some quick math; you’re gonna annihilate 314!

 

Thanks homie. T&G I’ll kill it for sure. Maybe 2 reps right now? Unsure on pausing it tho.

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Put together a homemade seated row station today. Gonna throw these in the mix from now on.

Seated rows

 

100lbsx20,20,20,20,20

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You made it! Very cool. Can’t wait to try it out. 

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So last night before I went to bed I stepped on the scale. Sort of panicked when the scale said 238. “Panicked” because I’m totally NOT interested in dieting to lose weight. Even if only a couple pounds! 

Today I decided I’d go buy a better scale. Not quite postal scale accurate, but it weighed within a tenth of a pound of my calibrated plates I laid on it. So this one makes me feel less fat. I’m planning to make the 105k class for the meet.

The vid on top was with shirt on, vid on bottom is shirt off.

Not sure exactly why I feel the need to post this.. but I guess i post it to relay what you guys already know. Which is-bathroom scales suck. I can see how it could end up difficult to make weight if you don’t even really know what you weigh?.. so I guess it’s time to invest in a postal scale. Dang it.

 

the last month leading up to this I sort of had no concerns about making weight. I typically hover around the 225 mark without any concentrations on weight. I’m a bit surprised if I’m being honest.. I don’t really feel like I’ve eaten any more or less than I usually do. Dunno... to me the making weight thing has literally never been a concern. It’s now an added stress. I might just say screw it and never worry about it again, and just compete at whatever weight I’m at that day.

i suppose what bothers me most about the weight gain is that I haven’t even started squatting or DL’ing yet... I’m sure yet another weight gain is in the cards in the near future.

Edited by Tommy J.
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Bench meet in exactly 2 weeks. Wanted to go nuts today, but following the advice of my coach instead.

Light day.

135x10,10

185x10

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2 sessions in 3 days- you’re danger close to having a program and schedule 😆

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5 hours ago, AdamTGlass said:

2 sessions in 3 days- you’re danger close to having a program and schedule 😆

Hey, stop cussing. I have a lazy guy reputation to uphold! 😬

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Bench- T&G

135x20

207x3,3

229x3

249x3

281x5,3

229x10

 

Despite coming down with some kind of cold since Monday I still managed a Pr with the reps on 281. Had been thinking about getting that for 5 or so reps all night at work before I got home. I’ll take it!

i do feel sluggish.. everything felt hard today. hope it’s just the cold. And I also hope it doesn’t persist. Will only be doing 1 more bench session between now and the meet. I feel my pauses are decent at this point, and won’t need any more paused practice. Also don’t want to miss any lifts paused that might plant a negative seed of doubt before the meet.

I’m thinking the next and final bench session before the meet is gonna be a lightweight heavy volume T&G day. Then a full week off.

what do you guys think?

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On 2/2/2020 at 9:43 PM, Tommy J. said:

So last night before I went to bed I stepped on the scale. Sort of panicked when the scale said 238. “Panicked” because I’m totally NOT interested in dieting to lose weight. Even if only a couple pounds! 

Today I decided I’d go buy a better scale. Not quite postal scale accurate, but it weighed within a tenth of a pound of my calibrated plates I laid on it. So this one makes me feel less fat. I’m planning to make the 105k class for the meet.

The vid on top was with shirt on, vid on bottom is shirt off.

Not sure exactly why I feel the need to post this.. but I guess i post it to relay what you guys already know. Which is-bathroom scales suck. I can see how it could end up difficult to make weight if you don’t even really know what you weigh?.. so I guess it’s time to invest in a postal scale. Dang it.

 

the last month leading up to this I sort of had no concerns about making weight. I typically hover around the 225 mark without any concentrations on weight. I’m a bit surprised if I’m being honest.. I don’t really feel like I’ve eaten any more or less than I usually do. Dunno... to me the making weight thing has literally never been a concern. It’s now an added stress. I might just say screw it and never worry about it again, and just compete at whatever weight I’m at that day.

i suppose what bothers me most about the weight gain is that I haven’t even started squatting or DL’ing yet... I’m sure yet another weight gain is in the cards in the near future.

You can do just what you did with a scale using either Competition plates or plates weighed at the Post Office etc.  But be sure a use plates weighing about what you do - a scale that weighs accurately with one 45# plate may not still be on with 5 plates on it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
9 hours ago, EricMilfeld said:

Impressive workout!

Thanks. Still a bit frustrated i still haven’t even successfully done even half of a 10x10 with 2 plates. It’ll happen tho. Eventually..

for now, 2 plates is frustrating. I feel I should have been at 20 reps at 2 plates, or at least be able to go 6-7 sets of 10 at 2 plates by now.. it’s been almost 2 full years since I started this goal of 400. Obviously there was the shoulder thing, multiple bouts of getting sick, and then other times just flat out laziness.. Not going backwards or anything.. but dang this shit takes a while! The waiting is what makes it tempting to enhance things. I’m not getting any younger.. Shouldn’t be taking me 10 years to hit 400.

rant over. Glad to get that off my chest. It helps me stay doing what I’m doing.

think I’m gonna try some volume at 255ish next workout and see how that feels.

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