Monday Bench press session

So today was definitely a reboot day considering I haven’t been to the gym since Friday — because I used Saturday and Sunday as my rest days; so coming back today, I created my own workout plan utilizing the information I learned from Matt Wenning, I made today a dynamic power workout — with bench press as the core lift. I focused on form and using my back more and chest and shoulders less. It is still something to get used to , but it went over well overall, I also need to implement some forearm exercises to make my wrist stronger (they have a tendency to bend when bench pressing higher weights) and I want to rid of the habit before I end up hurting myself — so if anyone has any wrist strengthening exercises they recommend that helps them, please leave them in the comment section. 

Considering today is my first workout with a core lift, I went all out and made sure to really focus on the key factors to make my bench stronger. The key factors Matt told me about — my weaknesses and making them into strengths. All of the accessory work was for Triceps, lats and rear delts. I am definitely sore up top, but it was worth it, because I had to really put forth the effort. 

Warm up: 12-15 min (done as a circuit)

Workout:

• Barbell bench press (dynamic/speed and power): 9 x 3-6, 80 lbs – I did 3 sets of medium, 3 sets narrow and 3 sets wide grip and focused on speed and power output & used 60% of my 1RM.

• Close grip lat pulldown: 5 x 10-15, 70 lbs
• Kneeling cable tricep extension: 5 x 10-15, 70 lbs
• Cable face pull: 5 x 10-15, 70 lbs

• Rope straight arm pull down: 5 x 10-15, 40 lbs
• Cable triceps overhead extension (rope): 5 x 10-15, 60 lbs
• Bentover DB reverse fly: 5 x 10-15, 30 lbs

• Seated elevated cable rows: 5 x 10-15, 90 lbs
• Reverse grip triceps pushdown: 5 x 10-15, 50 lbs
• EZ bar military press: 5 x 10-15, 50 lbs

Now I wanted to do bench press with bands as well but my gym didn’t offer thin enough bands for me to do it and I thought I could manage the thicker bands, but with the help of a spotter I couldn’t even manage to lift the bar off me with the thicker bands, #lifelesson so maybe when I get some bands then I can implement those for dynamic speed day as well. 

Shay-lon