barbell-incline-bench-press[1]This weekend my only organized exercise was a 20 mile Dunkin Donuts bike ride with Cindy, the first time I have been on my road bike in well over a month.  I did put a lot of grunt exercise in doing various yardwork.

Today at the gym I hoped to build on my my clean bench press of 232 lbs last week, hoping to tack another 5 pounds on top.  I use 225 pounds as my measuring stick of how my strength level is for benching.  If I do a rep at 225 pounds and it goes up and down smoothly I feel confident to move upward from there.  Well today it was not smooth, 225 pounds felt difficult, sidelining any plans to go higher in poundage.  Instead I did three single reps at 225 pounds and then repped 8 at 185 pounds.

I did tack incline bench onto the routine today, an exercise I hadn’t done in an even longer time than flat bench.  Doing it after flat bench meant my numbers wouldn’t be great but I was ok with topping out at three full ROM reps at 185 pounds.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 1, 225lbs x 1, 225lbs x 1, 185lbs x 8

Incline barbell bench press – 135lbs x 8, 155lbs x 6, 185lbs x 3

Set of 35 push ups

6 minutes A2G hold