Dufisthenics

So today during my bench press session with my gym buddy a young, thin guy who was on the bench before us repping no more than 135 pounds broke one of my cardinal gym rules, he offered me unsolicited advice.  It is one of several golden rules for me at the gym, like don’t curl in the squat rack, wear clothing that doesn’t allow for your testicles to hang out, clean up weights after you use them, and don’t text while you are sitting on a piece of equipment. These are just a few of them.

The advice this kid 20-25 years my junior gave me was that I should not keep the weight in the locked out position, something I will do when I am doing higher rep sets to “rest” before knocking out the last couple reps.  He said it was bad for my joints.  Locked out reps is one of those things where you will find equal opinions on both sides of the coin but basically if you are locking out reps and have no problems, feel free to do so.  If you are having joint pain, don’t. Duh.

So anyway, although I didn’t agree with the kid’s point, the bigger issue was his breaking of the cardinal rule, feeling he needed to impart unsolicited advice to me.  My response to him as you can imagine was not friendly.  I said to him with an expression that surely screamed STFU, “That’s how I recover…”  to which the kid said “ok just saying….” as he left the area, not to be seen the rest of our workout.  I am pretty sure he took the hint that I did not welcome his advice.

The actual benching session went better than expected.  After another bust ass session of work around the house all weekend I didn’t think much positive was going to be accomplished.  Instead I pressed 225lbs for two clean reps on the way up to 235, the first time that has happened in at least a year.  I also worked at least 4-5 sets to complete muscle failure which should pay dividends the next time out.  240 lbs is getting very close on my radar.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Dumbbell chest press 50lbs x 12

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 2, 235lbs x 1, 205lbs x 7, 205lbs x 5, 185lbs x 10, 185lbs x 8, 185lbs x 6, 185lbs x 6, 135lbs x 15, 135lbs x 8 (dead stops)