Dufisthenics

So I noticed an older guy that used to work at Planet Fitness as a “trainer” was now at Retro training another old guy.  I never talked to him at Planet Fitness but I said hi to him today, saying I recognized him.  He said his name was Joe and he described how he was very limited in the actual training he could do at PF, other than designing the initial workout plan there was no real one on one training.  I told him I was glad to see he jumped over and went back to benching with my buddy.  Joe was bench pressing with his client right behind us.

Well after I got done pushing 185 lbs 10 times Joe said the words I absolutely despise at the gym “Can I give you some advice?”  Now of course I am not rude so I listened to Joe say how he recommends that you only bring the bar down for bench press until your elbows roughly hit 90 degrees.  He told me to watch him do his set at 185lbs.  I watched him do what I would call ugly half reps where he didn’t even hit 90 degrees and the bar was a good 7-8 inches away from his chest.  I was not impressed.  On my next set I went all the way down to my chest again with no intention of switching up.

Now I do understand Joe’s point, when you go deeper with bench press, especially with long monkey arms like I have, you are putting more stress on the shoulder.  I do have some shoulder issues while benching and I don’t expect them to go away.  However I will give up benching altogether before I would relegate myself to half repping the day away.  I do give Joe a little slack with violating gym rule number one, since he is a trainer, but hopefully my blatant disregard for his advice will clue him in that no further tips need to be thrown my way.

I never step in and offer any advice/help unless significant bodily harm was imminent.  I remember one isolated time when I jumped in and told an old lady that anchoring her elastic band to the olympic bar on the bench press was not a good idea.  But other than that, if you are just going to look silly, I will be happy to let you carry on as you see fit.

As far as the workout went, my bench press numbers were pretty stagnant although we did cut the reps short to get some dumbbell chest press in

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 1, 235lbs x 1, 225lbs x 2, 185lbs x 10, 185lbs x 6

Dumbbell chest press – 65lbs x 10, 80lbs x 8, 85lbs x 4, 90lbs x 2

Dumbbell pull over – 55lbs x 12, 65lbs x 10, 75lbs x 10