10-2-14 – Max Effort Bench Press

Prepared and excited to finally do my max effort squats with reverse band, I hurried to the gym without even making protein or grabbing a drink. Stretched out just as I usually do, being especially careful to my pulled or strained hip, stretching it much more than the rest of me. Beginning with only the bar, I hadn’t felt any pain and felt this as I sign that I was finally ready to go with these things, but as I moved forward through my warm ups, by the time I reached only 200 pounds, I was forced to stop by the same sharp pain through my hip as I fired out of the hole. After talking to big Eric Lewis, I decided to just break it down. Luckily enough, I wasn’t sore from just a few days prior completing my dynamic upper body day. So, without even needing to move the bands, I broke down the weight, slid a bench in, and began with my max effort reverse band bench press. Now, the last time I did this particular exercise, I was to say the very least “on a role” and fired my way up for a pretty difficult grinder at 235. Today, the weight felt very similar to that day, but something felt a bit off about my set up on each set. At 200, I decided to make smaller jumps in sets following with 205 than finishing with a grinding 210. Slightly disappointed, I moved into my down set at 85%, or 180, and finished it for an easy 5 reps. Thus leading into my accessories that although I dragged with them after being disappointed by squats and bench, still grinded through and finished.