bench press frustration

[King Francis]

Originally Posted by LA Guy

Yeah... I guess that I have just hung out with a lot of endurance and combat sport athletes, and we all lifted to supplement our other training. And while I knew that we were reasonably athletic compared to most people, I never thought that we were really strong in the sense that we could lift a lot of weight. And looking at that chart, it seems that to a man, we were in the intermediate to elite level in terms of lifting strength.
Man, this thread makes me kind of jealous. I'm 5'8", currently 135 lbs. with a 28" natural waist (30" in jeans), lean, fairly muscular, hardly any body fat. But I'm recovering from some serious injuries I sustained several months ago. A year ago, I could bench 185-90 lbs. and I was doing kung fu. Eight months ago, I was on a university rowing team and lifting five-six days a week on top of that. I had only been seriously training for two or three years at that point (a year ago, it would have been about two; eight months ago, closer to three). Problem was, I had taught myself almost everything I knew. Of course I read as much as I could, and gained a greater understanding of proper form, technique, etc. -- but no one really told me at the beginning that I would need extended breaks, off-seasons when I should scale back my work outs. I planned to just go onward and upward. I was about 17 when I began to seriously work out, and my personality is such that a new personal best immediately became a new minimum standard. So, inevitably, with five classes, a freelance job, the rowing team, and my own intense weight lifting routine, I guess the stress must have become too much and my body couldn't keep putting forth the effort without an off-season. When I injured myself I wasn't doing anything really out of the ordinary for my routine; but I ended up injuring my left pectoralis, latissimus, and obliques. I can't tell you how maddening it's been to walk the slow road to recovery, watching all my hard gains slip away -- having to give up kung fu (only temporarily, I hope), feeling like I should explain to people I recognize in the gym that I'm recovering from an injury, and all the rest. Even worse, other injuries seem to pop up as the main problem diminishes and I try to recover my former level of fitness: pain in my right elbow and right biceps and brachialis, in my right front deltoid, in my left hip flexor, in my right knee. I don't know what's going on, exactly, because for a long time I went without anything more serious than a wrist sprain. I just hope I can fully recover, get into something resembling my former shape, and then give myself at least a week or two to mostly rest before I really try for the gold ring again. Anyway, sorry to massively hijack the thread, but I wanted to get that off my chest (hah!) and say that this thread, particularly your posts, LAG, have made me more determined than ever to recover fully the things I've been forced to let fall into disrepair.

 

[Charley]

Originally Posted by mose

i strongly disagree with your tone/profanity and your assessment of the book.

if you had read it thoroughly, you would know that it strongly espouses the 5x5 protocal for beginning strength athletes and highlights how Reg Park used that very system.

In addition, if read thoroughly, you would understand how it was made exactly for the situation the threadstarter is in. It addresses both the motivational issues and the mindset issues that prevent many trainees from achieving what they should. There is no reason that a trainee should have to accept only going from 70 lbs. to 95 lbs. in the bench press over the course of a year. That should not be acceptable and does not have to be reality, but unfortunately it is a byproduct of some modern training methods that neglect truly heavy weights and compound exercises(squats, cleans, high pulls, snatches, etc.).

Here is a full and complete description for a Beginner Workout. Similar to the Starr routine, except designed for the beginning lifter. Although well described, it is a fairly long thread with lots of answers to questions - and with some good advice.

As to the disapointing results for the year's effort - I'd agree with mose a bit. Seems that it should have been more. A guess is that you are doing too many exercises on the group, without using enough weight for a smaller number of reps. Adding the compound exercises and working the antagonistic muscles will be a big improvement. The cost to read the thread is prety cheap - particularly compared to the efforts you are investing in doing the work. The book that this is based upon is about $30.

Good Luck with your program.

 

[dah328]

Originally Posted by King Francis

Problem was, I had taught myself almost everything I knew. Of course I read as much as I could, and gained a greater understanding of proper form, technique, etc. -- but no one really told me at the beginning that I would need extended breaks, off-seasons when I should scale back my work outs. I planned to just go onward and upward. I was about 17 when I began to seriously work out, and my personality is such that a new personal best immediately became a new minimum standard.
You make a very good point. I'm largely self-taught, too, and I lift in the advanced to elite range according to that chart. I'm starting to notice lots more aches and pains than I felt was I was still playing competitive sports. I should probably run my workout program by someone who knows what they're doing, but that automatically rules out about 99.9% of the trainers I see at gyms. The only value their clients receive is a slimming of their pocketbooks. Any suggestions as to where I could look for someone knowledgeable in that area?

To continue my somewhat unrelated rant about personal trainers, I know lots of otherwise intelligent people who always research auto mechanics or plumbers or whatever before they hire one but are perfectly willing to take the first personal trainer the gym issues them. Do they think the maintenance of their cars or plumbing is somehow worthy of more consideration than the maintenance of their own physical fitness??