thursday heavy bench prep

Warmed up a bit more than usual tonite, low back was getting tight so made sure to loosen my hips up.
foam roll hips and biceps
dynamic warm up
60 hyperextension
75 face pulls
had a good sweat going after this and got into position easily.

Bench with 45lb chains
135x3
185x3
225x2
260x1
285x1
295x1
315xf - missed about halfway up, lost the bar over my face, had to flare a lot to compensate, just ran out of gas.
285 1x2
275x2

 Last time I made 315 I hit 350 in training and almost got it for a double. I'm feeling a lot more confident with my bench now, and I think 350 right now will be great and a 20lb pr would be wonderful for a 12 week period. I think anything above that will be fantastic and a good indicator to keep doing a lot of volume in the low 80% range. I used to have a very tough time benching more than once a week and my shoulders would quickly start to ache everytime I tried. I think my posture improving so much puts a lot less strain on my biceps during squats, so now the constant ache in my brachials is totally gone, and benching is now just a ton easier. I like doing reps with chains as for me at least, it really simulates how I feel during a max attempt when I'm fully amped up, and teach me how to strain through a lift. I've been having some tough shoulder pain lately, but I loosened my hips up a bit more and it's gone away.  Finally figuring out how to lower the bar with my lats is a huge help, as well as learning to keep my wrists straighter. I've always felt my bench should be much higher as I don't have the longest arms of all time, I think now that I've figured this out, I should be able to get much closer to the 405 mark within a few more meets. I'm going to slowly keep gaining weight so that will be a big help as well. Feeling a lot of momentum overall with my training right now, and that's a big positive heading into the meet.

I'm definitely feeling some nerves heading into the meet, but I just do my best to turn it into excitement and just let any pressure I feel go. It's been 12 weeks, and I've gotten stronger, and I just need to keep doing that over and over and getting a bit better all the time, I trust in Marks program, i'm feeling healthy and tight in the right spots and loose in the right spots, not feeling burnt out like I did at the last meet, feeling like I'll be able to have a bit more fun at this meet. The boys look great, and I'm confident all of them will finish the meet and hit some PRs and have some fun.