Shirt Benching

Great minds think alike Louise! Remembered to take the camera to training and so here's a shot of me looking like a dwarf in a straight jacket with my shirt on (without the belt) My arms are up like that because with the shirt on you simply cannot put them down without cutting off blood circulation! Next week Shaz will organize her training partner to join us at Doherty's and we'll get a few pics in action as she want to coach from the side lines and have her training partner spot me.

So, the bench session went like this. Warmed up a few sets sans shirt... up to doing 6 reps at 60kg. Then the shirt went on... belt on.. wrist wraps on.... chalked... and try to bring just 60kg down to 'mah belly' Oh yeah! got it down, in the poorest form ever seen, shoulders totally off the bench, I think Shaz was ready to slap me.... 'NO NO NO - Lock your shoulders down, squeeze your scapula's together, pull them down to your butt, big arch, chest up, row the bar down.....' Good, couldn't get the bar near my chest.

Worked on form for the rest of the session doing partials, even with 80kg on the bar, could not get it down - and was very wobbly as I am not used to having to fight the shirt. Will probably need a 100kg / 110kg. This is going to take a lot of work. So until I get the technique right, my raw lift is better than my shirt lift. Acquired some nice bruising under the arms where the shirt bites.

Couple of pics of my trainer, Shaz. You can see how her triceps dominate her arms and how thick her lats are. This is how she is able to bench so big and this demonstrates why she is the best coach for my benching. Her raw bench is currently 100kg! By comparison when you look at my photo's in throughout the blog, you'llnotice that its my biceps that dominate my arems - from years of bodybuilding training. I need to really build my tricpes and so my training routines have a lot of tricep and back work for training towards a bigger bench press.

Into my regular gym after work, to finish off what was started in the morning. Straight onto the supplementary work.

3x10 Floor pin press - close grip - bottom pin. 50kg set 1- 8 reps, set 2 - 7 reps, drop back to 40kg set 3 - 10 reps
3x10 Benchers lying triceps press - 25lb dumbell set 1&2 10 reps, set 3 9 reps
3x8 Chest supported row Neutral grip - set 1 60kg 10 reps. bump up the weight since I did 10 reps... 70kg 3 sets 8 reps
3x10 Reverse grip bar front raise. 35lb 3 sets 10 reps
3x12 Dumbbell hammer curl with overhead press - 20lb dumbbell 3 sets of 12 (the last 3 reps in each set the overhead press was difficult!)

Really pumped when I left the gym - had a great workout. Was happy to see Daniel and John were back in the gym too. They had decided to try out another gym, but thankfully they're returned. Told them I missed them! No-one to help me on with my shirt! LOL. They're good spotters, two of the few guys that I really trust to spot me when I go heavy - especially squatting!

Tuesday 5.20am

The alarm blaring in my ear.... Had set the alarm early to go for a run before work.... reset the alarm for 5:50 and rolled over trying to justify not going for a run.... Heavy leg session tonight, better to run the day after training, will run tomorrow morning.... Nah gotta do it - cant run tomorrow morning anyway, heading off the Launceston at 8.30 am, will have to be at the airport around 7.30 which means getting up at 6am so no chance of a run.... Up, dressed and away 5.40 (thankfully I had everything prepared last night to go for then run). Arrived at the Tan just after 6am and set off along the river, across swan street bridge, down along the river again. Watched as 5 hot air balloons rose into the sky above the gardens, wondered if I'd ever be game enough to get into one of those things - not likely!! Especially not the weird-arse sharped one! So, back across Morrell bridge and across to the tan track and ran back down along the tan back to my car. Short 3.2 km 25 mins 5 min/1min run/walk intervals and HR was kept reasonable averaging 150 and peaking at 165 just near the end of the run.

Guilt free... I'm heading down the to gateway to get my apple muffin - yumm!

Cheers

Vicki xxx