Max Effort Bench Press Training Tonight

Tonight we are doing our max effort bench press training. Last week Missy went to a single rep max on a 4 board press and I went for a 10 rep max on a 3 board press. This was done out of necessity because I could simply lift too much weight to safely control without more spotters. I hit a big weight for the 10 reps all the same so I could not be disappointed. For her part Missy nailed a single with 120% of her one rep max on a standard bench press which was very good. She had for three weeks been struggling with a certain weight on the bench press so I came up with a three week cycle involving a max effort rotation of a 4, 3, and then 2 board press on max effort lifts and then heavy triples and doubles on her dynamic effort day. So far she has met and exceeded everything laid out for her and I could not be more proud. I have every confidence that when she attempts that weight in another two weeks she will nail it easily.

Since we did 4 board press last week, tonight will be a 3 board press. I will work to a 2 board press for safety reasons. I am hoping to have our power rack done by this weekend so it will fix this issue but for now I cannot go higher in weight and must simply make the lift harder. Not a big deal since I am in a circa max phase on my dynamic training day so I am already going quite heavy.

After our max effort lift we will perform 2 sets of 5 reps on close grip bench press. By taking a close grip it transfer more of the workload onto the triceps and builds a lot of power on the bench press lockout. We will then perform 3 sets of 15 reps on incline dumbbell presses. The key on these is to do as full as range of motion as possible. On a barbell bench press you can only go as low as your chest but with dumbbells you can go even lower so you should do so. It will build strength off your chest as well as really develop those pressing muscles.

We will round out our training with some kind of tricep extension and dumbbell curl. Doesn't really matter what lift these are, all that matters is that you hit about 40-50 reps on each. I usually do either 3 sets of 15 reps or 4 sets of 10 reps. Sometimes I might superset these two lifts if the training session has already lasted a long time.