300 Pound Bench Press!!!!

Here's a post I never thought I'd write......I am now a proud member of the 300 club!!!!

I had no thoughts of benching 300 pounds when I woke up this morning. However, we had a great atmosphere at the gym today and I was feeling pretty good, so on the advice of someone who knows what he's doing, I gave it a shot. It moved surprisingly well. So much so that I will probably try 305/310 before year's end. 

It has been a very long journey to get here and there were many times where I thought that this day wasn't in the cards. To say I am pumped is an understatement.  

Cool 5RM on deadlifts today, too, @ 500 lbs.

480 Squat PR

I forgot to post this, but I had a nice 480 pound squat PR on August 12.

My progression was 365-405-430-460-480.   The rep at 430 was OK, but 460 flew, so I felt pretty confident with 480.  That ended up being probably a RPE9. I may have been good for 485/490, but I was happy enough with 480 that I stopped there.  The road to 500 is getting shorter and shorter.

Current lifetime numbers:  480-295-555

295 Bench PR

I forgot to post this on July 4... hit a sloppy touch and go bench PR @ 295.  After failing that weight probably 6 or 7 times, I'm thrilled!  

300 is getting close......

Impromptu Deadlift PR

Today's session was bench press and deadlifts, without anything specific planned for deadlifts.

To bury the lead, benching went well...I worked up to a legitimate pause @ 285 lbs., which I think would have been a good lift in a competition setting.  I followed that up with 205/14, which is a 15 pound increase over my previous 14RM and a 5 pound, 2 rep increase over my previous 12RM.

On to deadlifting....425 felt super easy, so that made me think that I'd pull 500+ today. 465 flew. 505 was solid enough that I decided to load the bar with 535. It went up surprisingly fast. My PR at this point was 546, so I decided to put 555 on the bar.....and it was good for a 9 pound PR!

I had a goal to hit a PR in something by my 46th birthday in late August, so it's awesome that the goal was achieved with a lot of time left.

Maybe a bench PR on the horizon?

Nice Bench 5RM

255/4 (4RM), followed by 255/5 (5RM).  After doing two more sets of 3, I hit 265 for a 4 second pause.  I've been benching essentially every workout these days and my body is continuing to respond. Maybe this is the year I finally hit 300. 

Huge Trap Bar Deadlift PR

Haven't tested this in a while... last PR was 551 in November 2021.

Today, I was good for 590!! That is the most weight these hands have ever held.. pretty cool.

285 Pound Paused Bench Press

The 285 pound paused bench press attempt was successful tonight, good for 9 more pounds than what I managed at the competition two months ago. Not too shabby.

I also hit 350/4 with SSB squats, which represents a modest 4RM.