Max Effort Upper: Touching with 415, and Duffalo Bar vs Bands [PR]

After coming off my best meet performance of my career, I am now officially a beat up powerlifter. I'm having some minor low back issues that I'm working on mending up, and then I'll begin to find a competitive option. My goals for 2017 are to compete in a bodybuilding show and also get back to the platform 100% healthy.

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Sunday was my second day in the bench shirt, and I felt like I made some incredible strides compared to last week. After benching last week I sent my videos over to Team Elitefts and got some good constructive feedback. If you ask me, this is by far the most valuable thing I get from my teammates - they know how to give me coaching cues that help specifically me, backed by decades of experience and by lifters and coaches way smarter and stronger than me. I widened my grip out just a hair, focused on pulling the bar apart more, and doing my best to belly up (with the little belly that I have). I resulted in a good smooth touch with 415. I'm not sure how this will play out based on openers and such, but it at least gives me a ball park range of numbers I can use for a meet. I then just followed up with some raw max effort work and triceps and was done.

It was a long training day as I had some Purdue Barbell members back down again, but it was a great time and everyone that's been coming down has been making some great progress for their meet coming up. We should see some big lifts and PR's coming soon.

Next week I'll be out of the shirt to give my body a bit of a break/rest, as I don't want to burn my CNS and body out too quickly. I'm doing a good job of staying healthy, and I'd like to keep it that way if I'm possibly planning to be in a shirt from now until after summer.

Items Used in this Training Session Sabertooth Bar Metal Jack Bench Shirt Duffalo Bar Mini Band

Warm Up Cats & Camels - 10 Quadraped T-Spine Ext - 10 each Band Dislocations - 10 Alternating Band Dislocations - 10 each Band Pressdowns - 15 Band Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns - 15 Band Face Pulls - 15 Single Arm Band Fly - 15 each Band Rows - 15 Band Curls - 15

A1) Bench Press 55x10 105x5 145x5 195x5 235x5 265x3 285x2 305x1 325x3 - add Metal Jack 355x3 375x3 395x3 415x1 - touched! *All other work sets were airboarded*

B1) Duffalo Bar Bench Press vs Doubled Mini Bands 55x5 145x5 195x3 225x3 255x3 - PR!

C1) Close Grip Duffalo Bar Bench Press vs Doubled Mini Bands 185x3x8

D1) Skull Crushers 4x12

E1) Cross Body Tricep Extensions 3x15 E2) Bench Dips 3 sets, max reps

F1) Seated Rear Delt Raises 3x25