Progress Report: Slowly inching my way back

I don't understand modern theories of strength training.  Most of it centers around muscle building.  The classic theory is that lifting weight stimulates muscle growth by way of ripping apart muscle fibers and then repairing them with adequate protein intake. They're missing although the underlying foundation of strength which is your skeletal frame.  It's true the muscles have to adapt and grow, but without a strong and sturdy skeletal frame that adapts and becomes stronger and thicker over the course of a weightlifter's career it will be impossible to handle heavy loads.

Anyways, here's my progress report:

Click here for what the numbers mean.


Gym Saturday 12/13/2014 10:03 AM
Shoulder press seated 205-1
Dead chest press 145-1
Dead pin press 1/4" above chest 155-1,
165-1
Dead pin press 4" above chest 175-0
Precor incline press machine 2" deficit 260-0
Precor incline press machine 220-1
Precor incline press machine 2" above chest 200-0
Pec flyes rehab work 5 lb dumbbells

These numbers are meaningless without an explanation, so here it goes.  When I say "dead chest press", I take the safety arms in a power rack and set them three or four inches below by chest while laying down on a bench.  I then place the bar behind me on the safety arms.  Then I lay back, reach over my head and grab the bar and place it on my chest and then press the bar up.  I find doing it this way strengthens the wrists and forearms which you need to press heavy weight.

When I say "dead pin press", the bar is resting on the safety arms of the power rack but the bar is set at an approximate above my chest.  To complete the lift, I wrap my hands on the bar and push up.  The height measurements correspond to how far it is above my chest.

The reason I do it this way is that I got the idea from watching one of Nick Wright's videos.  He mentions something about not being able to bench the bar more than halfway up when trying to hit a personal best record, so to address that sticking point he did floor presses to concentrate on the top half of his bench press or the lockout.  Start the video at 6:30 to see what I mean.





Basically the whole bottom half of my bench press is my sticking point.  I can't get the bar off my chest, and if I do I get stuck two or three inches off my chest.  So to address those sticking points, I figured why not break my bench press down into segments like I do with my deadlift.  If I'm doing rack pulls and deficit deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts to increase my conventional deadlift, why not do the same thing for my bench press?

To address this, I'm basically having my hands set at varying heights when I'm chest pressing or incline pressing.  The shoulder press I'm not really worried about so I just adjust the seat height of the military press rack so the bar is below my chin.

Finally I have to explain what I mean by "rehab work".  It means I take a pair of 5 lb dumb bells and I lay back on a bench.  Then I take the dumb bells one in each hand, and I sweep my hands back in a Christ crucifixion pose until my knuckles are resting on the floor.  I'll usually hold my hands there at the bottom for a couple seconds and then bring them back to the top above me just as you would in a dumb bell pec fly movement.  This helps to stretch the front deltoids in a gentle manner after working them with so much chest pressing.