Hit 2 plates and am confused as where to obtain my gym bro membership card, help?

[sharkbait13]

For my bench press I follow Greg Nuckol's beginner program at a 3x weekly frequency. On Day 3, you do 2 sets, 4 reps each followed by an as-many-as-possible set, where you need a min of 5 reps to progressively overload the following week. Saturday was my Day 3, I benched really early in the morning and failed my AMAP set with only 3 reps at 200lbs

I was prepared to repeat the week (not add weight) this week but my sleep and schedule were all messed up coming out of my kids' Spring Break. Then yesterday all the benches at the gym were occupied so I did dumbbell press instead, further messing with my schedule.

Today, I swung a kb, then deadlifted, and then decided on a whim to bench, off program (since I pressed yesterday)

A few sets, mixing up the grip. Then continuing the whim decided to see if I could push 225 with a spot. It was smooth and controlled and I think I even had 2 reps in reserve, certainly 1.

Upon racking the bar, and much to my surprise, no one handed me my membership card or introduced me to the secret handshake. Perhaps my spotter has not received their card yet either and therefore was unable to vouch for me?

Further, the bar also failed to detect the weight I was pushing, no secret compartment opened up within the middle knurling revealing said card or information on where I could collect it.

Has the gym bro weight requirement moved up? Is this a result of inflation?

Details, in order to make this post arguably useful

Nuckol's 3x beginner bench program is:

D1: 2 sets, 8 reps, and then an AMAP set, all @ 70% of your estimated 1RM

D2: 2 sets, 6 reps, and then an AMAP set, all @ 75% of your estimated 1RM

D3: 2 sets, 4 reps, and then an AMAP set, all @ 80% of your estimated 1RM

I'm a 40M beginner, 6'2" living large at 225 lbs and very very long arms (38" sleeve length, I can't buy off the rack shirts)

My log is below, but note for the most part I'm only showing my primary pressing movement for the day, almost always standard grip barbell bench press, unless otherwise noticed. But in addition I work in the PecDec, inline barbell bench, and incline dumbbell press as a secondary lift. I've removed everything else not relevant to bench.

I started lifting after Thanksgiving, so basically December, but I was just randomly benching w/o a program. I think I started off around 95lbs. Starting in January I decided on a program and started logging. You can see early on I was completely off on my weight selection since my AMAPs were way high. Probably not the worst thing since volume help and technique help.

My Log

Sometimes apparently I wrote the full weight and sometimes just the plates, I dunno...

1/3/24 W1D1

Bench

2X8 at 35 a side

Then AMRAP. Did 16 reps

1/5 W1D2

Bench

13 AMAP at 40 a side

1/7 W1D3

Bench

11 AMAP at 45 a side

1/10 W2D1

Bench

47.5 a side 11 AMAP

1/12 W2D2

Bench

140 total, 8-9 in AMAP. Struggle bus

1/14 W2D3

Bench

60 a side did 1X4

Then failed at 1x3

Took off 10 lbs 145 total and did 6 in the AMAP

Next bench day only add 10 not 15

1/17 W2D3 REPEAT

Going slow

55 a side 2x4

got AMAP 6 same weight

1/19 W2D4

going slow am tired

55 a side. Failed in first working set 1x7 instead of 1x8

Did 3x8 45 a side

1/21

did machine press, amazing engagement

1/23 W3D1

Bench

55 a side 3x8

1/25 W3D2

Tired but strong

55 a side 2x6

And then 8 AMAP

1/28 W3D3

Strong! Trying to get lat engagement

Bench

60 a side AMAP 6

1/30 W4D1

Bench

2x8 55 a side

9 AMAP

2/1 W4D2

Bench

11AMAP 155lbs

2/5 - W4D3

Recovering from a cold

Bench Press

8AMAP 165 lbs

2/8 Thursday W5D1

Decent sleep

Gym bro supreme helped me major

Bench

12AMAP @ 155lbs

2/11 W5D2

Bench - 10AMAP @ 165lbs

2/14 W5D3

Not feeling perfect

Bench - 5AMAP @ 175lbs

6th rep was shitty

2/16 W6D0

Deciding to take today as a easy day and gear up for a new cycle for bench

Did incline 2x8 @ 135lbs

Skull crushers 2x10 @ 35 lbs

2/18 W6D1

came super early to the gym and was very tired doing bench at the beginning

Bench

170lbs

Failed my first set

Then, 2x8

AMAP 8-10

2/21 W6D2

Bench

175lbs 8AMAP

2/23 W6D3

Tired

Bench 180lbs 6AMAP

2/24 W7D1

Increasing fatigue.

10AMAP @ 160lbs

Smart move to take it easier and reset

2/27 W7D2

Bench 175 lbs @ 8 AMAP

3/1 W7D3

Bench 185lb 6AMAP

3/3 W8D1

Bench 165 11AMAP

3/5 W8D2

Bench

180lbs 7AMAP

3/8 W8D3

Exhausted and some elbow pain

Bench

5AMAP 190lbs

3/10 W9D1

Resetting bench press again with accessory lifts to get cleaner lifts

Close Grip Bench

2x12 and then 1x16 @ 135

Triceps lit, felt great

Wide Grip

1x12 @ 135

3/12 W9D2

Bench Press Reset Day 2

Incline dumbbells 50lbs

Close Grip Bench

3/15 W9D3

Dumbbell incline

Close Grip sets of 165

Machine row

3/17 W10D1

Bench Press 170lb 10AMAP

3/20 W10D2

Bench Press 185 (45+25 a side)

8 AMAP

MAN I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M STILL MOVING UP

3/22 W10D3

Bench 45+25+5 195lbs

6 AMAP

still trucking!

3/25 W11D1

Took Sunday off. Too tired!

Little sluggish today. Am present. Let’s go.

175lbs 9AMAP

3/28 W11D3

exhausted. Slept horribly

Decided to bench regardless

Failed 185 AMAP set on 7th rep

Will continue to my D3 regardless and depending on performance will either repeat or go heavy on accessories

3/30 W11D3

morning session. 8AM

Bench Press

3 good form AMAP @ 200

Womp womp! Repeat the week!

4/2 Off Cycle

All benches occupied…

Incline Dumbbell Press, worked up to 65lb dbs to failure

4/3 Off Cycle

Bench Press

Did warmup. Close grip

Then said fuck it and 1RM on 225.

Had a least one rep in reserve

Observations

I think making judgement calls to repeat a day or sort-of deload / switch it up for a week genuinely helped me a lot. I read a ton of stuff online that basically said beginners do not need to deload but I don't know how much they factor in for age and frequency. Maybe what I really ended up doing was just take some additional needed rest time - perhaps I'm not great at assessing how tired my chest is. It isn't quite like arms or legs where it is completely obviously when you're beat.

Where I'm going from here

Seems like a good place to reassess

• I've starting to deprioritize bench within my overall program. So if I'm going to squat or deadlift on a day where I'll also bench, I'll do those before benching. Benching is really fun and its great to see the numbers go up, but I'm primarily lifting to fix my back. I'm more comfortable with those other movements now and will appropriately prioritize.
• My goal was to hit 225 and then start cutting weight, so I'm also going to do that. I think 205lbs is a good weight for me and my build. Will reassess when I get there, since I've never been that weight with as much muscle as I have now, at least in my upper body
• Get to actually repping 225, slowly and back on program lol
• Maybe decrease bench to 2x weekly
• Maybe move to an intermediate program for bench since I really like close grip

 

[pilgrimparson]

@sharkbait13 Congrats and welcome to the club

 

[gilcimarlp]

@sharkbait13 Congrats! Welcome to Club Swole. Your membership card and free hand chalk are in the mail. You can now tear the sleeves off ALL your shirts. Even your church clothes.

 

[mikeb34]

@gilcimarlp When he gets to 250 he'll have earned the right to tear out the collars too.

Stay with it OP, there's plenty of room up here!

 

[sharkbait13]

@mikeb34 Oh yes! Be there soon

 

[ecce]

@sharkbait13 You gotta send your app in to Arnold. He signs off on all of them. Good job dude!

 

[jackson12]

@sharkbait13 Nice, ive stalled right now around 185-195lbs and its driving me nuts. For a while I was adding about 5lbs a month, but I seem to have hit a plateau around 185-195. I did do 2 sets of 3x185lbs on monday but it wrecked my shoulders. Goal is 2 plates by end of summer.

 

[sharkbait13]

@jackson12 It's funny you mention that, multiple people have told me that ~190 is a plateau point. That is also where my shoulders were starting to feel it and I had to really slow down and concentrate on technique. It's also where I took a week off my normal grip bench and started doing close grip which I think really helped me

 

[jackson12]

@sharkbait13 interesting, yeah ive been playing with wide and narrow grips for a few months now trying to figure out the shoulder pain. If I rest for 4-5 days it goes away and if i stay around 155-175lbs i dont have it at all. But then as soon as I start pushing it where I can get like 3-4 reps in at 185-195, shoulders kill for days. Ive been trying to substitute dumbell presses at lower weights with very narrow form and that seems to be helping a little bit with getting my reps up, but max weight is still an issue.

 

[sharkbait13]

@jackson12 The good thing with dumbbell press is it really lets you get a much deeper range of motion. The same is true for the pecdec, especially if you set the arms a few notches deeper such that you begin the movement with your arms splayed out a bit behind you.

The bench press is such a standard that I think it is easy to forget a few of the downsides - most of the resistance is in the middle of the movement (so some people use bands to keep resistance high and train for explosiveness), the bar can't go below the depth of your chest (hence db press), and honestly it's great for sculpting but I don't think pushing things with your hands super wide is the most functional of movements lol.

Narrow grip lets me recruit triceps more and I think given my arm length is really necessary for me to train actively along bench.

I've noticed that many of the intermediate programs deliberately include sets of close grip. That is also one of the reasons I started working it in "early" (given that I'm still by reasonable measures a beginner)

Good luck, hope you figure out the shoulder issue