Personal best on bench last night

[BERT]

Did shoulders last night and it feels like I only go up in weight on shoulder presses. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like I've been doing the same weight on all the other exercises forever. Guess you don't have to go heavy on some of them to get them to work right cause they seem to be working.

[BERT]

Dumbells aren't something that you want to just jump into full bore, there are stabilizing muscles at play that aren't used with a barbell. Lighten it up and concentrate on perfect form and using your full range of motion for a while. The potential for shoulder injury is much higher with dumbells, heavy weight with an off-kilter angle is a recipe for disaster.

It's a hard concept to get past the ego I know, but using lighter weight with better control and slower motion will absolutely make you grow.

Don't worry, I do these nice and slow and don't try to rush through them. Trust me, if it's too heavy I won't do it lol

[Big A]

So don't do the partial reps? Going this heavy for me I have a hard time doing partials anyway. Last night I was doing full reps.

The "scary" part is the next step up from 110lbs is the 125ers. Those look really big haha

Dumbells aren't something that you want to just jump into full bore, there are stabilizing muscles at play that aren't used with a barbell. Lighten it up and concentrate on perfect form and using your full range of motion for a while. The potential for shoulder injury is much higher with dumbells, heavy weight with an off-kilter angle is a recipe for disaster.

It's a hard concept to get past the ego I know, but using lighter weight with better control and slower motion will absolutely make you grow.

[BERT]

Glad to see you off the barbell.
Keep it up, just make sure you are doing full reps with the DB's as well.

So don't do the partial reps? Going this heavy for me I have a hard time doing partials anyway. Last night I was doing full reps.

The "scary" part is the next step up from 110lbs is the 125ers. Those look really big haha

[BERT]

I agree, I've been hooked as well.
One of the best pumps you will feel!
Love doing the 120's(as large as they go, ) x 15 paused for 2 secs at bottom.
Sometimes, I'll just beast out and do 20 reps with no pause, but I do not get quite the pump from it like I do the paused sets.

I do these sometimes, not always on purpose either lol

[stangin4lyfe]

Last night I did the most I've ever done on dumbbell press. On my last set I put up the 110lbers 6 times.

Went:
90x10
100x8
110x6

Had a hard time doing dumbbell incline after that lol

Glad to see you off the barbell.
Keep it up, just make sure you are doing full reps with the DB's as well.

[stangin4lyfe]

Nice. Completely random entry, but I've never tried paused sets before, but did so last night and loved it. Will be doing more.

I agree, I've been hooked as well.
One of the best pumps you will feel!
Love doing the 120's(as large as they go, ) x 15 paused for 2 secs at bottom.
Sometimes, I'll just beast out and do 20 reps with no pause, but I do not get quite the pump from it like I do the paused sets.

[SS Junk]

Nice. Completely random entry, but I've never tried paused sets before, but did so last night and loved it. Will be doing more.

[BERT]

Last night I did the most I've ever done on dumbbell press. On my last set I put up the 110lbers 6 times.

Went:
90x10
100x8
110x6

Had a hard time doing dumbbell incline after that lol

[BERT]

Due to travelling and the flu I was away from the gym for almost 3 weeks during the holidays, which turned out to be a good thing. My joints appreciated the time off, as did my lower back, and this first week back I am lifting for 8 what I was pushing up for 6 before the break. Rest is important, remember, you don't grow or get stronger while you are at the gym, that happens when you're resting.

Not having a training partner is no excuse to drop your intensity, just be smart about how and what you lift (like switching to dumbells), and you most certainly can still grow. Strict form is your friend when lifting without a spot.

When I'm there, I still work out. I have a problem with not taking enough time in between sets though. My brother always set the pace and I'm always wanting to blow through my workouts.

[Big A]

Got lazy during the holidays and only went to the gym twice. Back at it hard this week though. Lost my workout partner since my bro moved to tyler so I'm just doing dumbbells for bench for now. The last time I did DB's I could barely do the 100lbers, the other day on my last set I was able to do the 100lbers 8 times. Shoulder is still bothering me so I'm having to take it easy on certain things but I'm getting it done.

Due to travelling and the flu I was away from the gym for almost 3 weeks during the holidays, which turned out to be a good thing. My joints appreciated the time off, as did my lower back, and this first week back I am lifting for 8 what I was pushing up for 6 before the break. Rest is important, remember, you don't grow or get stronger while you are at the gym, that happens when you're resting.

Not having a training partner is no excuse to drop your intensity, just be smart about how and what you lift (like switching to dumbells), and you most certainly can still grow. Strict form is your friend when lifting without a spot.

[BERT]

Got lazy during the holidays and only went to the gym twice. Back at it hard this week though. Lost my workout partner since my bro moved to tyler so I'm just doing dumbbells for bench for now. The last time I did DB's I could barely do the 100lbers, the other day on my last set I was able to do the 100lbers 8 times. Shoulder is still bothering me so I'm having to take it easy on certain things but I'm getting it done.

[SS Junk]

Light light weight. Do it for reps and not for weight. It'll help with muscle memory as well. Once your shoulder heals then start to gradually increase weight. It's quite possible you'll be fighting some sort of shoulder pain from here on out.

[BERT]

Took last week off, it was time and I was going to be out of town for two days. Plus my shoulder started hurting. It's probably going to take more than a weeks worth of rest for the shoulder to start feeling better but i'm kind of scared to take too much time off. It only hurts doing certain exercises, so I just try and take it easy during those. Stupid old baseball injuries

[SS Junk]

I never said they were ineffective. I just think they're dangerous. Out of all the spotters I've had I'd only trust the two mentioned to do this at over 300lbs. As far as an incredible amount of strength I was meaning I gained it while lifting with my last spotter. Some of it was technique, a lot of it was psychological and the rest was strength. When we would lift heavy we would always do "forced reps" with weight we could get up 3 to four times clean and then go from there. We also went heavy with boards. Every little bit of it helped. What we did worked for both of us.