Abandoning the bench press

Dear friend,

First, I want to thank you for all the good times we spent together. Throughout the years you have made me me confidence, improved my self esteem and helped me to care far more about the way I look.

But along with these things, you have also brought me endless hours of anguish, deprived me of a social life and physically assaulted me on more than one occasion. It has taken me this long to realize that you are nothing more than weight on my chest that I can no longer bear.

While I will always miss the strong bond we have formed, I finally realize relationships are about more than just a big chest and I am writing you this letter to let you know I am done with you for good.

I know you have thousands of other men to call your own, I will always miss you and hope to see you again some day.

Regards,
Chris (a reformed meathead)


Like most guys, my first concern before my career as a trainer was always how much I could bench, squat and curl. And while these movement brought me a well developed chest, biceps and quads, they also brought me equally shitty posture.

With rounded shoulders, a semi-hump back and an inability to squat to parallel, I was, for many years, a full blown meathead solely intent on lifting as much weight as possible.

While I have significantly improved the mechanics of my movement since “seeing the light”, the scars of my past remain ingrained in my lack of mobility, semi-rounded shoulders and a constant tingling I know I shouldn’t be feeling in my upper back.

Based upon a postural screen which we will get in to later in the program, my specific issues are as follows:

Poor ankle mobility (tendency to come forward on my toes when I squat)
Kyphosis of the upper back (forward lean when squatting down or bending over)
Hip flexion weakness (stiffness of the ability to raise my knee above my waist)

Despite my irrational concern for losing inches in my chest (no, really), this has led me to the painful decision to give up benching pressing for the time being. Instead, I will focus on a program to improving the number of bodyweight push up, inverted row and split squat I can perform without stopping.

As of this morning, my max numbers in these exercises are as follows:

Pushup- 39
Pullup-12
Split squat- 27
Invered row- 21

My feeling is that both strength (the ability to lift heavy weight) and endurance (the ability to outlast the competition) are crucial to building a well balanced physique. In order to do so, I will perform a mix of bodyweight and external resistance in my strength training.

By the same token, I will also insert specific corrective exercises in to the active rest periods of workout day strength circuits to work on mobility and posture to kill two birds with one stone.

While I will be posting my daily training journal with thoughts and impressions of what I am doing and why, the first step is to share what I am doing to fix my posture:

Foam roll: The first step in developing better posture is to eliminate trigger points and improve the length of the muscle in question. I plan to foam roll 3-4 days per week before and after strength workouts.
Stretch: After foam rolling, the next step is to signal the muscles to improve lengthen via conventional stretching. I will perform this activity after each round of foam rolling, holding each stretch for 20-30 seconds.
Mobilize: Once the muscles have regained length, mobility drills for specific areas of the body will allow me to move better through the range of motion. These will take place after foam rolling and stretching.
Corrective exercise: While I am all about moving as many muscles as possible, this will involve isolation exercises to coax smaller stabilizer muscles to contribute more work in total body moment. These will be performed during my workout
Core Training: While my core is already fairly strong and stable, this month is devoted to improving the core’s ability to resist movement (twisting, extending and flexing the trunk) and stabilize the trunk.

I will get in to details later today with my first off-day workout—a metabolic circuit which is all about mental toughness. While we label this period unloading, I never said it wouldn’t involve hard work!