New Lifter - Failed My First Lift - What Now?

[Eric17]

Need to travel for work for 4 days so next gym day after today is not until this coming Friday. Today went off program a little by doing both bench and press due to the travel loss.

Pretty hearty brunch, about 1500 calories
Squat: 235x5x3 Hard but doable
Bench: 170x4x1, 170x3x2, 170x2x1, 170x1x3 Grind, Grind
Press: 119x4x1, 119x3x2, 119x2x4 Grind, Grind
Deadlift: 275x5x1 Grind

So really I guess the question is should I stay at 170 for one more pass of the bench this Friday or add 1 or 2 pounds? I have 4 lbs of 0.50lb plates to work with to microload

[Eric17]

Was lucky and found a small local gym on the road that was happy to let me lift.

I ground out 170x3x5 on the bench, not the 170x5x3 that I wanted. In the absence of any more insight I will stay at 170 until I can do 5x3. I'm working hard at maintaining proper form on the bench and I'm following the steps as laid out on the YouTube videos. Scapula pinched in and down, feet planted pushing towards head, arched back with butt on bench, medium grip with hands slightly rotated inward so the bar is on the meat of the hand.

Was able to add 5 lbs on the squat and 5 lbs on the deadlift for 245x5x3 and 280x5x1 with no complaints.

I also got my copy of "The Barbell Prescription" and realize after reading it on the plane that I'm not doing the program as laid out for a 49 year old. I don't have any injuries and no body parts are complaining at all so I guess I'll continue on as is until the bar tells me otherwise.

[Jason Donaldson]

Was lucky and found a small local gym on the road that was happy to let me lift.

I ground out 170x3x5 on the bench, not the 170x5x3 that I wanted. In the absence of any more insight I will stay at 170 until I can do 5x3. I'm working hard at maintaining proper form on the bench and I'm following the steps as laid out on the YouTube videos. Scapula pinched in and down, feet planted pushing towards head, arched back with butt on bench, medium grip with hands slightly rotated inward so the bar is on the meat of the hand.

Why not 172x3x5 next time?

And as for form, you should always be working on form, not deloading to do so. Not going up in weight is deloading, if you're providing for the SRA cycle properly.

[Eric17]

Why not 172x3x5 next time?

And as for form, you should always be working on form, not deloading to do so. Not going up in weight is deloading, if you're providing for the SRA cycle properly.

Makes sense, I'm going to give that a try next bench workout. Funny enough was reading Practical Programming for Strength today and my exact problem to the weight shows up as an example around page 157. So I'll keep pushing but if I can't get past 172 over three workouts then I will reduce 10% and as recommended and continue back up from there. Rest has been plentiful and I've been eating well so I prefer to keep pushing rather than deload. Thank you for the suggestion.

[Bill Anders]

If you are not approaching each and every warmup rep as perfect practice for your work reps, you are squandering your opportunities. You fix your issues there, not with a deload.

[Eric17]

If you are not approaching each and every warmup rep as perfect practice for your work reps, you are squandering your opportunities. You fix your issues there, not with a deload.

I am doing every rep from the start of warmup to the very last rep with as best form as possible. Earlier in the thread I just described my form checklist that I do in my head for each rep/set and it somehow turned into a form thing. I'll see what tomorrows bench workout brings and go from there.

[Eric17]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Was able to do 172x3x5 today without issue. Was also able to continue to make 5 lb jumps on my squats and deadlift so I'll keep grinding. Lifts are getting hard now but in a good way will plan on jumping to 174 lbs next bench workout.