greedy start

[js3424]

First day of SS, my bench started at 85. It got very hard in the last 2 sets, and I needed spotter help for the last rep of the last set. Being greedy and stupid, when it comes time to add more weight, I jumped up to 95 today. Could barely complete the first set with excruciatingly slow bar speed, then bumped it down to 90, and needed spotter help for the last 2 reps of the last set. Basically ruined bench today, while squats and deadlifts are going nicely.

What should i do at this point? I figure next time for bench, i'll stick at 90 and try to get all 5, and then go up 5 pounds at a time after that point. Did i fuck anything up by being so greedy in the very beginning?

[Patrick]

Amigo, this isn't even really a question... yes you fucked up. Go to 75 lbs and go up by 5 lbs per session.

[Jonathan Vechet]

The biggest fuck up I see is wasted time.

Why did you decide to make a 10lbs jump on the bench press? Especially when you're starting out at 85lbs and you didn't even complete your sets: spotter help constitutes an incomplete set.

I would personally go down to 70lbs or even 65lbs and make your 5lbs jumps from there; provided you complete your sets WITHOUT spotter help.

[Carlos Daniel]

For fuck's sake, go to 75 or something and work your way up. You can do without the soreness and the possible injuries from being silly. It's not supposed to be pretty hard for at least a week or two.

[Arboresque]

.

[ComeAtMeBro]

if you just missed the last rep of the last set last time you probably would have been ok with a smaller jump, but since its your first time even benching i think you've misjudged it, drop the weight to 80lbs or something and start again, dont fuck it up this early

[FKYT]

If I were you, I'd drop down to a weight you know without a shadow of a doubt you'd be able to do 3x5 (so, 65 lbs, or maybe even just the empty bar). Work your way back up no more than 5 lbs at a time. Don't rush things -- you have your whole life to get strong, and in general it's better to start out too light than too heavy. You didn't really fuck anything up aside from a wasted week at the gym.

[ZonaLifter]

I'd start with an empty bar and go from there. No sense rushing. Progression is your goal, not breaking PR's as fast as possible.

[dkggpeters]

You don't need to be greedy. Even if you start at just the bar and increase 2.5 lbs per workout you would increase your bench 15 lbs a month (BP 2x wk 1, 1x wk, 2x wk, 1x wk). This may be small but if you could keep this up for a year you would be at 225 lbs. That is probably unlikely as you would stall around body weight (I am assuming you are light due to your current bench numbers) well before a year is up.

[js3424]

Yeah, I think I just went into this with the wrong mindset. Its like I was trying to start as high as I could and hoping it would just magically increase as I reach failure near my last rep.

I'm going to essentially restart the program, since its only been a week (3 workouts). I'll take bench down to 65, which is very easy to handle. I think i'll push everything else back too, and make sure i'm stressing technique. I can do all 3 sets of squats for example at 100, but the last few reps are very hard and i'm not getting full depth. So, i'll take everything down to very easy levels, and do the low end +5 for presses, +10 for squats, + 10/15 for deadlift. Hopefully the wasted week of trying to push things won't stall me out sooner than I would have otherwise.