About a month ago I switched off of the Pre-Cor machines that I had maxed out at my local gym. One of my favorite exercises happens to be the bench press. Now while I can happily put up 270lbs on the machine, on the standard bench press thus far I have only attempted about 240lbs max. Normally, I will do 3 sets of 10 reps, incrementing the weight upwards each time. My current workout has me starting out at 185, then 205, and then 215. I won’t go any higher without a spotter as I enjoy the ability to chew solid foods and fornicate on a regular basis.
Side effect, is that since more muscles are used while in the process of lifting on free-weights, there are certain muscles playing catch up to the rest, and in particularly my shoulders I’ve had some nagging little pains as a result of my workouts. While my right shoulder cleared up its own, my left (I’m a righty) has still had the annoying ache. I’ve attempted to deal with it, but had little luck – so today I took the advice of quite possibly the brightest person I know and picked up some Maximum Strength Ben Gay.
I still have the pain, not nearly as bad though… Duh. I know. My next thing is to start identifying upper body stretches that I can use, as currently I’m heading towards the type of guy who can’t scratch his own back, and that’s pretty friggin annoying.
