Strength / Weight Training

What I mean by flat spot is a plateau in the weight I can lift. I'm a bit stuck.
I do have a little sticking point in the middle of the press though.

That's sorta normal nearly everyone has a slight point when elbows come through.

The bench often improves by putting on some mass, but you said it's not your main lift so it depends if you want to carefully eat up and gain some muscle or have to stay at a certain weight :)

Yeah, I was just thinking out loud really. I liked the feeling after doing them last week but I can't tell if they're helping yet. I think you also need to bench quite regularly 2/3 times a week, so that could be a problem for you?

I don't know what they're call put elevated pressups where your hands are on one bench and feet on a higher bench are quite good as they get the core involved a little more

@dan
Address your technique , ask yourself " am I "

Practicing Compensatory Acceleration training (CAT) that is learn to press explosively . Eccentrically lower the weight in a normal controlled fashion . Once you hit the bottom of the lift , very quickly change directions and explosively move the weight upward as rapidly as possible . This is best done in the 55- 82.5 % range where the amount of power generated is the greatest which is the reason the majority of powerlifters train within these parameters .

Create tension . Or stay tight as you hear people say . When you set-up on the bench do you

• Squeeze the shoulder blades back and down and drive your upper back into the bench .
  -Crush the bar , are you squeezing it very tightly
  
• On the bars descent pull it down to you with your lats as if doing a row which engages the back , whilst at the same time force your chest out to meet the bar .
  -Don't flare your elbows out as you press the bar up keep your elbows tucked in .
  -Screw your feet into the floor when you start , push out with the knees and keep your glutes really tight . I can't stress keep your glutes tight enough .
  
• If you bench with your heels elevated push your toes through the front of your shoes
  
  

Lastly what do you do for Triceps ? All good benchers have really strong Tri's .

Coach had me doing plyo stuff in the gym today. Have never felt like such an idiot in my whole life.

Also did box squats for the first time today. Surprisingly tough.

Did anyone catch the IPF worlds? Shit was cray, yo.

A few locals lifting in them, including a lady in the gym I train at. Very impressive!

(sobs in corner for not meeting standard...) :)

I caught most of it up till the completion of the 105's . I was anticipating the much hyped Haack v Gibbs showdown but there was some great lifting across all the weight classes I saw . The streaming was really good too .

Agreed, also it's always entertaining watching Hubbard lift. Hack vs Gibbs was great. The 83's is a very competitive class. The next few years of juniors are going to be terrifying as well.

Thought I'd share in case anyone else can't justify gym fees/ membership. Southwark council are starting free gym days for all Southwark residents from July 29th!! Gym access is free all day Fridays and after 2pm at the weekend at any of the Southwark Leisure centres.

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/2158/registration_opens_for_london_s_first_borough-wide_free_swim_and_gym_scheme

I will be using this to step up my strength training :)

If you ever get access to the equipment. It'll be like chum and sharks

Free classes in how to fight for machine access ;)

No idea why the gyms I frequent here must have the most awful dance music on.

Should smuggle in some underworld/machine drum/faithless and so on :)

Cause dance music rocks!

(*I love dance but the elevator music in gyms are always atrocious!)

Earphones and minimp3 all the way! Plus it means not listening to ppl clanking the weights together like knobs they are!

I've managed to join a new gym. Fancy city gym for convenience.

Got some serious equipment which is nice! But new pet peeve unfortunately too. I've seen guys throwing weights down and not even big ones. Say a guy chuck a 15kg bar down like he's an Olympic powerlifter. Made the bar bounce up to his knees. Fucking 'showoff' can do one.

Oooh probably the same wankers that bend the proper squat/deadlift bars by abusing them!!!

Doubt they could pick up an Olympic bar... But yeah, that type. Dickheads

Finally sorted some wireless cans. What a relief. Best £80 I've spent in a while.

What do you connect to? I hate the idea of lugging my phone around with me at the gym. Besides being cumbersome, I fear I will probably smash it with a big weight

Back in a powerlifting/bodybuilding gym. The equipment is ancient, there's no proper changing room, the bog (toilet) is unclean but no shitty music.

Yeooo! ;)

I started taking BCAA/tyrosine during training in my water. Some people say it makes no difference if you already take whey, but they seem to work for me. Cutting down on calories meant I did notice a lack of reps, this offsets it a bit.

I also increased carbs. Low carb is trendy atm, but 1gram per lbs bodyweight to 1.5 seems fine for now. But there are only so many healthy carbs one can eat, so if I need to up the calories I need to add a little more fats perhaps. (currently P 25/f 35/c 40 on training days. I don't buy this eating more than 1 grams protein per lbs...I doubt you can use it)

And what did you get?

Got these: http://www.whathifi.com/akg/y45bt/review

And connecting to my phone. So have been wearing shorts with pockets (means leaving my football shorts at home, probably a good thing, tbh) but then when squatting etc have had to take out of the pocket and just slipped it under the rack where it is out of harms way next to my water.

I'm about to try a pretty focused diet for the next month before holiday. Discipline is okay but in an office where clients continually bring in cakes and chocolates as gifts, and energy drops late afternoon it's tricky. Last year I took an ECA stack after reading folk on here recommend it, but now chesteze is withdrawn from market, can't do that. It was pretty sweet for keeping hunger down, energy up and cutting. Quite liked the focus it gave me at work as well, if I am honest. I obviously wasnt competing in any sports or that, so wasn't really bothered about the fact the E would be a banned PED if I was.

Any decent appetite suppressants you can think of?

ECA works pretty well yes, it's become hard to get the Ephedrine.

What works for me:
Keeping protein high (1 gram per lbs) that seems to cut hunger
I eat 4 times a day
Breakfast is always low carb, that works for me, worth a try maybe. I eat scrambled microwave eggs with vegs in them. Frozen veg cook really fast.
Low carb cuts my hunger (stick to fish/nuts/olive oil and veg/fruit, with some red meat and bacon cos life's too short)
Black coffee if all else fails
Some people say use fiber supplements, I don't need them but worth a go?
But there's nothing BAD about cakes. If there's room for it, a flexible "if it fits your macros" may work? Eg, you leave carb room for a piece of cake, have it with some protein power and a piece of fruit and a nice cuppa :)

I find the easiest way to keep away from staffroom temptation is to cut sugar out of your diet as much as possible full stop, get rid of the sugar cravings and the habit of having sugary stuff. Making it a general rule means there's less temptation to pretend it's a 'one-off' or factor it as a daily cheat or that you'll make up for it by eating better that evening, and you can re-frame the process of resisting as a positive reinforcement of the fact you are succeeding in your diet (and thus, better than all your workmates, or at least that's what I have to do). ECA stacks are nice but supplementation is just that, a supplement to nailing the basics of your diet. They won't determine your success, they just have the potential to midly enhance it.

Also, upping liquid intake helps a helluva lot.