Bench Press, Short Metcon

Early afternoon

WU: Shoulder dislocates, squats, pushups, situps, back extensions, Samson Stretch, 10 bench presses (115)

Workout:

Strength: Bench Press 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1

195, 205, 215, 225, 235, 245

Metcon: 2 Rounds for time:

10 Burpees

20 SDHP (77)

30 Box Jumps (18in)

40 KB Swings (40)50 DUs

12:59

Workout comments: It's about time I tried for a 1 rep max on the bench press. While I can't call this a true max effort because it was done on the Smith machine, I'll take what I can get. Will, a guy that I know from work was spotting me on this last rep and mentioned that I might want to try and exhale during the lift, and sometimes that helps him push over that wall where the weight sometimes get stuck. I'll have to try that next time. I have taken this 333111 routine from the Max Effort Black Box routine by Michael Rutherford. I have heard from various sources that this is a legitimate way to increase your 1 rep max for various lifts in an effecient manner.

The metcon was origially supposed to be 3 rounds, although I started running out of time and had to get back to work. Can you believe it? The reps for all stations were pretty much unbroken during the first round, but it was a different story for the second round. Ironically, double unders were giving me trouble in the first round. I found that I could hardly string together 5 reps before faulting. In the second round, I made it through 40 DUs unbroken before I failed. The box jumps were also pretty tough, something I'll have to spend some time working on.