Drink some milk, try to arch a little bit more, and get your knees lower than your hips if you want to get any leg drive.

I prefer to set up from a position of sitting upright with the bar in front of your chest, pull myself under the bar to put the weight on my upper back, set my foot position, then use the uprights to push myself as far down the bench as possible 1) as lower back flexibility permits and 2) while still being able to self-unrack the bar.

Best thing you can do for your bench is to search So You Think You Can Bench on YouTube and watch it. Often. So many good tips. The whole series is about thirty minutes. It is time well spent.

Thanks for the tips, I definitely need to arch more, but not sure how to get to that position. I don't appreciate the dumb nutrition advice/joke.

I have been putting off watching it, but I needed this kick to do it. I will watch it before my next bench session, thank you!

Spinning

Signed up to a spinning class to try and get some cardio in while saving my knees. There was so much standing up and sitting down while riding though that it hurt my knees and I don't think I will be going back.

I will probably just ride in the gym at a really low gear for an hour or so on non lifting days.

If you watched my bench video and suggested I hold off on the milk, I'd not have been offended. You said yourself that you need to eat more. For the amount of activity you put in (especially now that you're adding spinning to the mix), it's pretty clear you need to be consuming substantially more than 3000 calories to support all of it and still be able to grow.

What bench video?

I've added spinning, but can't do crossfit, running, squats and deadlifts, so I actually need to be careful with my calories since my calories out is going to be a bit lower now.

I've put on 2kgs in the last 2 months (a few posts up), so I think my nutrition is fine. I don't want to get fat. My goal is not to get stronger at all costs.

I mean if you went into my thread and watched one of my recent bench videos in which I am clearly overweight.


I was assuming you were going to try to juggle all of those activities. As to your second point, yeah I saw that post:


Seems like in the post you agreed that your weight was plateauing. Anyway, the milk comment was just a light jab. Your goals are your goals.

The fact that you don't get offended by it doesn't mean other people don't. I'm not sensitive to my weight, I just disagree with the generic eat more comment. I'm content with my body fat % (13% on a boditrax test and seems to fit the eye test). I just want do a lean bulk and it seems to be working so far.

I will probably try and reduce it to 2800 with the decreased activity and see if my weight still goes up slightly. Anyway, good luck with the gains

nsuns - W8 OHP

OHP
50x7 RPE 9, 35x12
Video of the set of 50 below, I think I had one more ugly rep in me. These felt really smooth

Bench Press
A few sets at 52.5

Face Pulls
4x10

Seated Row
3 sets of 20,15,12 @ 35,40,40

Incline DB Press
3x8 @18s

Dips and Bicep curl superset



This is the AMRAP set. I just snuck into the video, so I took another one of the next set



This is the set immediately after the AMRAP set.

All form critiques are welcome!

Looks pretty good to me. In the filmed set of three, it looks like your elbows are behind the bar at the bottom of each rep. Think about trying to block your armpit to prevent someone from tickling you to get some more external rotation. This should put your elbow a little bit in front of the bar. If that doesn’t make sense, do a search for three press tips by 70s big. I have found that to be the best press video out there.

BTW, you definitely had at least one more rep in that AMRAP set.

Thanks jd

Bike

Indoor cycling on a wattbike. I did 20k in 41 minutes. The knee felt fine during this so I hope it doesn't get worse

Yoga

I went to a yoga class at crossfit. It was pretty good, I'm going again on Thursday

nsuns - W8 BP

Bench Press
72.5x5 (PR!) RPE 9.5, video below, 50x14

OHP
A few sets at 37.5, these felt so much easier than a few weeks ago when I struggled

Face Pulls, Bicep curls, Bench Dips



I watched so you think you can bench and tried to do these things differently:
1. Entire body tight including legs and hips
2. Legs further back, and get a bit of arch (it looks like I need way more)
3. Grip a bit wider

Even the warm up sets with just the bar left me feeling out of breath, since I was tight all over. Does it look better?

I am able to arch more if I start from the top down rather than the bottom up like you're doing. Opinions may differ but I think you should tuck your elbows more and touch lower on your chest. Try a wider grip but I wouldn't make big changes to that, rather just gradually adding a finger width every couple of weeks until you discover what feels the strongest.

Bike

7.2k on the assault bike in 15 minutes before yoga (106 calories)

Yoga

Continuing to really enjoy it

It is hard to tell whether you need to widen your grip. Like Renton said, you definitely need to tuck your elbows. You want your wrists to be stacked over your elbows.

I get my arch from pulling my chest up to the bar and then trying to place my traps into the bench. At the same time, I depress and retract my shoulders. Once I’m on my traps, I use my quads to drive my traps into the bench. If it helps, I can upload my bench next time I do it. You can compare my set up to Renton’s. You just need to find a set up that works for you.

Thanks for all the feedback on my form. I definitely am flaring my elbows in the bench press and I will try and fix that next time.

nsuns - W8 Deadlift

The knee is feeling a lot better, so I am going to start doing deadlifts and squats again. I've reset my training max by 10% because of the mini break and hopefully I smash some rep records

Deadlift
125x6 RPE8. 85x14
Both videos below

Front Squats
A few sets at 60, video below

Face pulls, Lat pulldown, One arm DB row, Leg raises







Any thoughts on these? My upper back rounds a little, but I don't think I can do much about that. The second AMRAP set is touch and go at the lighter weight for crossfit practice (laugh all you want).

How on earth do I keep my elbows higher while front squatting?

All critiques are welcome again!

Bike

30k in 60:44 on the wattbike

nsuns - W9 OHP

OHP
52.5x6 @10 (got on my toes a little on the 6th rep), 35x13

52.5x6 ties a PR, going for 55x5 next week. I don't think I've ever done a work set at 55

Bench Press
A few sets at 55. I tried arching my back more and tuck my elbows in and they felt really solid

Pull ups
10,8,5 with 2 minutes rest

Face Pulls, Curls

nsuns - W9 Squat

Back Squat
100x6 @RPE 9
67.5x15

Sumo deadlifts
A few sets at 92.5
I taped myself and saw that my feet are probably too close together, so I stood wider and they felt way better

Leg Raises, planks

No knee pain, I will start leg accessories next week. My squat is so bad compared to the other lifts right now

I commented on your squat in the form thread. I'll add here that the last rep looks like the first rep of a 5 rep max. It's good news. You're way stronger at squatting than you think.

For deadlift, bring your grip out a lot, arms should be vertical and you don't want to grip the bar on the smooth anyway once they get heavy. You're also probably not getting tight enough before the pull. Try being more patient off the floor, tension your whole body against the bar for a solid beat before you initiate the pull.

Okay, I will go for 7 reps at 102.5 or fail. Let's see what happens

Bike

10.4k on the assault bike in 20 minutes. 161 cals

Yoga

1 hour of yoga

nsuns - W9 Bench Press

Bench Press
75x5 (PR!) 52.5x12

This is pretty neat, since almost exactly 2 months ago I did 70x3. Thanks for the help guys, the form tips have really helped

OHP
A few sets at 37.5

Face Pulls, Lat raises, Hammer curls, Bench Dips
50 reps of each



I think I did a better job of not flaring my elbows. I still need to arch more, my feet don't go back any further though. RPE 9.5 - I might have ground out an ugly rep if I had a spotter

nsuns - W9 Deadlift

Deadlift
130x5 @RPE 8, 90x12



I tried lowering my hips and getting my shoulders in line with the bar and my initial position looks a bit better. I thought my form had gone to pieces in the 5th rep, so I stopped. It doesn't look that bad though and I could have probably done a couple more.


When lowering my hips, I felt it a lot more in my quads while lifting the weight. It felt like I was pushing the floor down with my legs - this is a good thing, right?

I also forgot to remove my shoes

Front Squats
A few sets at 60

Pull ups
11, 7, 5

Face pulls, One arm DB row, Leg Raises