I don't want to regurgitate all the same stuff, so if you haven't already read all my backstory, you can find it in the first post of this thread: Burly Decides to Pull Again...

So... benching... It's not something I've done much of over the last several years, though I do dabble from time to time. I have heaps of scar tissue in my shoulders from years of injuries, so bench press has been an on/off thing for me. I really haven't cared too much about strength in the bench press, unlike some guys at the gym who seem to live by that number. Of course, I'm not immune to feeling great when numbers increase. That just hasn't been my focus since around 1990. I don't think I have performed a barbell bench press at all since July or August, so you might say it has been a while.

It has been a crazy crazy busy last couple of weeks for me, getting 4-5 hours of sleep each night and working 100+ hours a week on a coffee shop we are building. With all that craziness, I snuck in 2 workouts last week and only 1 so far this week, which was tonight. I walked (or dragged myself) into an Anytime Fitness location after a 16 hour day. It was nearby the jobsite, so I was unfamiliar with it. Most Anytime Fitness locations will not have a bench for bench pressing. However, they do have benches that are moveable into a power rack.

I walked into the gym tonight and the bench called me over to it. I have no idea why. Maybe I wanted to gauge where I am right now. Maybe I needed a change from dumbells.

Because of the shoulder issues I take a very long time warming up. You'll see a very slow progression in weight increases. I'll comment below as it warrants.

Bar 40 reps
65 lbs 25 reps
85 lbs 15 reps
95 lbs 12 reps

135 lbs 5 reps
185 lbs 5 reps I am so NOT used to the bar/style, that my arms/elbows began shaking a bit on the way down.

All the sets below were done with a 3 count down, short pause on chest, and up again.

195 lbs 3 reps Arm shaking again, but I felt more under control this time
205 lbs 1 rep Feeling a bit better control than the previous set
225 lbs 1 rep Shoulder had a short twinge, but I think I got off balance when I pulled the bar off the rack.
245 lbs 1 rep Shoulder felt much better on this set than the previous. My form now is critical as the weight begins to require everything just so.
265 lbs 1 rep. Went up well. Feeling heavy, and considered stopping the weight increases here. However, it ends up with me deciding to push it a bit more.
275 lbs 1 rep. Went up smooth and without issue. I let out a small grunt to heave up the weight, but the bar never stopped moving upward.

I called that "good enough" for a first day back. My shoulder is just a little tender after the workout, but no worse off than from any other chest workout. I finished out the chest workout with a few sets of flat dumbell flyes with reps of 12-15 and some sets of bodyweight dips in the 15-25 rep range. I finished out the night with some bi and tri work and called it good.

I don't know how frequently I will incorporate barbell bench into my training, but seeing as I am running out of the dumbells as I grow stronger, it may become more and more frequent as long as the shoulder holds up. Overall, the night went well and it helped me assess my current strength levels so I can move forward in increasing them.

I'll keep adding to this thread as I do more. In the meantime, feel free to use this thread as a discussion place for all things bench press related.