Who Else Gets Down When They Miss a PR?

Well today, i felt prety good, did my 3rd wk cycle of squats on 5\3\1 and felt good, so i said let go for a new PR on bench, previous bp was 350, so i went 205, 345, 345 was pretty easy,(not much strain) went to 370 and couldn’t get it locked out,(3/4) who would think 25lbs would make that big of a difference… kinda ruined my whole night… April i had a pr of 340 july was 350 which was gut wrenching and today i threw up 345 like it was 300 and 370 NADA. That was my vent for the night, thanks

Wait, so you were doing squats and then decided to bang out some benches and go for a PR? Well my friend you’ve just discovered what a lot of guys find out at meet time…That they can’t press as much as they do in training after doing squats because they haven’t done benches after squats. It’s hard to bench sometimes when your shoulders are weakened from having a heavy bar laid across them.
Yeah 20 pounds isn’t much to add when your repping in the 50% range but it’s called a MAX for a reason, you added 20# over the MAX…

205 to 345 is quite a jump man. I’d argue that you weren’t warmed up properly to take that PR on a bench day not to mention after squats.

Not a big deal, you’ll get it next time man!

Absolutely no where near your numbers, but not hitting the performance I want puts a downer on my whole day usually. I’ve only just started training again after a hernia op, so those days are pretty regular at the moment. :frowning:

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Well my friend you’ve just discovered what a lot of guys find out at meet time…That they can’t press as much as they do in training after doing squats because they haven’t done benches after squats. It’s hard to bench sometimes when your shoulders are weakened from having a heavy bar laid across them. [/quote]
I experienced this for the first time last night, after trying to bench right after squatting. I’m going to try to do this more regular to be ready for a meet when it comes around.

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Wait, so you were doing squats and then decided to bang out some benches and go for a PR? Well my friend you’ve just discovered what a lot of guys find out at meet time…That they can’t press as much as they do in training after doing squats because they haven’t done benches after squats. It’s hard to bench sometimes when your shoulders are weakened from having a heavy bar laid across them.
Yeah 20 pounds isn’t much to add when your repping in the 50% range but it’s called a MAX for a reason, you added 20# over the MAX…

205 to 345 is quite a jump man. I’d argue that you weren’t warmed up properly to take that PR on a bench day not to mention after squats.

Not a big deal, you’ll get it next time man! [/quote]

Ive never thought about the shoulder holding the bar, which should be a no brainer since i offer resistance against the bar to keep all the weight off my spine. And to be honest, i knew better than to make the 205 to 345 jump, but i felt strong and didn’t want to get wore out before i gave it my all. I was still a tad sore from finishing my 3rd wk on bench from a few days ago so i knew id give out quick(which i know is a no no prior to goin for a pr… Ive never competed nor will i probably ever but how would you approach warming up before a pr on bp or any major lift?

You just took too big a jump after 345. You were likely good for more than 350, so your max has likely gone up, you just have to pick your attempts better next time. Go for a smaller PR than 20 lbs. and then if that goes well, then go for something bigger.

To OP: why do you not feel the need to compete, if not now then in the future?

I think everyone hates missing a PR lift lol. Of course there’s missing a PR that you’re pretty confident about and then there’s missing a pr you had no way in hell of making lol.

What I hate more is when I’m struck with some physical ailment that prevents me from at the very least getting my reps in for the day. Sucks.

I’ll chime back in after today’s bench session has resulted in this exact topic. So I’m out in my garage benching this afternoon. I had planned on hitting a PR on Reverse band benches. My current pr with strong band was 495 x 2 so I estimated it at 510. Here’s how it went down. I have an excel spreadsheet that I’ve made to keep up with the math for me. I just put in my 1rm and it does the rest. I tend to peak on my 7th or 8th WORK SET assuming I don’t go stupid on warming up. So I try to take a PR on the 7th or 8th set. I’ve adjusted my sets and percent increases according to those facts. In a meet you’ll typically want to open with a weight you can triple in training; well 92-93% is typically what I can triple so say 90% to be conservative. You’ll see there that my 3rd from last set is 90% or my 6th work set- 2more till peak! In a meet you may want to get on the board first and then go for a PR. If you make it go for PR2 if you bomb you get another shot…follow me so far? The 95% lift is optional depending on how I’m feeling, strong I do it…not sure about it, it gets skipped and I go straight for a PR. Today I was feeling it. So you see I hit my 5# PR today. I was feeling pretty good so I went for it another 10# jump, it’s only 5more # each arm right? Well I bombed out. This time i didn’t care because it was a lofty goal. I’ll get it next go round. Here’s what it all looked like.

REVERSE BAND (STRONG) BENCH PRESS-135# AT CHEST, ALL ME AT TOP
95 X 8 X 2
135 X 8 X 2
185 X 8
ADDED BANDS - -MINIMAL LEG DRIVE TO NOT HOSE LOW BACK
50% - 250 X 5
60% - 300 X 5
70% - 350 X 3
80% - 405 X 3
85% - 435 X 3
90% - 460 X 1
95% - 485 X 1
PR1 - 515 X 1= YES!
PR2 - 525 X MISS, FELT GOOD ALL THE WAY TILL 2 BOARD PRESS HEIGHT THEN IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY HEAVY… ACTUALLY COULDN’T EVEN GET OFF CHEST…SPENT