Bench Press with Unidentified Inflatable Object + O'Neill Rowing Test

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 10th March

Warm up:15 x barbell bench press with just the bar

Workout
1. Barbell bench press: 5 x 5 @ 55kg, with strange inflatable device on my chest...
2. O'Neill Test (4 minutes on rowing machine) - 1085 metres (22 more than last time)

Total Time: 15 minutes

Post-Workout Nutrition: this, 3 hours later.

This was the strange inflatable thing I had on my chest during bench press:


I'm not sure what this piece of kit is normally used for, but my purpose was to ensure I only went down as far as my arms being parallel to the floor - which this inflatable disc happened to be the right size for. I prefer having something to stop the bar on. I guess if my pecs were big enough, then my arms would be no lower than parallel when I did a normal bench press anyway :-)

I did the bench press reps relatively slowly, without locking out at the top, and with very little rest between sets (just long enough for my partner to do his reps.) I was not really close to failure on the last set or rep. The idea was to get used to holding a barbell again so that during my 300 workouts I can do the 50 floor wipers without my ability to hold the bar letting me down.

It's also an old favourite of my gym partner's and mine, albeit that both of us suffer from problems when we do it regularly (in my case the left shoulder - hence avoiding going lower than parallel.)

This time I paced myself better on the O'Neill Test. I must admit, I am still a little disappointed with my distance, given that it scarcely puts me above average on their scale. Nevertheless, it is nice to have another workout to return to now and again to gauge progress on fitness.