Develop your ability to Strain!
Max Effort day is not PR day. It is a day dedicated to building your ability to strain on a specific lift variation. The strain is where you will hit or miss your lifts over 90% of your max every single time.
Today we chose a pin press to work on the concentric tricep contraction on the bench press. The pins were set at approximately 3 board press level, but working from the lowest part of the lift allowed us to isolate the tricep engagement in the lift. We weren’t training for a brand new PR, we were there to strain under load and teach ourselves how to stay tight and continue pushing despite no immediate dynamic movement in the lift.
This is an extremely effective way of training without high risk of injury, as the pins allow us to lower the weight without putting any pressure on the fatigued muscles, but maximise our effort on the concentric part of the movement. It also allows us to build an extremely tight position under the bar to continue developing the muscle memory required for a successful lift every single time.
Are you training your ability to strain?
Train Smart, Train Hard.
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