Yeah, bench kicks my butt too. On decline bench, I'm up to 245 (but then again, I'm 48 years old and only 5' 8", running about 190 now, so.:) lol ). Flat....work out with abou 23--235. NO idea what my max is; never really cared. I go for the highest workout weight that I can to get 4-6 reps. Sounds like you're of the same mind. Guys who come into the weight room and grunt and groan to squeak out one rep to prove something to themselves........just always seemed silly to me. Damned if I didn't hurt my right elbow yesterday, and I do NOT get hurt in the gym EVER. Feel like an idiot. Think it was during curl-bar curls. Hurts right now to turn the ignition key to start my car, fercryinoutloud.
I was talknig to a powerlifter about his bench...over 500lbs. He would go to meets and just hammer out that one 500+ rep.
He told me he was warming up with 135 one day and blew out his shoulder.
I prefer to just get stronger without getting so inflexible I can't brush my teeth, the type you see in Muscle and Fitness. I'd like to have a 300lb bench, just to say I do. :o)
Take a week off, it should heal you back up. Taking a longer break is good sometimes. Let's the body recharge lowered reserves. You mgiht be overtraining...Mentzer and Nautilus both say that if you aren't seeing results, you are overtraining...
I stepped on the scale the other day and it read 255...I thought that I couldn't have put 20 lbs of muscle on since I started lfting again...so I went about my business and decided to weigh myself again...I noticed this time that the zero had shifted up ten pounds...