It's True That If You Don't Use It, You Lose It In Regards To Benching

Author's note: If my face in blogs bothers you, this is going to be a tough one. You have been warned.

We started off the shot today hot, literally. Big Cat was as shiny as KB after walking the entire east side of Manhattan.

And the fellas wanted to get in a quick pump before the weekend. It all started when Big Cat asked me if I thought I could bench more than KB, to which I responded, probably, but not right now. You see I used to bench a lot. In high school I was always paranoid about a jiggly chest so I had a bench literally in my bedroom and would bench at minimum every other day. Nothing crazy, the whole starter set maxed out oddly at 167 lbs and I would always bench without a spotter, so it was perfect. I wasn't trying to max out, just get toned! 

Flash forward to college where I would go to the Hofstra gym and bench (with a spotter) for max. At one point my sophomore year I hit 250 lbs. and I figured that was all I really wanted to try. I never really tried to surpass that after doing it once. Just kept with the higher reps, lighter weight. Typically would do somewhere in between 135 lbs. - 185 lbs. 

I don't really bench anymore. I'm all about pliability and the TB12 Method! I use resistance bands and do some light arm/chest exercises and will throw in some push-ups here and there. But on Sunday I had a little time to kill before my buddy's wedding so I decided to get a quick pump in at the hotel gym.

I did some benching with 50 lbs. free weights which is what I used to do, pre-pandemic. See once COVID hit, I didn't really go to the gym anymore. I would do peloton and did the 1k/week push-up club, but that was it. So maybe jumping into the weight I used to do wasn't smart. I was insanely sore for days after I lifted. It wasn't debilitating, but extremely uncomfortable. Just putting a shirt on or sleeping gave me some pain. So when asked if I could bench 185 lbs. today, I said for sure I could not, but Big Cat wanted a baseline for next week, when I said I could, so I gave it the old college try. It did not go well.

The much lighter KB meanwhile, absolutely crushed it.

Even that tubbo Brandon crushed it!

But this was a good wakeup call for me. I can't be the weakest dude in the group. After the cameras stopped rolling, I got back into the groove on my own (at a much lighter weight).

I'm going to pump a bunch next week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) so that Monday June 27th, I WILL bench 185 lbs. at least once. Probably just once if I'm being honest. But I'll get back there. Just need to get the old bod back into form. It's all muscle memory. And honestly this is great timing with summer here now. So let's get it! 

Check out today's full Yak including Big Cat and PFT just dominating the bench and be sure to subscribe to the Barstool Yak YouTube channel.

Oh, you're still here. Don't forget, next week is DOUBLE YAK with two Yak's every day with the night time one being Barstool Idol. It's going to be incredible.