Three-Plates Club in 9 Weeks!
After restarting lifting around mid-March following 8 years detrained, I just did a relatively clean (I think?) touch-and-go bench press with 315lbs. I know my form still leaves a lot to be desired—minimal leg drive, bar going down too fast (it felt much slower doing it!), etc. I’m still working on my form and making noob gains, and my paused bench press looks significantly better.
Further context: 5’11”, 210lbs. I wanted to get into shape after turning 30, so I began lifting 2-3x a week as well as some running about two months ago. I did not follow a program; I just did multiple sets of 1-4 reps near or until failure, with spoto press and paused sets more recently. I do have comprehensive athletic background (hockey), and I am not new to the bench press. My most extensive bench press training was ~2x/week for about 6 months around a decade ago. My PR back then was 265lbs, but I weighed 20lbs less (very lean, <10% bf), never trained for 1RM, and used little arch/no leg drive at all. Zero supplements at the time.
I have done limited to no weight lifting or bench press ever since—maybe 3–5 times a year on average, and I have gone up to a full year doing nothing at all aside from occasional push ups. Still, I kept most of my underlying strength thanks to the additional bodyweight and reaching physical maturity, so my 1RM when I restarted 9 weeks ago was 255. I am *very* fast-twitch dominant, and most of my early gains are neuromuscular in nature. I am taking creatine and protein, which seem to be quite helpful. I have gained about 5 pounds overall since mid-March—mostly water from initial creatine intake, and minor recomp after that.