Morning Workout and Bench Press Questions

[nrowles]

I decided to buy some equipment to lift at home. I will be lifting very shortly after waking up......so about 5:15 in the morning. My body is not really amped to be exerting a lot of energy that soon after waking up and that early, so any tips to get ready other than a preworkout which I already use? I was going to jog in place for a few minutes to get the blood flowing.

What is the purpose of unracking a weight much greater than your bench max to only go with about 2 inches of ROM? Saw a guy doing this at the gym and he kept the bar over the pins so he couldn't drop it on his chest. Does it get your body used to being under heavy load?

[chazzy1864]

There is a trick that can be used where you unrack a heavier weight than what you're intending to use for your workset. It gets your nervous system prepared to lift the heavier weight. So after you lift that over-weight poundage for like 10 seconds, you rerack it and put your intended weight on. Then it should "feel" a little lighter. It is a decent tactic to try to help out a 1RM. Whether or not that is what the guy you saw doing, I honestly don't know.

[euro7muscle]

I decided to buy some equipment to lift at home. I will be lifting very shortly after waking up......so about 5:15 in the morning. My body is not really amped to be exerting a lot of energy that soon after waking up and that early, so any tips to get ready other than a preworkout which I already use? I was going to jog in place for a few minutes to get the blood flowing.

Other than eating and taking your pre-workout, make sure you are "awake" at least 45 mins to an hour before starting your workout, use this time to meal prep, check e-mails, etc. get the brain going and knock that melatonin out.

[cjmcfarland317]

It sounds to me like that guy was attempting a "lockout exercise". This is used with about 85-95% of your max. Not a very explosive movement so it doesn't really activate the CNS (Central Nervous System) like you need to be done. To prepare yourself for bench, plyo pushups or medball chest passes will get you ready to explode the bar off of your chest. It's super important that you don't fatigue yourself doing this though. Do very minimal reps, but as explosive as possible, and with enough rest in between sets.

[tastan]

I decided to buy some equipment to lift at home. I will be lifting very shortly after waking up......so about 5:15 in the morning. My body is not really amped to be exerting a lot of energy that soon after waking up and that early, so any tips to get ready other than a preworkout which I already use? I was going to jog in place for a few minutes to get the blood flowing.

What is the purpose of unracking a weight much greater than your bench max to only go with about 2 inches of ROM? Saw a guy doing this at the gym and he kept the bar over the pins so he couldn't drop it on his chest. Does it get your body used to being under heavy load?

getting plenty of sleep is going to help you wake up more refreshed. I don't know how much sleep you get though, so just mentioning, just in case. Preworkout is a good start, but it doesn't kick in right away, so keep that in mind. That early in the morning the temperature outside should be somewhat cold depending on where you live, but that's a good way to wake up. I just get outside and walk around on drive way or walk to the mail box. Some fresh air and cold temperature helps.
Blasting some good music helps me wake up too.
If you have time you could slam a preworkout, and jump in a shower and take a quick luke warm, cold shower basically just for waking up purposes. Seems counter productive to shower before working out, but hey if it helps you wake up, then it's worth it.