Heavy benching just doesn’t age well. People can’t accept that they’ve gotten weaker and as a result put too much weight on the bar. Eventually a tear happens. It did in my case. Fortunately it wasn’t a full rupture.
These days I treat pecs as a small muscle group. Dumbbell presses with a moderate weight and move on with your pecs still attached to your upper arms
I haven`t benched in years.....I concentrate more on Smith Machine and DB Inclines these days as well as DB Flyes.
I warm up much more than I used to, and my pec development is as good as ever.
I have found that a one rep max,and/or going too heavy on lower reps as you age, is just insane and inviting an injury somewhere down the road.
A set of 20,12, or 8-10 reps, that makes you work hard to get said reps, is still heavy........heavy is a relative term, and lower reps as you age can be detrimental.......a hard set of 10-12 reps is still HEAVY.......leave the ego at the door, or to younger guys, or imbeciles like Hanky who still does heavy terribly sloppy benches with a torn pec and 3 previous shoulder surgeries......MENSA MEMBER OF PEACE.
I still do lower reps on Smith Inclines at times myself,but this is after a thorough warmup and a few pyramid sets.....I know my body, and only do this on rare occasions.
Training with higher reps doesn`t actually constitute light training,or training like a wuss if the reps are difficult to squeeze out with
no breakdown of form.Just my thoughts on the matter.
