29 Oct Old-school vs. new-school weightlifting

When I was in my 20s and even early 30s, the Olympic bar bench press on a flat bench was my favorite exercise if I had to pick one.
I can still remember doing what we called “The Ohio State Workout,” a 10-8-6-4-2-1 pyramid in which we’d keep adding weight.
Other times, I’d change it to three sets of 8, or go with higher weights in a 3×5 or even 3×3 format. It helped my bench really grow, to around 300 pounds for one rep, but I eventually locked my shoulders up to where it hurt to even press the warm-up weight of 135.
Even though I was changing my number of reps, years of lifting the
shoulder at the same basic angle, with a 7-foot Olympic bar had taken its toll.
Today, I rarely do a flat bench press. I use dumbbells on an incline bench for chest, decline bench some and I work out on a Hoist V Express gym.

This Hoist Gym is impressive because it allows me to create my own motion off of the user defined motion press arm. I can still get a great workout and it does not destroy my shoulder joints.
Companies like Hoist have revolutionized the fitness world. These
manufactures have created home gyms that are completely free of fixed designs, these gym allow you to create your own motion and in turn give you better results with less stress on you body. It is amazing how far the home gym technology has come over the last decade.
During those long-ago years of bench pressing all the time, fitness stores I walked into would be stocked full of free weights and Olympic bars. It used to be that if you were even the least bit serious with your strength program, you would have used free weights. Back then, home gyms were somewhat of a joke and many people did not take them seriously. That’s certainly not so anymore.
If you have not been into a local fitness store lately, you may want to
see some of the newly designed home gyms, they are very impressive and even if you are the “old school” type, you may be the one who is most surprised by what is available.