Daddio went from "I'll see you at 8 o'clock?" to "You're comin' home with me" real quick. Nice job, Daddio! Awesome transformation.
That's really awesome, Jonathan. Great job, man. Very happy and proud to hear you're doing all that. When I first started the gym about five or six years ago, I was also in the same boat. I went with a friend, I didn't really know what I was doing. I would do everything from bench pressing, to tricep push downs, bicep curls etc. Funnily enough, I was that guy who did not train legs. I've always had big legs, and I made the excuse "Oh, I need my legs for judo", but I paid the horrible price for it when I tore my right ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) from an accident in judo, which may not have happened if I had stronger legs. Now, I'm super into squats and dead lifts. Very important exercises. I've made more progress in my gym training in the last two years than I have in my first five years. If you haven't already, I highly recommend incorporating dead lifts and squats into your training, Jonathan, as well as other additional compound lifting such as bench pressing, overhead pressing etc.
Managed to achieve a new one rep bench press yesterday, hitting 122.5kg (270 Ibs). I was asked to do three sets, one rep each. The first two sets felt surprisingly quick and easy, but the third and final set felt like an absolute slow grind.
Don't count it unless you can do 3 - off the bar (initial push), down to chest and up, one more for good measure.
I think the best way to do bench pressing is by pausing your reps... so the bar is lowered to your chest, touches, pause/hold, then press up. I say it's "the best", but I can't do it for crap. I'm more uh... touch and go? Also, I totally count it, because my programming says so.