big gene rychlak takes back the title of worlds biggest bench 1010!!!

[majutsu]

that was a good lift
great video
his right arm was ahead of his left, but they both got up
actually lockout wasn't that bad this time!

 

[redsamurai]

I am a complete proponent of raw lifts.....not that I don't respect rychlak, he's obviously a strong man.....but from a pure strength point, I respect someone who benches 700 raw more than a 1000 shirted bench. I've heard rychlak won't go over 600 without a shirt. This could be bullshit....but wasn't he called out by the new englan plifting federation to come bench 600 raw? That should have been nothing for him. I will say this however.....if it is true that a shirt "can" help you develop more strength raw....than I would consider using one. But I have to see some legit data on that. What it looks like to me is that the shirt takes the pressure of your tendons and ligs.....making them not grow and get stronger along with your increased lifts. So I fail to see how your raw strength would go up? As soon as you put on the extra weight your joints would fail. I'd rather bench 500 or 600 raw than say I can bench 8 or 900 hundred with a shirt....but that's me. But pretty soon we're going to have nano fiber pneumatic shirts that'll put benches in the stratosphere.....but I'll always be more impressed with a guy that sits on the bench and pounds out a heavy lift raw.....but that's just me.

 

[silver_shadow]

i'm not a PL and never will be but i can't understand why the shirt (and to some extent squat suits) get dissed so much when almost every sport is undergoing changes with respect to gear used.

take tennis for example, racquets used to be made of wood and heavy, they are now larger but lighter, made of alloys, bigger heads with a larger sweet spot. players now can hit the ball harder and with more spin, which in the old days would have led to wrist injuries. soccer balls and boots have changed so that the ball travels faster and swings more... the list goes on and on. and yet i see powerlifting gear is the most hated on... again NOTE: i'm not even talking from the inside.

oh yea, not to forget, motor sports - will someone argue that F1 cars are getting too light and more powerful while getting stronger and safer for the drivers? or motogp bikes - just the switch from 2 stroke to 4 stroke a few yrs ago (i think 4?) resulted in huge power increases... does anybody shake their heads and say, but it's become too easy! i think, it is inevitable with every sport, people have to move on.

 

[redsamurai]

I don't really agree with your comparisons......although I understand your argument, and to some extent agree with it. The comparison you made with F1 and motogp is completely invalid though.....the evolution of the autuomotive industry is irregardless of the driver. If they came out with some sort of "power assist" suit for drivers so that basically all of us could get in an F1 car and drive it all day......I would have a problem with that. The whole point is the difficulty of handling the forces of the car and still driving it accurately. I wouldn't have a problem with bench shirts if all they did was protect the joints.....but guys are training with these shirts and the disparity between their raw lifts and suited lifts are becoming almost comical. Gene Rychlak may have a 600 pound bench......that's astronomical by anyone's standard, I don't care that there are guys that put over 700 on. So I have nothing but respect for Rychlaks natural strength, it far exceeds my own. But as you can see, he's getting around 400 pounds of assist from his shirt.....I just have a problem with that.

 

[jokerswild]

I am a complete proponent of raw lifts.....not that I don't respect rychlak, he's obviously a strong man.....but from a pure strength point, I respect someone who benches 700 raw more than a 1000 shirted bench. I've heard rychlak won't go over 600 without a shirt. This could be bullshit....but wasn't he called out by the new englan plifting federation to come bench 600 raw? That should have been nothing for him. I will say this however.....if it is true that a shirt "can" help you develop more strength raw....than I would consider using one. But I have to see some legit data on that. What it looks like to me is that the shirt takes the pressure of your tendons and ligs.....making them not grow and get stronger along with your increased lifts. So I fail to see how your raw strength would go up? As soon as you put on the extra weight your joints would fail. I'd rather bench 500 or 600 raw than say I can bench 8 or 900 hundred with a shirt....but that's me. But pretty soon we're going to have nano fiber pneumatic shirts that'll put benches in the stratosphere.....but I'll always be more impressed with a guy that sits on the bench and pounds out a heavy lift raw.....but that's just me.

this about sums it up......

 

[Sean12]

One thing that hasnt been brought up about the bench shirts that im not sure some people realize is that you cant just put on a bench shirt and add 100+ lbs to your bench. You may think it is a truer test of strength to bench without a bench shirt but useing one is apart of powerlifting now. At least equipped powerlifting. If you play a sport wouldnt you use everything possible to help you win? I would.

Sean12

 

[silver_shadow]

One thing that hasnt been brought up about the bench shirts that im not sure some people realize is that you cant just put on a bench shirt and add 100+ lbs to your bench. You may think it is a truer test of strength to bench without a bench shirt but useing one is apart of powerlifting now. At least equipped powerlifting. If you play a sport wouldnt you use everything possible to help you win? I would.

Sean12

precisely my point.

RS, is it not true that the driver has been taken out of the equation to a large extent because of the evolution of the cars and rules? valentino rossi didn't want to switch to F1 for this reason. sure, the guys have to still battle the same G-forces, but handling the car has become that much easier. there are big differences in cars as well. alonso was in a minardi when he first raced, and didn't win a single point. now he is double world champ in a renault. want to know the secret? it's simple - teams like renault, ferrari, mclaren and williams and to an extent, honda and toyota have much larger budgets and can hire better engineers than teams like minardi and jordan. unfair advantage?

what about other sports - tennis for instance. the ball speeds itself have increased to ridiculous extents over the years just from use of better gear - the balls themselves but more importantly the racquets. are we then going to say that they give an unfair advantage compared to the days of bjorn borg, rod laver, ken rosewall who used wooden racquets? it does come in for mention but not as often. today, you have some scrawny beanpoles serving at over 130mph time after time after time... boris becker who also used alloy racquets but not as advanced as today's and was a pretty big strong guy for a tennis player, couldn't do it as often in his time.

there are more examples - swimming has benefitted from the use of full body suits to improve smooth flow of water over the swimmer's bodies.

there are numerous examples and powerlifting is just another sport where athletes have benefitted from science IMHO.

from what i understand, shirted training and raw training are pretty different, which is why competitive lifters are reluctant to go too heavy without a shirt, partly because they will be shirted in comp anyway, and partly because they wouldn't wanna risk the injury. it should come as no surprise that metal militia training revolves around shirted benching because of the fact that guys have to LEARN (or IMPROVE) how to get more out of their shirts. i just don't see how it's different from other sports. how come no one mentions that mendy has a pretty handy raw bench?

plus if we are going to start discussing how shirts give someone an unfair advantage, why don't we also talk about the use of steroids . despite the fact that they are banned, we all know all pro athletes, irrespective of their sport are using them. this being primarily a forum for discussing AAS, the vast majority of us use the same excuse that powerlifters use. we say "everyone's using it at the top in every sport, so someone who doesn't is at a disadvantage". hence, we condone it. powerlifters say the same thing about shirts. do we say that jesse owens could have run under 10s and beaten today's guys with steroids? no, give him credit for his achievement and give today's guys credit for theirs.

 

[Kabeetz]

I asked this in the other thread but never got an answer..

As someone unfamiliar with PL but increasingly interested in it due to this forum, can someone take a moment to explain how any kind of shirt can have a dramatic impact on a lift? I've seen this mentioned in threads but haven't really seen anyone explain "how" from a technical standpoint.

Just curious.

 

[Chambewy20]

There are many variables to this and it's hard to explain them all... To some guys it's a mental support, the feel of tightness all around and the pop off the bottom is crazy at first. There are basically two types of material, denim or poly, at differing degrees of integrity for the material as well as layers.

There are open backs, closed backs, different shoulder angles, different groove placements on your body and widths of the groove.

The thought of throwing on a shirt and adding a 100 pounds to your bench is possible but not common out of the gate. A lot of folks think the better or stronger the shirt, the better your bench will be... It's just not the case IMO, I've been using them for a while and haven't gotten all I can out of a single ply and until that happens, I'm not in a huge hurry to jump up to a double ply....

Just me though, I'm getting one to mess with and see what happens but in the mean time I'm trying not mess myself up either....

You can go to elitefts.com, go to the articles, there should be a "Metal Manual" that gives good detail on equipment and their differences.... There's also an article written called "Bench Shirt 101" or something like that to explain different things as well...

Hope this helps some....