Dungeon D-Day... by Deciever

[Deciever1]

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xdecieve...ay&.dnm=Dungeon+D-Day+007.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t

Nice pictures as usual.

Screwball- lookin huge... i cant tell that your shrinking slowly
Big okie- You look bigger , your catching up to screwball
Bench- umm in that one pic, i hate to say it, but you look kinda short... it reminds me of myself hanging out with my 6'3 friends.
but looking thick as usual.
Hannibal- I must say, you look ALOT bigger in these pictures than you do in your Assylum pics. Your looking huge!

 

[b fold the truth]

Great pics!!!!!

B True

 

[Hannibal]

Thanks for posting the pics Deciever.

It was a great training day in The Dungeon. And your caption in that one picture was dead on....wish I had more than two hours of sleep (4 and half hour drive didn't help). Was running on fumes...but it still was a great training session.

Just wanted to thank Benchmonster and his family for opening their home up to me. The training, the company, and the FOOD were excellent. Anytime you can combine Training, Pork Chops, powerlifting discussions, College Football, and a few Simpsons quotes...its a GOOD DAY! And then getting to watch Benchmonster be a proud pappa as his son's team shut out the opposition.

BTW...got the Canvas on in about 1 minute...I think it is going to be NIIIIIIICE!!! Will take it for a spin Monday...but I think it has found a new home

 

[Deciever1]

anytime... its what im here for.

 

[bigokie]

Well today was a good training day for us, as usual. As a bonus we had Hannibal there to work with. By the way, probably the best part of today was the food. Not that the training wasn't great. But lunch was great! Thanks again to Bench and Mrs. Bench and the little Benches for letting us come over and invade.

Did shirt work off of boards and a couple tried to get full presses. First I'll try to remember everyone's numbers.

Hannibal: worked to 455(?) and then took 425 all the way down.
Screwball: went to 505 off a 2 or 3 board.
Myself: thought my elbows popped off when I couldn't get 405 or 455 down to a 3 board. The bar would just stop a few inches short each time.
Bench: Set a big new pr 565 off a 2 board. Then tried 585 off a two board. Got a good lockout but struggled and couldn't get it off the boards well. He had a little help but locked it out by himself!

Side note. Me, Screwball and Hannibal are all still working on our shirts. Hannibal is closer than me and Screwball, his touched with 425. Screwball's isn't even close to that and mine was way off that too. Although I did try some reps in the shirt and that helped a lot. The Metal Militia is definitely on to something with doing reps in a shirt! I would like to thank Vince for passing this little tip my way.

Screwball and me both brought our Furys. We both worked in them. They went well. I also brought my new Double denim, though I didn't get to take any reps in it, it felt GREAT! Nice and tight. 405 would not touch a 3 board in it. Will definitely take reps in it on Wed! It and the Fury. The Fury is the closer of the two for me right now. I think it will take less to touch, so for the next meet it will be my shirt.

After this we did revers band reverse grip board presses. Then back and shoulder work with the shoulder horn.(I must get one of these, my shoulder has never felt like it did after using this for 3 sets. It felt burnt out)

Then had a great meal! I was very hungry after not eating breakfast and ate a lot at lunch. The others were scared to reach by me in fear of losing limbs!

Very good training day and as the pictures show, we are all doing well.

 

[Hannibal]

Then had a great meal! I was very hungry after not eating breakfast and ate a lot at lunch. The others were scared to reach by me in fear of losing limbs!

Definitely, food was great. Glad you remembered the numbers. I would have posted them but we jumped around so much. Different shirt..different boards.

Yeah I got 455 off a two board...which wasnt bad considering thats what I did with 441 Wednesday...afraid I was gonna be burnt out. And got 425 to touch in my loose shirt. So I have my opener. I got 455 within half an inch of touching in my tighter shirt, and on a good day...with three more weeks of training I should be able to hit that for a second or third. So all and all, I was happy with the TON that I learned today.

For anyone that was asking about Frantz Shirts or Suits...they are AWESOME. I haven't tried the Canvas Suit...just put it on and fell in love. The same was true with Okie's Denim Shirt....felt great. And their turnaround is unbeleviable...he ordered on a Friday and had it on Wed or Thurs the next week.

 

[CytoMel]

Definitely, food was great. Glad you remembered the numbers. I would have posted them but we jumped around so much. Different shirt..different boards.

Yeah I got 455 off a two board...which wasnt bad considering thats what I did with 441 Wednesday...afraid I was gonna be burnt out. And got 425 to touch in my loose shirt. So I have my opener. I got 455 within half an inch of touching in my tighter shirt, and on a good day...with three more weeks of training I should be able to hit that for a second or third. So all and all, I was happy with the TON that I learned today.

For anyone that was asking about Frantz Shirts or Suits...they are AWESOME. I haven't tried the Canvas Suit...just put it on and fell in love. The same was true with Okie's Denim Shirt....felt great. And their turnaround is unbeleviable...he ordered on a Friday and had it on Wed or Thurs the next week.

Damm you dudes are making some awesome progress!

Hannabal- your forerams look big as hell!

The whole KC/OK crew looks strong!- personifies powerlifting!

Heck of a day training!

 

[Screwball]

Thanks for posting the pics, Deciever. The captions are great. Keep'em coming.

Thanks to Bmonster and his family. As usual, my time spent at the Dungeon was very enjoyable. The lifting was great, the conversation was great, the food was great and Bmonster's family is always fun to be around. Awesome people.

Hannibal and I went to little Bmonster's football game (1st of the year). Bmonster's son is a heck of a football player. He is big and strong for his age and we can't wait to see what happens once he reaches highschool and college ball. The team is very , very good. They have only lost a couple of games in the last few years. I think the final score was 42-0. Total domination.

Training was excellent as usual. I was a little disappointed about my shirt work. I thought I would be able to get 500 down to my chest but it's not happening. Once again, I have too much shirt for my strength level. Ideally, I need a shirt that will just allow me to get 450 - 460 to touch for an opener. The plan is to "size-up" in the Fury to a 52 or 54. I'm also going to request an additional 6" of material at the bottom of the shirt so I can pull it down and lock it with a belt better. My plan for the September 14 meet is for attempts at 450 - 475 - 500. My technique also needs a lot of work. I pretty much just try to muscle things up. If I had half of Bmonster's technique, I would probably be pushing the 500+ barrier.

Techniques to work on:

- pulling the bar out of the rack rather than pressing it out
- Lowering the bar quickly as soon as it is unracked - don't set the weight
- Pinch my shoulder blades together and roll my sholders down
- Traps wedged into the bench and head up as high as possible
- Feet wide and angle greater than 90* at the knee - push with the heels back
- Use a single breath for the duration of the lift
- elbows tucked and bar low
- many, more I'm sure

BigOkie is in the same boat as I. I think he should "size-up" to a 48 or 50. I believe he is going to try and work with reps to loosen the shirt up a bit. To be on the safe side, BigOkie, you may want to go ahead and find a shirt that's a little bigger so that your opener is a sure thing. Let me know how the "shirt rep-work" is going.

Hannibal looks to be in pretty good shape. I think his opener is around 425 which he can get to touch in his loose shirt. A little more work in his shirts and some lock-out focus and he will be fine. Hannibal was very strong on the reverse-band, reverse-grip, 3-board lock-outs. A pretty good indication that his lats and tris are solid. Speed may be the weakness at this point. But Hell, as far as I'm concerned, nobody is as fast as they should be except for maybe George Halbert. Hannibal, I'm glad you got the chance to train with the Okie Crew at the Dungeon. We need to get together again soon.

Bmonster has a multitude of shirts and he knows how to use them all. He even tried BigOkies Fury and hit an easy 2-board. All Bmonster needs to figure out is where his attempts are going to be at so that he knows which shirt he needs to use. The 545 he hit off of the 2-board was the easiest and quickest I've seen to date from him so there is no doubt in my mind that he will be the first from the Okie Crew to join the 500+ official bench club.

VDOP, we missed you man. Next time!

 

[Hannibal]

Hannibal looks to be in pretty good shape. I think his opener is around 425 which he can get to touch in his loose shirt. A little more work in his shirts and some lock-out focus and he will be fine. Hannibal was very strong on the reverse-band, reverse-grip, 3-board lock-outs. A pretty good indication that his lats and tris are solid. Speed may be the weakness at this point. But Hell, as far as I'm concerned, nobody is as fast as they should be except for maybe George Halbert. Hannibal, I'm glad you got the chance to train with the Okie Crew at the Dungeon. We need to get together again soon.

Screwball, I think you nailed it....SPEED SPEED SPEED. The crica max phase I have going for bench has slowed me down. Plus the fact that was the second ME workout of the week didn't help...but I needed the shirt work. Like I said before, I think once I go back to the chains for a couple of weeks the speed should come back. I'm also going to be concentrating on lockout work with bands. If I do all that...the contest should sort itself out.

 

[bigokie]

Well, I'm gonna stick with this shirt for the meet. I really think that with some rep work that 425 will touch. We did some things that I normally do not do when putting on the shirt. I usually don't tug it down like we did and I usually wear a belt and on a couple tries at the Dungeon I decided for some reason not to wear a belt.

When I was repping 315 in it it came about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down. So hopefully with rep work 405 will come close to coming down. I think I did too much on Sat as my elbow is still hurting. Will do rep work on this Wed then speed on Sun and may take next Wed off if it's still hurting.

I think that if I work in it that 405 will just about touch. Will know on Wed.

Later

 

[benchmonster]

Well, the computer at the house is on the fritz, so this has been my first chance since the training to post. So here goes.

Great session. Everyone did very well, and learned some things as well. I really think we discovered some technique things that could easily add close to 50 lbs on Screwball's bench, if he can get them sorted out. They are as he described them earlier in the thread, so I won't go over them again.

Seems like everyone is fighting shirt sizing issues just a bit at the moment except (knock on wood) myself. Hannibal is very close, and may be just fine by meet time. Denim is an unforgiving bitch, and the fury seems to be nearly as unforgiving as well. Got to get it sized just right to have things go well.

This was, for me, one of the best training sessions I can remember. I smoked a 565 2 board press, got a 505 full bench with a long long pause. Put the bar on my chest a bit high, as 505 did not want to touch (tightest shirt) and was still able to muscle it up without a perfect setting. This made me happier than anything of the day. Usually it is all or nothing for me. I was very pleased to have the brute strength to get a lift that was not perfectly grooved. 500 in my blue sleeved shirt is definately the opener, and it will be smoked!

I am weighing 231 right now, and will try and come in as close to 240 as possible for the September 14th meet. Seems like everything is clicking real well. Hope to join the "official" 500 club and the 550 club on the same day. If I go 3 for 3, then I will have both. Then got to get back down to 220 for the October APF meet to set a new state record. Current OK State APF record is 501 at 220. Should be a great fall.

Hannibal is coming along real well, bigokie is getting stronger and bigger by the day, and Screwball is just a proper shirt fitting and one or two techique changes away from joining the 500 club himself. A good time was had by all.

B.

 

[benchmonster]

Bench- umm in that one pic, i hate to say it, but you look kinda short... it reminds me of myself hanging out with my 6'3 friends.
but looking thick as usual.

I don't look short, I am short. Oh well, some people got the height, and some of us were just blessed with good looks. . .

B.

 

[Johnny Vegas]

...and a 565lb bench off 2 boards. Sounds like a great session guys, huge numbers.

 

[Hannibal]

Re: Re: Dungeon D-Day... by Deciever

Oh well, some people got the height, and some of us were just blessed with good looks. . .

Hmmmm...must be a Shelbyville kinda thing.

BTW...just a word of warning, if you are benching in a completely open back shirt, make sure to put a towel on the bench. Otherwise, when you go to drive with your legs you will come close to sliding off the end of the bench. Looking back it is kinda funny...at the time I was NOT amused.

 

[benchmonster]

That is our lemon tree!

And thanks Johnny Vegas.

B.