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The elusive Quarter Ton!!!

benchmonster

benchmonster

New member
Another great Okie Training Sunday!!!

bigokie and Screwball came to the dungeon, and speaking for myself, the dungeon handed out some serious pain yesterday. Screwball took a ton of pics, and hopefully will be able to get them up here before long.

We decided to see how we were doing in our shirts for full presses to get a good idea of our attempts in 3 weeks. Bigokie is holding off on competing for a little while, and if you knew about is impressive list of injuries you would understand why, so just Screwball and benchmonster going for it in shirts this Sunday.

Warmed up to mid 300's before donning shirts, nothing particularly unusual, except that everything I lifted felt pretty light, despite having a cough and a runny nose.

Put on shirt for 1st attempt at 475, and the damn thing would not touch!!! I smoked this in the same shirt 5 weeks ago at a meet, and it would not touch for anything. So like a dumbass, I dumped it on my belly, causing it to touch, and manhandled it back up, horribly out of groove, and slammed into the j-hooks on the very ugly ride back up. Upset at the miss, but happy to get this much weight back up after being horribly misgrooved.

Then on to 495. Touched just fine, and locked out just fine. Butt stayed on the bench. Most I ever did for a full rep without coming off the bench. Pretty happy at this point.

Pulled shirt way down, because I don't have my tight one in from Karin yet, and went for what I thought was 530 but later realized was 525. Shirt was pulled down too far, and I could not get 525 to touch!!! Could not beleive this much would not touch. Too much to manhandle, so smartly (IMHO) chose to dump it back on the pins. Pissed as Hell at this point, but feeling like I could have made it. Also a bit tired, but they don't call it max effort day so you can puss around with it, so. . .

Adjusted shirt a bit higher up the neck, and went for 525 again. . . and got it. Very excited about this. 3 weeks out, in what will hopefully be my looser shirt, and got a huge (for me) P.R.!!!! 1st time in my life I have ever missed a weight and come back and got it. Used to, if I missed, that was just it, call it a day. Nice to know I am mentally and physically strong enough to come back after a miss and nail a weight.

Now make no mistake, this was not a blazing bar speed type of lift, and I don't think there was a whole lot left in the tank, but good for me nonetheless.

We then went on to do 5 board close grips for triceps, and everyone did very well on these and the other accessories. I will let the other guys tell you about how they did, and maybe post some pics, but I could not sit on this one much more.

I want to personally thank Cubanito for suggesting that I focus greatly on boards going into this meet. I feel that following up on his suggestion as well as some great private advice and assistance from my good friend PowerlifterJay, along with the exceptional support of the board and especially the Okie Crew has made this possible. In 11 months, I have gone from a 355 bench to over 500. I am about as fired up as I can get. A year ago, I would have said, maybe someday, after 5 or 10 years of training, I will get 500, but never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed I would get there in less than one year.

Thanks again to all.

B.
 
Awesome Lift!
Congrats and the huge lift and I know you'll top it at your upcoming meet!
Your on your way to 6!
 
Hey Benchmonster:

That is awesome!!! congrats. I would like to post the pictures on my site as soon as you get em up here.

Are you wearing you shirt open back style? I am not sure I understand by you pulling the shirt way down if not.

Also, if I were you, I would keep Karin's shirt for the next meet. If you wash this shirt, it will get a little snugger, you know you know what you can bench with it, and you will not burn yourself out taking to many MAX singles before the meet.

You haven't hit 500 in a meet, right? Well, go to the meet with this shirt, get 525 and be happy! I think if you go through another week messing with another shirt, it's just going to fuck you up and make you overtrain.

If you want more shirted practice for this meet, try doing lighter (or same) weight and add a doubled mini. That way you can get another workout with a shirt in, but not totally burn yourself out with the same movement.

Just a suggestion.

Good luck! You will be approaching 600 before you know it!

/irish
 
Irish,
Benchmonster uses an open back Inzer that Karin's has modified. He also added a little piece of denim to the rear that is very loose, this will allow it to be legal at some of the Oklahoma meets that require a full neck shirt.

It was another good training day at the Dungeon. My elbows were sore, again, so I didn't try to put on a shirt or anything, just went with about 4-5 sets of speed benches with 185 bar weight and a couple with 205. Speed was pretty good but elbows really didn't like this.

We then moved on to 5 board close grip. Both Benchmonster and Screwball worked up to 405, then they dropped back down to 315 and Benchmonster got 12 reps and Screwball got 11. Both were a nice shade of purple when they finished the reps. I worked up to 315 and got it about 1 out of 4 lifts. I was trying to keep the bar lower and to not roll my wrists back. I have to work on keeping the bar out towards my stomach.

The thing that I think we all got most from this was that we could really check our form. Benchmonster has a video set up every time we lift and this time we went back to it to watch some of the lifting. Specifically we watched as Screwball took 12 or so seconds to do a lift. We told him to lower the bar faster and he thought he was until we watched the tape. I think we all got a lot from the training tape. Definitely gonna have to try this back at home from now on.

I'm pretty sure that Screwball will be close to 475-495 in July and that Benchmonster will be up around 530-540.
 
Irish,

bigokie was correct, I have a double denim open back radical cut that has been severely modified both by Karin and myself. It technically fits the definition of a closed neck shirt, but retains all the benefits of a completely open back. I don't know if I could compete at the WABDL world's with it as they are pretty particular about the open back thing, but for Oklahoma meets it will be fine.

Good idea on holding off on the other shirt. I mainly ordered it because I have been having nightmares about my baby blowing out on a first attempt or last warmup or something and then be fucked after all this training. If I do any reps with the new shirt at all, it will be some board work next Sunday, which will be 2 weeks before the meet, just to get an idea of how it compares to my current shirt as far as how much it will take to touch.

I have felt lately like anything I can hold in the groove and get to my chest I can press. Unfortunately anything I don't keep in the groove does not result in a good press at all, and the margin for error in double denim is very very slim.

I am very excited about this meet. If I hit 530, which has been my planned 3rd attempt, I will have an official 175 lb gain from July 7 last year to July 6 this year in the same meet with the same judges. My last meet made a 120 lb gain official, and the 505 went up, but was red lighted which would have made it 150 lbs officially.

I think I will stick with my original plan of 480, 505, 530, and hope for the best.

Irish, I just mailed you and Okie highlight tape. When Screwball gets home he will get the pics up from Sunday. I will send you a video tape every couple of months or so for your archives. Also, my ring pushup setup is posted on the board if you want that for the archives as well.

B.
 
Dam man your getting stronger by the week! NO shit! It feels good to handle weight in the gym and get that confidence. But be careful to not over train. I know in a meet when i have done toomuch shirting, my forearms hurt when i lower the bar. Your at 500 like i am with 600. I can hit 625 in the gym and more sometimes, but inmeets i skipped right over 600 to go for the big one. BUt after realizing i need to nail 600. Make sure to seal the deal in the 500 club. Get 500lbs. Then on your last go to what ever you want. Dont get caught up in the mood and say" hell with it 530 for the second"! Get in the elusive quarter ton club! Good luck man sounds like everything is going together great.

Big Okie dont push too hard. If your inured let it heal. I am skipping bench today cause i am nursing achs. Nothing serious but needed to lay off. Be careful. You will hit yoru numbers quicker staying healthy, then making slow gains hurt.

Okie Crew is a becoming a big force to reckon with!
 
Lost most of the mother fuckin' pics... FUCK! Fuckin' piece of shit camera, fuckin' quit working. Fuckety, fuck, fuck, fuck! I took about 6 pics with the good digital camera and ran out of memory so I took 18 more on my fuckin', shitty digital camera and it quit working. FUCK! If I were taking Halo now I would probably be destroying everything I own. FUCK! Those were the best pics. SHIT FUCK!

I'll send the few pics I have to Deciever to post but they are just pics of us warming up.

The training was great. With the use of the video camera and Benchmonsters & BigOkie's input I discovered that my technique sucks. I thought I was lowering the bar fairly quickly but my perception was not reality. It takes me forever to set the weight and get the bar down to my upper abs. I need to lower the bar in 1 - 2 seconds and it takes me 5-8 seconds. Way too long. I also need to move my feet out further from the bench and try to get my knee angle closer to 90* (drive from the heels). I also need to raise my head as I lower the weight so that I can watch the bar touch. This will also allow me to throw my head and shoulders back into the bench for a much better drive off of the bottom. I have a lot of technique problems to address.

I think with the weight loss my shirt is getting too lose. I don't have to struggle much to get 450 to touch and it leaves hardly any battle scars. I may have to get it altered if I drop any more weight.

Basically the workout went like this:

Competition Bench - warmups raw and then shirted maximal attempts

5-board Presses - Worked up to a heavy triple at 405 lbs.

Wide-grip Pulldowns - Worked up to 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps at close to 200 lbs.

Suspended Ring Dips (feet on bench) - 3 sets of 10 reps

Various rotator work using bands

Thazzit.

Thanks to benchmonster and his family for allowing us to train. Lunch was great.
 
screwball: i had a similar experience with video tape. when i filmed my workout i noticed that i looked like absolute shit. i felt like i was doing everything correctly, but to my dismay it was hell. taping really shows you what you're doing. it's so hard to tell what you're doing wrong without it.
 
Last edited:
Well FUCK!!!

Screwball's digital camera screwed up, I cannot find my digital, and don't know how to work it when I do have it, and I forgot to turn the camcorder on for the successful 525.

Other than that everything was peachy.

Thanks to Deceiver for posting the pics.

B.
 
Benchmonster, i have the same belt as you! Do you think if i wear it when i bench i could become a great bencher like you? Maybe i would finally break that 200 barrier. and get into the elusive 1/10th ton club
 
Bench bro your welcome once again I wanna thank you and the rest of the guys tellin me to gain weight, That's made me SOOO much stronger I mean in my eyes it has(the only thing I don't like now is the flat tire instead of 6 pack, Oh well strength is more important).

Keep up them boards I know I'm doing them and making PR's on them EVERY week. I got 305 last thursday I'm goin for 315 this thursday I tried it last thursday and really fucked it up. BUT I'M GETTIN IT THURSDAY :mad: start preparin myself now.

One thing that I've found to help me is EOW do static holds. The weight has been feelin soo much lighter on ME days. The days I'll do them are EOW after DE bench right after and then when it comes to ME days the weight feels lighter. Today I did the holds with 365(DAMN THAT SHITS HEAVY!!!!!) for like 8 seconds.

Good luck bro remember TEAR SHIT UP.
 
cubanito, i've done static holds too.. i felt they helped make the weight feel lighter, but didnt make it any easier to press up. I was up to doing 345 for a 10-15 seconds hold, sure everything after that felt light, but it still wouldnt go up.
 
Thanks for posting the pics, Deciever. I really appreciate your efforts.

I realize the pics are pretty pathetic, basically just warming up. I have a couple more but they are just equipment pics of the Dungeon. We had a bunch of pictures of the Okie crew shirt benching, hitting 5-boards and the suspended ring dips but my cheap digital camera just quit working. The next time the Okie Crew gets together I will make sure that I come away with some quality action shots.
 
Deciever dude that's great you can use 345 I know I've done them before with 405 But I know for sure if you keep doing them like 150lbs over your bench your gonna FRY your CNS system. I think there might be a rule that says to use 120-130% depending on how HIGH your bench is. I could be wrong. Anyone else know of this rule????
 
Funny you should say that about the 365 feeling so heavy for a static hold. I was just thinking the other day about how heavy 300 used to feel when I was doing static contraction training. It used to feel like it was crushing my hands and wrists. Now I barely notice as I pass it in warmups. You guys will look back someday and think the same thing.

Cubanito, I am really glad you took the advice to get bigger. You can get cut in your 30's, spend your teens and twenties getting as big and strong as possible. I promise you, I will not even think about being cut up or looking for a 6 pack until your 20'th birthday, which will be my 30th birthday. Mr. July 27th.

Deceiver, yes, I guess we wear the same belt, funny, but mine is not worth a damn for deadlifting. Maybe I am wearing mine backward. Having a great deadlift as you do is much more important to a good total than having a big bench. Big benchers don't total elite very often. Big time deadlifters very often do. I am much more gifted in bench, but if it was up to me, I would have been born with a great deadlift like you have. But you have to play the cards you were dealt, and they have bench only meets for me, and full meets for you. Stick with it, you two, and you will truly amaze yourselves (along with everyone else) with how strong you can become.

B.
 
hah, i dont really find myself "specially suited" for a single lift. I consider myself to be one of the most well rounded and average beginner powerlifters around, having most of my lifts in proportion to another.

My deadlift sucks in meets, technically it went down 5 lbs since my last meet, at a church meet(unsanctioend) i pulled 335, a 10lb PR, and this recent meet i only pulled 330 (-30lb PR). Althogh i was very happy w/ my 360 deadlift in how smooth it went up compared to last time, it wasnt good enough for those bastards judging me.

But hey , if you ever want, i'd be glad to trade my deadlift for your bench. I think a 525lb bench would be pretty good at my bodyweight :)
 
Bench I understand what your saying but here's how I see the thing about the 6-pack when your young like before 25 or so your relationships really don't matter much b/c most of them do not last and your just out to have fun. Hell I started dating at 16 and I've gone through 24 g/f's Not MY FAULT it's just they either get boring or too serious or whatever. So if I have a 6 pack now I can jump about 40% in my game (that means MORE PUTANG,LOL). And really i know that PL's say "if you can see your abs your not training hard enough" Ok makes sense but if you keep your diet clean do some light cardio 10 minutes for GPP work and stay at a weight you feel good at and can maintain a 6 pack as long as your gettin stronger than why not!!!???. That's just the way I honestly see it. Hell I can see my 4 top ones in the morning after I take a leak once I drink somethin or eat somethin there gone. So I know if I had them before at 160lbs I can have them at 190lbs and stil be stronger.
 
Cubanito,

I don't disagree with you. I can diet for a week and see abs. I stay just a tiny bit fat all the time, better for gains. But I am married with 3 kids and a vasectomy. If Mrs. Benchmonster boots my ass out tomorrow, I am going to get waxed, take rogaine, tan, eat chicken and salads, and consider either competing at 198 or juicing up enough to be a very lean 220.

Shagging is very important. I will get the same amount of nookie whether I am cut and pretty or smooth and strong, so to me it is a no brainer. And if you are in a position that you can see abs first thing in the morning, but not later after you eat and drink, then you are right where I am. If I cut out salt and carbs for a few days, I can see abs. If not, then gut is smooth. At my house it makes no difference so I don't bother with the effort. But when I was single and it made a difference, you could see veins in my stomach, I shit you not.

But a 4 pack at 190 is a lot more impressive than a 6 pack at 160.
When you get to a 4 pack at 225 call me, when you get to a 4 pack at 255 call Jay.

B.
 
lol funny post B
so we know who cubanito should call but..
umm who should i call if i have a six pack w/ some obliques in the morning in the right light @ 137??
 
umm who should i call if i have a six pack w/ some obliques in the morning in the right light @ 137??
Click to expand...

Hey Deciever you need to call your butcher and order enough prime rib for at least two meals a day... Put some meat on them bones... :D
 
bench your right shagging is VERY IMPORTANT. Either way whether or not I got abs it's the way you talk to girls and I think I got that down pretty good, BUT abs would help less talkin more shaggin:D . Don't let the MRS read this post you might get thrown outta the house for it big bro.

Deciever slowly you'll put on weight bro if you can stil make the same amount of gains @ your BW then do it the heavier you get the more weight you push but tha harder the competition gets.

I wanna stay in 198's it's easier and if I can for some meets make it down to 181 so I won't be seeing 220's for a while maybe if I ever do reach my ELITE in 181 then in 198 i'll go 220 to see if I can get it there. Those would be the 3 weight classes I'd want ELITE in and according to some of you guys I have 11 more prime years of making GREAT GAINS I think that's enough time for me.

If I do get the abs you'll here about them and the GAME that comes with them. I wanna post some pics on here of me bulked up then if I decide to cut down. Deciever when it comes time hope you help me out postin them. :D :fro:
 
Screwball said:


Hey Deciever you need to call your butcher and order enough prime rib for at least two meals a day... Put some meat on them bones... :D
Click to expand...

lol! but isnt powerlifting about looking pretty while lifting weights?? I know thats what i've been trying to do.

Cubanito- You definately should get your pictures up here so you can compare yourself from the past to the present when you cut down.. see how your progressing. Also, get some pictures of you lifting a while back so you can just look back and laugh at how light the weight is now. And yeah, i'll help you get your pics up (maybe one day i can get a reliable server that wont crash on me every 5 seconds)

And i'll eventually come around to gaining weight... i gained 8 lbs since the contet back to my original weight. I want to compete in the 148's for a few contest, so heaviest i'll probably go is around 155... wow.. 155 at 5'6, i'd be pretty jacked (for a 14 -15 year old at least)
 
I already have the before pics just not developed but I wanna see when I cut down I'll post on here so you can put them up. Thanks bro.
 
hey deciever, when's your birthday? what kind of contests do you compete in?
 
jeremy- i turn 15 on july 23rd, and i just started competing in 3 lift powerlifting events (bench , squat, and dead) for the USAPL.
 
that's cool. i'll be 15 on august 31....does the USAPL allow bench shirts or no? just wondering...anyways, does anybody know how i could find contests in my area?
 
nice, someone my age!
what are your lifts at? and body weight.
USAPL does allow bench shirts and squat suits, only single ply, closed back shirts.

Where are you from? if you live in some places there may be different federations that are more leniant than others and allow more supportive equip than USAPL. USAPL is about as strict as it gets pretty much.
 
Jeremys,

Remind me of where you live and maybe I can help you out with meets.

USAPL allows bench shirts, but they have to be single ply Inzer's. I am not sure if Denim is allowed, or if it has to be poly, but I am almost positive it has to be Inzer.

You youngsters just stick with it, eat a lot, train smart and get plenty of sleep, you ar way ahead of the game by starting so early. I envy you all.

B.
 
holy shit benchmonster....this fed allows shirts....i think i have a chance at 350 or so in a year, or a better shot at it...i live in central wisconsin..

deciever, i'm 5'9'', 225 lbs, probably 15% bodyfat...i know, nobody cares about b/f but i'm just proving im' not a short little fat kid. lol, i bench about 250-260....that'll shoot up fast. squat low 300s and d-lift high 300s.
 
i just saw a form for the iron boy classic in south carolina...wish i could go to that...it's touch and go for bench....and they have age groups for youngin's all the way up. if only they had shit like that way up here in the sticks....i'd love to go to one of them..the form is on the house of pain site....damn, wisconsin sucks dog ass through a straw:mad:
 
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