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The heat, my God the heat!!!

benchmonster

New member
Well, we had our bench on the surface of the sun contest today. It did not go swimingly, as the temperature was well in excess of 100 degrees, and we are much better polar bears than we are . . . whatever the Hell animal can survive the heat.

Day went as follows:

I made weight, got in at 218. No problems there. Went to my father-in-law's and got a good night's sleep, and showed up at the meet site on the beach at 8:30 a.m. and it was already 90 degrees. Got a sun canopy set up, and was ready for the long wait by 9:00. bigokie and Screwball arrived later, Screwball weighed in at about 290 or so (small for him) and then we sat around and waited thru more than 50 lifters before Screwball's first attempt.

Now I am not making excuses, cause everyone there had to suffer through the same heat, but there were a ton of guys, not just us, who were missing lifts I have seen them do before, especially in the last flight, where the bigger lifters were, and of course the last flight had to wait in the sun the longest.

Screwball opened with 450, a weight he should have made easily, and just missed his groove. He was soaked in sweat, and badly dehydrated too. We could not drink fast enough to keep up with the sweat, and Screwball sweats like a Bishop at a little league game anyway.

4 or 5 lifters later, I took my 1st attempt with 480, which should be a pretty easy opener. I honestly got out of breath walking to the platform, and never regained my composure before taking the excellent handoff that bigokie provided. Everything went down pretty good, but on the way back up, I misgrooved it over my face, and could not fight it back into groove, so now we have both missed.

Screwball went for the same 450 on his second attempt, but just did not have any gas left. He waived his 3rd, cause there was nothing left in the tank. At 220 ish, the heat was about to kill me, I could not imagine what it would have felt like if I was 70 lbs heavier.

I went for 480 again on my second, kept it in the groove, and got it IMHO rather strongly. But I had a bad problem. The heat was causing me to sweat so bad, my double denim was completely soaked, and was losing its tightness. So. . .

I pulled out the new shirt Karin made for me, that I just got in the mail, having no idea what would even touch, and decided to wing it. (things were not going to well anyway, so what could it hurt?) At least this one was dry. I pulled it as far toward my neck as I dared, hoping the 505 3rd attempt would touch. It did, but it sat an inch from the shirt for about 3 seconds before it finally sunk in. Well, I got it off my chest, but missed it pretty badly back over my face. Ran out of gas from the sun, ran out of gas from the long wait for the bar to touch, and just missed it badly.

So, going 1 for 3, I still managed to win the 220 open division, won a tiny bit of money in the pro division, and was only outlifted (bar weight) by 2 guys out of the 60 or so who lifted, and they were both bigger than me. So it was a mildly, and not wildly successful day.

The bikini contest was great, and some other lifters did well, but this is already too long, so I will let bigokie and Screwball tell the rest.

B.
 
DAMN sorry to hear that bro. HOW can they possibly have a meet outside in the summer. I'd die just standing out there. LET ALONE LIFT. I feel ur pain. Hell i'm only 195lbs and when i walk outside whether or not it's hot, if it's 80 degrees+ I'm sweatin like a pig.

AT least u took 1st in 220's. WAY TO GO
 
everytime i lift it's outside. my gym is on a back porch. to keep the rain out we tarp it in which means there is no breeze what so ever. so in a way, i feel your pain. also i drive a black car with no a/c. it's a bitch in the southern states. great job at the 1st place. when hell cools off, you'll be ready to hit it hard. i don't know how u survived outside all day.
 
i know how that feels to try and compete in the blazing heat like that...i used to do an annual meet in tampa...they always had ii in the winter...but you know florida!! some years it would be 80's..not as bad as 90+..but still it kills you...your hands even feel shitty, because they get so wet,..and the chalk just cakes! Im sorry for the bad conditions bro..but you hung in there!!! good job..just wait to fight again! You guys are warriors..we will see you hitting some big numbers soon!! keep hitting it hard!!
 
Glad to hear you won. Most lifters do hate competing in the heat.

2nd out of sixty lifters, many of whom are larger than you, is quite impressive.

Did an OL meet like that once. But since I was used to training in similar conditions, I did not do quite as bad as everyone else. Still sucked, though.
 
You can't train in Missouri and not get used to the heat. 115 heat index and 300% humidity.

...but hang around, that could change any minute.

Missouri and Florida are the only two states I've lived in where it can literally be raining on only 1/2 the driveway, and sunny on the other side.
 
spatterson said:
Missouri and Florida are the only two states I've lived in where it can literally be raining on only 1/2 the driveway, and sunny on the other side.

The lady speaks the truth...only two states where it is possible to get a sunburn while it is raining on you....

bench...good work partner...gotta make the best of a bad situation.
 
480 is freakin awesome! At the few meets I've gone too, nobody has even attempted something that high. Another first place trophy doesn't hurt either. When the day is right, you'll be throwing up 530+ real damn soon.


The Bishop at the Little League game had me rolling...LMAO!!
 
Well, the weather was hot and I was not. It was definitely not one of my better performances. First time I've ever bombed at a meet so I guess it was just my time. Hope it was the last time. I should have been able to hit at least 450 but it was just too much for me. I need to work on my technique. There are a lot of little things I need to perfect such as setting up further back on the bench so that I don't have to reach back for the bar and allowing my shirt to "ride-up". I also need to learn how to set the weight and lower the bar more quickly. I expend too much energy. I'll get it right one of these days; it will just take time. A couple of changes I'm going to make with training is to incorporate more full-range, raw benching. In the past when my raw bench goes up my shirted bench goes up. I've been using a lot of partial range (lockout) movements but I haven't seen the carry-over into my shirted press. I'm also going to try a double poly with an open back to see if I can get more out of it than my double denim. I have fairly long arms and I like to use my chest and shoulders a lot when I bench so the poly may be more forgiving than the denim. Much work to be done.

It was good to see Benchmonster hit his 480 fast and strong and if the conditions were more favorable I'm sure the 500+ would have fallen. All in all, he was one of the best lifters at the meet and that's saying a lot when World Records are being broken. Jason Jackson broke the WABDL World record with a 620 lb. bench at 242. I have pictures that I will post in a couple of days.

A special thanks to BigOkie who drove 3 hours to the meet without sleeping the night before to help Benchmonster and myself. He gives a great hand-off and was very motivational.

I'm sunburned and grumpy today.

I have pictures of the Okie Crew, lifting action, bikini babes and other goodies for the board and I will post as soon as I can. I took over 100 pics with a digital cam so I will have to discriminate and post only the best. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks again to BigOkie and Benchmonster. I always enjoy getting together with you guys and look forward to our KC adventure and meeting the Asylum Crew.
 
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