Hannibal: You're shirt has officially died

[genemachine]

Dude.. that inzer double denim blew today. Not like a minor tear on the seam, but actually right down the center of the chest to my belly button.

The shirt was really a great shirt. It took me from 275 in November to 425 two weeks ago. It will be greatly missed...

However, the bastard decided to blow on the day I was going to nail 450 and for that it deserves to be burned...

no, no... I believe I'll hang it on the wall. The first of many shirts that I will blow out.

This is a very timely blow out, coming 6 days after I decided to dump 500 lbs over the top of my head during box squats. I had an over-night shift and needed to get some sleep that afternoon. So I took 2 Tylenol PM and woke up in a drug stupor... ready to workout. Still in a groggy drug induced coma, I walked it out completely crooked, and decided to go for it anyway. I leaned way to far forward, and when I realized that I couldn't recover, I decided to dump it on the pins. Shortly after I realized that we forgot to put the catch pins in, I found myself ass-high in the air with 500 lbs scraping the back of my head. The weight then proceeded to hit the front of the rack, and came back to bust me in the nose. I woke up in the arms of my lifting partner bleeding profusely from my nose. I also noticed an intense sting in my right hamstring. Nose wasn't broke, but the hamstring was pulled. Dumbass thing to do.

In the words of Hannibal, " I didn't respect the weight, and it punished me."

 

[naturally anabolic]

*plays t.a.p.s*

 

[spatts]

...all in a week's work. Glad you're ok.

 

[spatts]

Hey, are you doing WSB bench stuff still, or did you switch to MM?

 

[Hannibal]

First the Fat Boyz break up...now this....there's just nothing to believe in any more.

A moment of silence for Yellow Boy...

 

[genemachine]

Mostly MM, but a slight hibrid for 3-lift pwrlifters. We've been continually modifying it. I think MM just has too much volume for 3-lifters, so for bench we do MM every other week and Westside every other week.

However, I have been experimenting with keeping the shirt day and just alternating MM Raw day with Westside speed day. While I do get worn out more quickly this way, I have seen the greatest increase while using this method. I think I was at 365 when I started this, and I shot up to 425 in 2 months. After about 4 weeks, you might find that you need a break on the bench, and normally I'll just go up to a 5RM hit some boards and be done for the day.

The MM stuff works. The only difficulty for a 3-lift powrlifter is to find an appropriate balance, to maximize gains in all 3 lifts.

In loving memory of Yellow Boy...

 

[spatts]

genemachine, thanks for the details. I'm not sure how we'd work around that. I really think I benefit alot from the speed work, and I'm a little apprehensive about being so dependent on the shirt (or perhaps I understand the program incorrectly). I have alot to learn...

I just used bands for speed bench last night...for the first time in almost a year. I had to switch to chains due to my rotators. Well, we gave it a whirl. I couldn't believe how much faster I was on these, and my shoulder didn't hurt at all! (YAY!!!) The front-to-back stability is still a tad off when I get tired, so I probably need to hit the lats a little harder.

What do you think about the MM suggestion to completely drop speed work?

 

[genemachine]

Hmm... I think the MM guys get alot of speed work in their shirts. They talk alot about keeping the weight moving quickly. I suppose if you think about it, they probably get a similar effect from moving quickly in the shirt (the weight is easier at the bottom, and harder at the top).

Maybe I just can't shake the Westside blood that runs through my veigns, but speed work still seems useful to me.

On that same note I've been researching this speed issue. There have been some pretty tremendous gains made by people that are incorporating plyometrics into their bench routine. Anyone that knows about this, please chime in, because the written research is hella-hard to find. But I found some amazing stuff about a strength coach named Jay Schroeder, you've probably heard of him. He trained an NFL Player named Adam Archuleta who won the NFL Combine bench comp with 31 reps at 225. Now I'm not much on the NFL Combine, and I don't really care how many times you can rep 225, but Schroeder is quoted as saying that this kid hit 530 (raw and drug-free). Now I also don't care much about being raw and drug-free, but these numbers had me wondering how this 211 lb kid could pull this off. After looking a little deeper, Schroeder had Archuleta doing some crazy plyometrics stuff that focused heavily on speed.

Point of the story - Obviously the militia guys know what their doing, they are some strong MF's, but I think we need to experiment some more with integrating speed and possibly plyometrics in our bench routines. Just think about it... if you have ridiculously good explosive speed and you're very experienced in your shirt, then you'll be able to blast some tremendous poundages at the easiest part of the bench - the bottom - and your chance of getting to lockout with less effort is greatly increased.

Just my .02

 

[spatts]

I use plyos, but in my group, I'm the only one that does.

As for the NFL combine, talk to ironlion. He's leaving for his next week, and if he's on, I bet he can blow that 31 @ 225 number away (fingers crossed). He also benches over 500 RAW, and hasn't ever even trained for speed, per se. Just started implementing some WSB dynamic work recently. He's amazing.

I hear ya on the speed thing. When I read this, it made me a little apprehensive:

When I used to use bands I attached them to the crossbar that runs underneath the bench by using a half hitch. On speed day I would use a set of blue bands and 60% of my one rep max for 10x2

every week I would up the weight by 10 lbs till I started to slow donw dramiatcly. I then would up bar weight and drop band weight.

after a year of doing this and becoming constatly confused I hung the bands up on the wall, started lifting heavy doing boards and lockouts with no bands or assistance days and my bench went from 585 to 755 in 10 mts.n it's mazing what technique changes and not overtraining will do for you..

-and-

drop the speed work

I know they know what they're talking about, I just can't imagine dropping speed and replacing it with the shirt. What happens to raw strength when you do that? Like I said, I have alot to learn about MM.

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

Ha! just remembering the FAT BOYS.....haha