My Weekend at Westside and Nazareth Barbell (VIDEOS ADDED)

[spatts]

That must have been great to learn from the best in the business.....

It was great, and it's exactly what I need. I am looking forward to training at Westside on a regular basis following my August meet.

 

[sinjinsmythe33]

is there any carryover to your raw max? just curious

 

[spatts]

Well, I've only benched like that once in my life, so I can't answer that from personal experience. In the past, I've always trained raw, and always trained partials...and always had raw carryover. Maybe Mule will have some input.

 

[sinjinsmythe33]

ok. i read that mendelson hit 713 raw a while back, and he hit that monster record over the weekend, was curious to see if his raw is more now. i would think so. hes an unusual case i suppose. in any event, hope you hit the big 400 soon!!

 

[spatts]

in any event, hope you hit the big 400 soon!!

Thank you. Me too.

 

[TheProject]

lol, at projects quotes.

Highlights of the trip!

It was really awesome, from start to finish.

One day, I had Louie Simmons standing to my left, and Dave Tate behind me, critiquing my squat, then the next day I had Mike Miller teaching me how to bench Metal Militia style. I told spatts after getting to Westside that at one moment, I was thinking, okay, these are just guys, getting to work out, then a few minutes later, I'm back in awe at getting to see some of the biggest names in powerlifting.

Louie told me my form wasn't bad until I started trying to squat outside my strength range, and interestingly enough, he said that was probably a result of needing more back strength. I told him I could do a 500lb GM from 44", and he said that was a wasted exercise for me, and to do some hypers and reverse hypers, as well as more ab work. I know I don't do a good enough job of using my air, so that wasn't so much of a surprise. He suggested laying on a bench with a plate on my stomach, and pressing out against it for reps. I'm going to follow spatts' lead on ME squat moves, cut out some GM's, add in some different back work, and keep doing my swingthroughs.

Metal Militia was definitely a lot of fun. I think I could have gotten more out of it if I had had a double denim bench shirt instead of the poly, but it was a valuable learning experience anyway. I did triple 225 with the poly, and Deb was gracious enough to lend me her double denim to try, but it just wasn't the right fit for me.

In any case, I have a new form to try, and I'm really anxious to get a shirt, and see what I can do. I'd love to get my denim in here, get some work with it, and take another trip to see what Mule can teach me then.

When I came back, I was explaining where I went on my vacation to some coworkers, and the only thing I could compare it to was a basketball player getting tips from Michael Jordan. I think that's the only comparison that does it justice.

 

[dg21]

Spatts, I asked Bobby Fields about arching in a full meet. He said your back gets used to it and shouldn't be a problem. So, I;m going to keep doing it in training until the back adapts so I can pull afterwards.

 

[spatts]

Louie said that JM Blakely used to bench like that and had to have back surgery. I'm getting all kinds of mixed reviews. I really just want the numbers...my ego is passing right by my long-term logic. lol

 

[spatts]

These files are ginormous, so right click and save it if you need to:


This is the 290 x 3. It's hard to see because Mike was right in front of me, but you can get the general idea...

http://www.asylum-strength.com/videos/spatts290.wmv



This is the 315 x 1. It took a while going up. Then Mike asked me to set back up and hit it again immediately, and it didn't go the second time...

http://www.asylum-strength.com/videos/spatts315.wmv



This one is the 330 x 1. You can kind of see that it goes up pretty easy (cleaner than the 315), but as soon as I lock it, I just dump it straight forward...

http://www.asylum-strength.com/videos/spatts330.wmv

 

[cliff the lil red dog]

Amazing lifts.