Hi guys,

I've been lurking around here for a while so thought I may as well introduce myself and start a journal. Anyway, onto the boring stuff; I am a 6'4 107kg 20yo male who enjoys socialising and long walks on the beach. In my spare time I play American football for Exeter university and recently had my first powerlifting competition as a 110kg Junior at the All-England. I got 175/80/185 using knee wraps and a inzer z-suit for the squat but raw bench and deadlift.

You may notice that I bench like a newborn baby, there's no excuse and I shall be working on this as much as possible in future.

Here is a video from the competition, and there are a few others on my youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5giI5kfnhgk


Also, incase you were wondering what a Bebb-Train looks like, I mocked up a picture

Here's last fridays workout

28/8/09

Bench
75kg 3x5

OH Press
50kg 3x3

Push Press
60kg x5

Tricep Pushdowns x 8,9,9

Weighted decline situps 20kg x3,5
Kneeling cable crunches, stack x something

Nice to see you here mate.

Due to your height you have long arms so benching is tougher for you, but work hard and you'll get there. Personally, I prefer DB pressing or increase presses to flat bench.

So you're at Exeter (nice place) so do you play any union outside of the American Footy season?

Hey and welcome.

Are you doing anything in particular to address the benching problem?
Also what kind of training do you do? Are you on a homemade routine and if so, what principles is it based on?

simon m wrote:Nice to see you here mate.

Due to your height you have long arms so benching is tougher for you, but work hard and you'll get there. Personally, I prefer DB pressing or increase presses to flat bench.

So you're at Exeter (nice place) so do you play any union outside of the American Footy season?

Thanks for the welcome.

I have been recommended db presses as well. I am basically going to try out some different assistance stuff in the next few weeks and see what works for me.

Exeter is a gorgeous place. Really amazing. I don't really do any other sports apart from those two. I wasn't athletic at all up until about 15months or so ago when I started going to the gym and American Football is my greatest love. I did play a bit of basketball when I was a fair bit younger, but not in ages.

Rilla wrote:Hey and welcome.

Are you doing anything in particular to address the benching problem?
Also what kind of training do you do? Are you on a homemade routine and if so, what principles is it based on?

Thanks. I'm basically going to start putting a lot more effort and focus into upper body training sessions, as I will be first to admit they are never taken massively seriously. Apart from that, getting greater volume, gaining some weight and trying out assistance stuff is the plan.

As for my routine, it's a bit up in the air at the moment. I tore a bit of cartilage in my knee a few months back, and used full bodies when I recovered from that to get up to strength then had my meet so I haven't really had a set program for a fair while. I can probably still squat 3x a week, but any upper body work afterwards suffers. So I'll go upper/lower 4x a week probably. With lower sessions being squatting for sets and then sets out of RDLs, rackpulls, split squats, deadlifts and then abs. And upper sessions with one per above, and the other along the lines of Rows, chinups and lat pulldowns. And I want to bring in some sprint sessions a couple of times a week to help get ready for football season.

First, a cheesy quote - "failing to plan is planning to fail".
Then onto the advice.
You're an athlete first and a powerlifter second, correct? Though the two doesn't exclude each other, you have to know what you're training for to get good gains. I'm guessing you're a D-liner or an O-liner based on your size, but you could play a handful other posistions as well, it doesn't really make THAT much of a difference. Either way, you want to be a strong bencher as it'll help you push off people. Also, some gripwork could prove helpful.

Joe DeFranco trains athletes based on a westside-ish template - you should be able to find his WS4SB template on the site. If nothing else, it can be used as an inspiration.
Though brute strength is definately important, so is explosive strength - having an ME and a DE leg day would probably be good for you.

Haha, love that cheese.


Yeah Football is my first sport. I plan on doing the BUCS powerlifting meet in November(?) if I can fit it in though. I play Defensive tackle, but can also swing and play guard/tackle on offence.

Joe Defranco is cool, I have read through most of his articles and interviews at one point or another and am keeping a close eye on Brian Cushing this year in the NFL.

I will probably take a lot of that program, but chop it with my idea of squatting volume and adding weight twice a week, as I am certain I can still do it. And it is a pretty big deal for me to have a big squat. Atleast until I cannot do that any more, then I'll start doing it the proper defranco way.
Thanks.

It's all about Deion Sanders and you know it.

Good technique plays a big part in a decent bench Ryan, so if you train at a gym where there are some decent PLers get them to look at your form & give you some pointers. Getting a good arch & keeping nice & tight & stable on the bench makes a big difference, like they say - you can't shoot a cannon out of a canoe.

Lets see what Dave Tate has to say:
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_arti ... rogram&cr=

^ this is right. Your line was terrible for your last bench at the All England and Matt and I could tell as soon as it started going down you were going to miss. Basically you know what to do so you just need to practise and get stronger at it, so that technique doesn't fall apart with heavy weights.

Hey Ryan, welcome to ESN

Benching is a far more technical exercise than it first appears. I'm a lanky fella naturally with long arms and a relatively shallow ribcage which both together mean I'm never going to bench a heavy weight - long arms in particular provide a significant mechanical disadvantage. The two things that I found helped me improve my bench the most though, other than pressing the shoulders down and pushing the chest up, are making sure my feet are well planted and starting the lift with elbows slightly 'in', and flaring them out a little at a point roughly half way through the lift. This gives extra drive mid rep.

For a pure bodybuilding point of view though I'd say sod it to flat benches altogether and concentrate on incline movements, decline presses and dips!

welcome Ryan

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the welcomes and advice guys.


31/8/09
Sprint training


1/9/09
Bench
77.5kg 3x5

OH Press 51kg 3x3

Push press 62.5kg x2,2

Eeeeeew
Your pressing really isn't very impressive for a dude your size. Time to get working.

Welcome Ryan.

Bench - are your elbows sticking outwards as the bar comes down to your Chest and are you touchung Chest or stopping shirt?

I widened my grip by about 2 fingers last week, and my forearm is either perpendicular or damn close but want to go another finger or two wider. I am working on touching every rep to my nipple/xiphoid process. As Burningnun said above, I have a really shitty habit of touching to my upper pecs.

I found making a conscious effect to tuck my elbows in when lowering the bar makes a big difference as you simply get much better drive. I almost feel like I'm squeezing in and engaging my Lats as the bar comes down and also using them to control it's descent rather than my Triceps. This will help to reduce Tricep fatigue and keep them strong for the more important part of the movement - lockout.

Also have a look at your breathing. Take a big breath and expand Chest as much as possible before lowering the bar and hold. As you start the press back out you want to be breathing out all the way through the press. Try keeping lips together so you make a sort of hissing noise as you breathe out so you know you're doing it and not holding your breathe or even breathing in.

Do you do dips? They've done good things for my overall pressing strength.

I am fail at going to the gym atm. For various reasons.

9/9/09
Squats
120kgx5
130kgx3

Wraps
140kgx3

Front Squats
80kgx3

Deadlift
180kgx1
190kgx1

Good deads.

Why aren't you making it to the gym Ryan? Consistancy is important.