competed for first time yesterday, bench

**Baxter35** · 03-02-2015, 08:04 AM

My local Y held a sanctioned bench press comp yesterday. It was my first competition ever, and definitely a huge learning experience! My gym PR is 355, and of course I went into it thinking I'd put up and easy 350 at least....Ha! I hit 325, which was enough to take first place in my weight class but there were only 25-30 guys in the comp and only a few in my class (200-220). My sticking point was on the bottom. I'm a touch and go bencher on my own, and pausing at the bottom for the press command took a lot out of me. I'm really glad I did it though, met a great group of guys doing it. Now that I have first hand experience, I can adjust my training for my weak point and hopefully come in a lot stronger next year.

**kelkel** · 03-02-2015, 08:57 AM

Good work Baxter! A meet is definitely quite different that the gym.

**Baxter35** · 03-02-2015, 10:13 AM

Thanks Kel! It was a whole new world for sure.

**Marc114** · 03-02-2015, 10:50 AM

I hear ya! Waiting for that "press" command while holding at the bottom seems to take an eternity ! Meets are an awesome experience.

**Joco71** · 03-02-2015, 11:05 AM

Thats awesome Baxter!!

**600@50** · 03-02-2015, 11:28 AM

Congrats Baxter. Now you know what to work on for the next meet.

**Baxter35** · 03-02-2015, 02:50 PM

Although my bench training style has been leaning more toward powerlifting in the last year, I've never fully committed to it and still do kind of a BB/PL hybrid. Doing the meet got me excited about having a goal to work toward, so I think for now I'm going to commit all the way to training just for strength on bench. Before I've still had this paranoia in the back of my mind that if I didn't still do some high rep BB training then Id lose size, but really I've never seen a strong bencher without a thick chest. I'll stick with BB style for other body parts, but going to make bench all about strength for now at least. Gives me something to focus on.

**-Horus-** · 03-02-2015, 03:23 PM

good job man!
keep killing it and show those mofo's! : )

**Nubster** · 03-05-2015, 10:55 AM

That's awesome. I'm doing my first in May. I've only been lifting a couple months so obviously I expect to have my butt handed to me...but it's local and something I've always dreamed about doing so I'm going to do it anyways....I think the experience and fun will be worth it despite the low placing I'm sure to get.

**hawk14dl** · 03-05-2015, 11:06 AM

I'd love to do a push/pull event. I hate squats though

**The Deadlifting Dog** · 03-11-2015, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by hawk14dl

I'd love to do a push/pull event. I hate squats though

That's just your vagina talking.

**Buster Brown** · 03-25-2015, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by Baxter35

Although my bench training style has been leaning more toward powerlifting in the last year, I've never fully committed to it and still do kind of a BB/PL hybrid. Doing the meet got me excited about having a goal to work toward, so I think for now I'm going to commit all the way to training just for strength on bench. Before I've still had this paranoia in the back of my mind that if I didn't still do some high rep BB training then Id lose size, but really I've never seen a strong bencher without a thick chest. I'll stick with BB style for other body parts, but going to make bench all about strength for now at least. Gives me something to focus on.

I bet if you had access to a cambered bar it would help greatly with moving the weight off your chest or pin presses where you lift off and perform your presses at the bottom of the Rep. These can be performed in a rack so you can adjust the pins accordingly.

**Baxter35** · 03-27-2015, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by Buster Brown

I bet if you had access to a cambered bar it would help greatly with moving the weight off your chest or pin presses where you lift off and perform your presses at the bottom of the Rep. These can be performed in a rack so you can adjust the pins accordingly.

Bingo! I've been doing all my presses with a solid 2 second pause on bottom mixed with some pin presses as well the last few weeks. I've already moved up 15 pounds from what I did at the meet with a full pause. Obviously it wont keep going up that quick for long, but right now I feel like the strength is there and its more about practicing the technique which is where I'm getting the progress from.

**hawk14dl** · 03-27-2015, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by The Deadlifting Dog

That's just your vagina talking.

It's my knees and lower back talking

**Khazima** · 03-27-2015, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Baxter35

Bingo! I've been doing all my presses with a solid 2 second pause on bottom mixed with some pin presses as well the last few weeks. I've already moved up 15 pounds from what I did at the meet with a full pause. Obviously it wont keep going up that quick for long, but right now I feel like the strength is there and its more about practicing the technique which is where I'm getting the progress from.

If you're serious about improving your technique purely for max effort benching this should help a lot. Dudes not jacked but he's an absolute mastermind when it comes to powerlifting.

**tarmyg** · 03-27-2015, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by Khazima
If you're serious about improving your technique purely for max effort benching this should help a lot.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=970499476308483

Fixed

**Baxter35** · 03-27-2015, 03:22 PM

That was a good video, thanks for sharing. I also like all of Dave Tates videos. This guy you posted had something good about the grip that hadn't heard before.

**Khazima** · 03-27-2015, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by tarmyg

Fixed

LOL, if only we could all contort like that. Feds like the IPF make you keep your heels down, really stops a lot of the contortion unless you have a hypermobile knee joint.

Originally Posted by Baxter35

That was a good video, thanks for sharing. I also like all of Dave Tates videos. This guy you posted had something good about the grip that hadn't heard before.

Yeah Daves great too, mark bell has some awsome fundamental videos about benching as well, a lot of the time talking about how to flare your elbows properly and engaging the lats properly etc. It's good to get as many sources as possible and try everything, some things take a while to get used to like internally rotating your wrists slightly to get the bar in the heel of your palm, feels really unstable at first but once you're used to it you'll wonder why you've never heard of it before.

**pushit_05** · 03-28-2015, 07:06 PM

Nice going, congrats! Rick Weil used to talk about the importance of lat drive for getting the bar off the chest. Maybe look into improving that as well if your not already.