ripitupbaby
02-13-2008, 12:15 AM
I'm prepping for a bench press competition Feb. 23, and another on March 16. My goal is to use a bench press shirt for the first time and bench 225 or more in the competition. I'm about 135 weight-wise.
I've benched raw (no shirt) until now and have gotten 175 in competition and 185 in the gym. Shirted benching is a whole different ballgame. The training and the prep, and learning how to use a shirt, has been quite the challenge!
After 3 months working with the shirt, I finally got 225. My butt lifted off the bench a little bit, but I should be able to fix that. And if I can get consistent with the shirt, I might be able to do a little more than 225.
uIwBb12Fw1g
Here is a clip of a set of 225 x 2 with a 1-board. The boards are used to help break the shirt in and build strength in your triceps, which is what you need most when you are benching with a shirt...it takes forever to break in the shirt enough to get the bar down to your chest (and it HURTS ALOT), so you use the boards to do sets until you can get it stretched enough. You start with a 3-board or 4-board and work your way down to the 1-board and then no board.
IjmYVACUBeU
Here's a set of 300 pounds to a 4-board (4 stacked boards). At one point a few months ago, the shirt wouldn't even stretch enough to let me touch the bar to a 4-board!!
5Ui0CLVKrmM
One of the challenges is figuring out how much to open with at the competition. It's not so much a strength issue as it is related to finding the groove on the shirt....and the shirt is SO tight that it takes a certain amount of weight just to be able to get the bar to touch my chest.
Here's 205 x 1...as you can see, I literally have to PULL the bar down to touch my chest because the weight is almost not heavy enough.
jxR617ybuYI
I've benched raw (no shirt) until now and have gotten 175 in competition and 185 in the gym. Shirted benching is a whole different ballgame. The training and the prep, and learning how to use a shirt, has been quite the challenge!
After 3 months working with the shirt, I finally got 225. My butt lifted off the bench a little bit, but I should be able to fix that. And if I can get consistent with the shirt, I might be able to do a little more than 225.
uIwBb12Fw1g
Here is a clip of a set of 225 x 2 with a 1-board. The boards are used to help break the shirt in and build strength in your triceps, which is what you need most when you are benching with a shirt...it takes forever to break in the shirt enough to get the bar down to your chest (and it HURTS ALOT), so you use the boards to do sets until you can get it stretched enough. You start with a 3-board or 4-board and work your way down to the 1-board and then no board.
IjmYVACUBeU
Here's a set of 300 pounds to a 4-board (4 stacked boards). At one point a few months ago, the shirt wouldn't even stretch enough to let me touch the bar to a 4-board!!
5Ui0CLVKrmM
One of the challenges is figuring out how much to open with at the competition. It's not so much a strength issue as it is related to finding the groove on the shirt....and the shirt is SO tight that it takes a certain amount of weight just to be able to get the bar to touch my chest.
Here's 205 x 1...as you can see, I literally have to PULL the bar down to touch my chest because the weight is almost not heavy enough.
jxR617ybuYI