Willbenchforcupcakes Member

Congrats! It's my second favorite lift

Lulu, Nike, under armour and meet shirts are my go tos. I'd rather spend more on something that lasts rather than replacing something frequently.

1-3 hours five days a week. Length of session depends on where I am in relation to competitions. This week is nice and easy recovery, and I'm likely to be in and out within 45 minutes. But 2-3 hours is typical most weeks.

I get bruises from my belt frequently. I had very little distance between the bottom of my ribcage and the top of my hips, so any belt forever rubs on one or the other, and I don't even notice it anymore. It just is.

@nakedraygun - I cut it out of the video but the expression on my face when I saw the white lights was priceless. And when the Brits told me I had gotten silver, there were more than a few tears of joy! @maranarasauce93 - I train with self handoffs all the time, although I normally take handoffs in comp. after watching the…

Hit a new platform pr yesterday. 82.5kg/181.5lb on my third, and good enough for silver at the IPF Classic bench worlds. https://instagram.com/p/BFoS4L_DL3a/

2" wood clamps are my choice if I'm not using locking collars

I feel that way to. But day before weigh in now.

Lmao. Reverse bands and chains at the same time. My system gets confused just looking at that. Lightest at the bottom and then the bands kick in at the same time as chain weight.

I'm waiting till Friday if I can find pizza here. I can taste it already!

Absolutely nothing wrong with benching in a rack. Back when I was at a commercial gym, I would just tell people I trust metal more than humans. Now, I spend most of my time benching on a competition rack and the point is mute. If I can't for whatever reason (either someone is squatting or has bands set up), I just set up…

For sure. My back and arms have grown in a year of bench focussed programming and maintenance. Makes me happy. What also makes me happy is that my legs didn't shrink despite barely being able to squat or pull for a year.

Whatever my programmer hands me. My days are based off of 1-3 of the primary moves and needed accessory work. No training cycle is like another really.

Bench. Always bench. Deadlifts come a close second though.

Here's the thing. Your triceps and delts are smaller muscles. It's the nature of the beast on bench that they are going to exhaust before your pecs. Every single time that I've had to end a bench session early due to muscle exhaustion (and it only happens a couple times a year), has been because the secondary movers are…

@JoRocka - I fly tonight and compete next Friday. So freaking excited. Just no words on how hard I've worked to get to this point and just so ready to show that work on the platform.

Back when I trained at a commercial gym, the bodybuilders were some of the nicer people. Although I did get plenty of stares, I got left alone for the most part. Now that I'm at a specialized training centre, there are no bodybuilders, although there are a couple hybrid athletes who do compete in various levels of body…

As needed. Generally the week after major comps, and when I request one. So 4-6 a year generally speaking.

Nope. But I'm in a small specialized gym. The interns do a pretty good job of cleaning up, in fact currently any cleaning supplies are hidden

I just use my wrist wraps. But then, hypermobility comes into play here. I'm choosing to externally stabilize the ligaments that my body decided to grow extra lax.

Dumbbells or power rack/squat rack. Mind you, I don't even have access to a smith machine anymore.

This arch is a result of hypermobility and thousands of hours of bench practise. Some of the strongest benchers I know have very little arch - it comes down to practise practise practise. Find your groove and make every rep perfect.

This. I will tend to work in rather than switch my order but nothing inherently bad about it.

I agree. 8 reps at 60% should be easy. Even higher sets shouldn't be difficult.

I almost never get doms anymore. Generally speaking, I have to either have taken some time off, be right in overreached territory, or have a major change in my rep/set scheme. I don't need to be sore to know I'm doing the right thing. The weights on my bars and overall performance tell me that.

My preference is towards low bar. When I high bar, I'm fighting with my form every rep. When I low bar, everything just seems to fall into place. Although, yes, the needed shoulder mobility can be challenging.

❤️ It!

Yup. I know some pretty jacked powerlifters, oly lifters, and bodybuilders. I also know some pretty chubby lifters as well.

Pretty much this. Do the squat variant that you have the better range of motion on. Unless of course you are a power lifter about to compete and NEED to be able to break parallel with a back squat.

Nope. I only really work in Olympic partials, but I had someone help me learn the movement paths and keep an eye on me while I'm doing them. I've been able to teach myself some technically tricky movements, but for oly work I'd definitely have some hands on experienced help.