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There will be a new DVD release on the strongman scene, which covers footage and other stuff about the Strongest Man Competition of Vlaanderen. My friend Jimmy participated and once again, came out victorious!
Congratulations Jimmy (a bit late though) and here is a preview of the DVD..
I’ve always held the lifting philosophy that you can’t really begin to progress until you’ve fought your way around some roadblocks. There’s always that one guy you know that benched 300 through halfhearted routine and bouts of sporadic training, but never got any higher. Fortunately for me, I am not that guy. I remember my bench stagnating in High School at 190 for months, that’s when I realized that progress wasn’t automatic and that I’d have to plan and execute with a purpose to bench some big weight.
This is what I did to get past a recent stagnation point and how I thought through what I needed to do to reach a new level. What I recommend is not the specific routine that I did but to think about problems in your own bench and ways to go about solving those problems. At the end you’ll find a bunch of those tips that you’ve heard over and over again from authors and lifters better than me and if they haven’t sunk in already just maybe they will this time.
Big problems: I broke through the 400lb barrier a few years ago, but since then I noticed that my bar speed on the eccentric was slow and inconsistent and I was often tentative lowering heavy weight. Like an idiot I sometimes still bounced the bar off my chest on lighter weights and often my left hand would rise faster making the lift uneven. I was doing barbell flat bench almost year-round and put a lot of pressure on myself to perform which could sometimes lead to frustration. Ok, a lot of problems many of them I should have corrected long ago, but bad habits die hard. I needed to be tighter, develop a better setup, but the most urgent problems were mental.
What I hoped were the solutions: I switched to doing close grip benches, a lift I hadn’t done seriously for weight in a few years, and to gain confidence lowering heavy weights I started board presses from varying heights. My routine after warm-ups was 4 sets of close grips, then 3 sets with a board then 3 sets of JM presses; tricep heavy and I was doing no regular bench. Every four weeks or so I would try for a close grip pr single, the next week I would board press first and try for a pr single or triple. The week after I would start on a different height board (choosing between 1 and 3 board) and start over again.
What happened: I worked on setting up tighter on the close grips and since I was focusing on them and my triceps I could work into close grip pr territory mentally pretty easily. The board presses required ultimate tightness and developed a lot of surplus lockout power. I had no excuse to be uncertain lowering heavy benches when I had done 80 lbs more with boards. Bouncing or squirming around kills a board press so the lift itself helps break those bad habits because it demands perfect technique or you’re going to miss reps.
When I switched back to regular-grip benches all these things stuck in place. I had extra triceps strength; I even decided to move my grip in a touch to pinkies on the rings. I felt confident lowering 400+ lbs. Because of a tighter, more consistent setup I recently hit a 440lb raw, gym lift (no pause) bench.
Ok here are those bite sized tips you want to hear; check elitefts.com, powerandbulk.com, or beyondstrong to get more.
• Setup setup setup! It needs to be perfect every time. A back cramping arch, big air, touch the same spot on your lower chest/upper sternum.
• Warm-up, why do I see people not warming up? Here’s what I’d do if I was going to bench say 375 for work sets: bar, 135, 205, 265, 315, 345 – that’s six sets warming up, it would be seven if I go over 400, warm-up!
• A closer grip makes it easier off the chest but harder to lockout, a wide grip makes it harder off the chest but easier to lockout – plan accordingly.
• A bench is triceps; train them with high volume and heavy weight. My preference is free weights save the pumping stuff for after.
• A bench takes back; you know you need one so why not build it? Deadlifts, shrugs, chins, rows. See? Nothing new here, I’m still working on this one too.
• Don’t neglect the mental! The best workouts are ones that feel easy, so do what you can to make them easy. Take off the pressure, try to hit easy Prs. My Olympic lifting coach used to say “Train, don’t strain” and while you’ve got to strain sometimes if you’re doing it all the time you are going to run into some problems.
Jeff Flynn has been involved in strength sports for 14 years, he has competed in Powerlifting, Olympic style weightlifting as a member of the Michigan State University Olympic Lifting Club, and he is a regular competitor in the Michigan Grip Championships in Three rivers Michigan. He is currently studying at Wayne State University to become a teacher.
Beyond Strong thanks Jeff for his excellent and informative contribution. If you have a suitable article then please send all submissions to [email protected].
Nick
Last week I trained back at the Whey Consortium with my friend and World's Strongest Man competitor Laurence Shahlaei. His younger brother and training partner was there too nursing a mild back tear. We squatted and Loz deadlifted. I worked up to a VERY hard 220kg squat using the new equipment. I am FAR from getting used to it and in fact feel I would have made 220kg easier had I not used it. However, it's good to try new things. Loz worked up to easy triples with close to 600lbs (265kg) and then an easy single in the deadlift with 330kg/726lbs. He's competing almost every week right now and it's paid off with him winning the British Team Championships with team partner Rob Frampton this past weekend. Congratulations guys!!
Also, young Kye Thomas, another trainee from my old training camp at They Whey Consortium, had a fantastic competition at Britain's Strongest Teenager. Kye took top honours and beat out tough competition proving that tenacity and consistency are key factors in any sport.
Congratulations to Kye and also to Rob and Loz keeping the strongman sport alive and well!
Nick
Kye Thomas - Britain's Strongest Teenager (Photo courtesy of Mail Online)
