1,000 Pound Bench Has Been Done

Training Powerlifting
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[quote]pkradgreek wrote:
Limbic wrote:
All that being said, and it needed to be said, these guys are still the strongest raw benchers in the world. They already receive enormous respect for their raw ability – they don’t need these numbers. They’ve already got them.

totally agree, well put. laters pk
[/quote]

see i dont get why people feel this way…its like saying well race car drivers are all ready known as good drivers why do they need to get in those really fast cars and race around for?..or nfl football players would be really good flag football players why do they need to get in helmets and pads and play on sundays? …its a sport, its a competition…AND ITS ULTRA EXTREME…who are we to say not to do it, or they dont need to do it??..not every one is going to like it, not every one is going to do it, not everone is going to watch it…but why spew such hate at the at the person, why have such dis-respect for what they choose to do ???..if you dont like dont get involved…i dont like basketball but i respect the players for there drive, dedication, talent, and hard work…why cant we treat gene this way???..rb

and ps…as a competitive powerlifter…my favorite training day and part of the sport is using a shirt…to me its probally the hardestt hing i have had to learn to do in the sport…and the amount of work its taken me to become average at it has taken me a little over 2 years…i love it, i love learning to bench in a shirt, i love tweaking and gangstering a shirt and pushing my body to the limit…Who are you to say me and others who love to do it shouldnt do it,or dont need ot do it becuase were already strong raw benchers…i dont tell any one on this site why they shouldnt body build??..why shouldnt we bench in a shirt if we want???>…rb

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First off, if you’ve never benched in a shirt, you really have no clue what it’s like, how it helps, or how much it “gives” you. So please keep that in mind if you’re commenting on something you truly know nothing about. I know in this age of internet geniuses that many people think that they can completely analyze a situation by watching a video clip, but life doesn’t always work that way.

Next, there is either raw or geared. The single ply guys who somehow differentiate themselves from double ply lifters are a joke. That is very easily displayed by IPF lifters who have recently not been able to get 700lbs to touch their chest in single ply gear. At that point, “limited gear” is a complete farce and a disgrace to the lifters it tries to deify.

Also, where do you draw the line? 2 ply gear is evil, but one ply is not? That’s ludicrous. So why not just allow a belt and knee wraps? Wait, both of those aid in performance, so we should take away those too. And wrist wraps help your weak wrists support the weight, so they need to go. Why do you wear Chuck’s? Oh, so you can get into a more favorable position to squat in? They need to go too. Same for O-lifters and shoes with heels. Just more cheater gear.

I do raw meets. I also do geared meets. It’s all fun to me. I love it all. Those that criticize are typically those that understand things the least (just like lay people talking about “icky” bodybuilders, with no appreciation for striations, symmetry, proportion, etc.). Some of the gear comments on this thread have been just plain ignorant. If you don’t understand it and don’t like it, fine - don’t worry about it. I don’t give a shit about hockey, so it really doesn’t get my panties in a wad when records get broken there. And for those of you that give such a damn about raw lifting, I assume you all attend raw meets because of your active interest in it? Or are your just internet message board jerkoffs who get off on criticizing those with pursuits different from yours?

Anybody who’s benched in a decent shirt knows exactly what went into Rychlak benching 1005. If you really understood it, it wouldn’t get your panties in a wad. I promise. I understand what strength and technique go into shirted benching. Can you honestly say that you do? This is why I get just excited about Rychlak doing this as I would if he broke the raw bench record. In my mind, they’re two different lifts and way beyond what any of us on this board would ever be capable of.

I also love how the gear haters come out on threads like this. Rychlak benching 1005 doesn’t change a damn thing about the state of powerlifting. People lifted in two ply gear last weekend and they’ll do it again this weekend. Why not just start a thread on why you don’t like geared lifting and stay off of threads dealing with people’s actual accomplishments.

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Let’s clear a few things up: the motivation to dispel the shirt fantasies is not hatred. It is most likely indignation or outrage at a group of people intent on mutating established definitions of an exercise and who are obviously getting THEIR “panties in a wad” end each other’s in a wad. Oh, please play our game with your mind or we won’t like you anymore.

As we roll along here, begin formulating a response to this: what is the role of the latissimus in bench pressing?

Here’s another one: as I roll down the road in my car and my car’s struts absorb impact from the road surface is it “my strength” that smooths the ride?

It is truly a good thing you guys enjoy your bench shirts, but you have to come up with a new title for the act. We’re not going to let you call it “your” bench anymore. Perhaps Frankenstein’s Child. Don’t get stuck on the strong words here. The real point is people who lift weights know the commitment required to excel is large, and largely emotional. With your “panties in a wad”, what are you telling us about your emotional constitution? You’re losing it? It’s hopeless? That it’s time to insult people that respect you because …

As with all human things, after diversion is achieved ingenuity will provide new reasons to continue diverting: the test is to be aware of potential deviation leading to dissipation.

A short list: you “lost control” of the shirt and missed the lift; you had to “row” the bar to your chest; you could not touch the bar to your chest so you changed shirts and did; you missed with one shirt, changed shirts, threw 300 more lbs. on the bar and “blew it away”; you could feel your bones flexing, yet tore no joints up; the bar “flew” off your chest by letting the shirt do the work, thereby achieving “Escape Velocity”–Good Christ, man, how wide do you want my imagination stretched?!!

Thank God for the deadlift: but you guys are gonna figure out something for that, too. Maybe a velcro covered DL platform, special slippers and some sort of “compression device” to “mold the lifter” into the “accepting” posture?!!

Purge your skulls: the goal is to find, create, or steal the fire to produce the strength of lifters like Franco Columbu. I don’t care how short he is, where did he get the strength to pull over 5 times his bodyweight from the floor?

As far as someone not knowing what a shirt “gives” a lifter, I say you know only what the shirt on your back “gave” you. Highest bidder or you’re sitting at the anti-auction getting what you paid for? and you’re not being insulted. We are no longer sure who’s accomplishment the new numbers represent.

Bottom line: you guys can keep going in that direction, but it’s only going to get more and more absurd. As they said on the Powerlifting Bloopers video, “Go break a leg!”.

(link to that Slate again – go ahead, “you can do it”.) http://slate.msn.com/id/2104915/

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[quote]Limbic wrote:
Let’s clear a few things up: the motivation to dispel the shirt fantasies is not hatred. It is most likely indignation or outrage at a group of people intent on mutating established definitions of an exercise and who are obviously getting THEIR “panties in a wad” end each other’s in a wad. Oh, please play our game with your mind or we won’t like you anymore.[/quote]

It’s called evolution of the sport. I never said it was a good thing, either, so thanks for stereotyping.

This does prove one thing - most people’s abilities to make analogies about bench shirts (or most other topics they know little about) is painfully lacking.

We’ll continue to call it whatever we please. Since we actually know the differences between the different types of benching, it’s okay for us to use the terms, but since you really have no concept of the differences, feel free to call the lifts whatever makes you feel better about yourself.

What is your childish non-sequitir towards the beginning of the thread telling us other than you enjoy trying to belittle the accomplishments of others?

You really don’t understand shirted lifting. This is why I made my previous comment about people saying things about that which they do not know. Shirted lifting is different from raw lifting (I know - I’ve done both). That’s not that difficult to comprehend. Different doesn’t have to denot better or worse, nor does there have to be a judgement like that placed.

Oh God! Next thing you know there’s going to be a lifting belt and chalk to aid in the lifting of weights!!! Chicken Little, powerlifting will all be okay. Calm down.

Ah. Not hard. Inject, take some pills. Done. haha. So bench shirts are the devil, but doing boatloads of steroids is the way to go? Riiiiight. And many lifters have done 5 times bodyweight. To some that, is how strength should be judged. Others have different standards. It’s really not a problem that requires religious zeal to combat.

Don’t worry. I’m fairly certain people who live to bitch and moan like yourself will always be there to “bring us back to reality”.

Also, just out of curiosity, what are your competition lifts, and where did you do them? I assume since you’re so quick to deride others that you actually put yourself on the line somewhere.

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RickJames:
I really don’t know what a non sequitir is? Orchestrated thought control by shirt manufacturers and … yourself? as an accomplishment? Gotta watch those definitions.

Shirted benching is different, too different to call benching. Perhaps “Mastery of Textiles”, subtitled with “And don’t touch my shirt before or after my lift.” I’m sorry, the concept generates endless sarcasm. Go over that “short list” again with renewed honesty.

Lifting belts, chalk, Chuck’s, wrist wraps – all OK. And yes, powerlifting will be okay.

This is not the persona to find the “accepting” position.

What other lifters have DL’d 5 times?
Just to ease that moment when your eyelids raise a millimeter or two, this is not religious zeal you are experiencing. You don’t presently seem to understand the contempt generated by these “tools” offered by the Masters of Textiles (or is it electromagnets they use?) for the holy pursuit of the New Numbers.

And, finally, this, for me, is not “bitching and moaning”: it is pure, pure sarcasm.

I have BIG, BIG Guns and shoulders like CANNONBALLS. My real name is BUILT&HUGE. Adios.

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My first bench shirt is on the way and I can’t wait to use it. :slight_smile:

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What about some kind of glove that attaches on to your hand with hooks at the end for deadlifting. I mean “the weight doesn’t lift itself” and gloves are also an item of clothing/equipment.
I reckon with a good long hook, you could put 100lbs on your DL, no problem.
Also, did any of you check out Childress’ 1,124lb squat on the video link above. He has not even gone to 90 degrees.
I think perhaps it’s time to change the powerlifting events into how much weight you can unrack in a/ a lying position and b/ a standing position. Because that’s basically what is going on here.
Nobody is disputing these guy’s awesome strength but this is like being asked to watch sprinters going around a track on a pogo stick.

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The best analogy to me is cycling vs running. Running has always been around just as lifting heavy objects has always been there.

One day someone invents the bicycle. A guy hops on goes a mile in 2 minutes. We now have a new sport.

Go ahead and invent all sorts of contraptions to help people lift more. It could be pretty cool and exciting. Just make it a new sport and call if something something appropriate…like “assisted lifting.”

69

Son of Superman, wearing his cape, mounts the bench to prove to the world it’s only a “mental challenge”…

Getting back to the lats, I believe I read an article by Louie Simmons in which he described the role of the lats as being one of controlling the weight. Better not deviate from that plane, you’ll lose control…of the shirt.

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[quote]RickJames wrote:

Also, just out of curiosity, what are your competition lifts, and where did you do them? I assume since you’re so quick to deride others that you actually put yourself on the line somewhere.
[/quote]

Limbic

Since you seem so eager to show us the light, what are those competition lifts?

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people who have actually watched this lift should not have many criticisms about it. im sure the gear helped some, maybe in the 200+ range but that bench press was very slow and extremely exagerrated at the top as well as the bottom. more power to the guy.

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[quote]big martin wrote:
shorty_blitz wrote:
Someone said they would like to see the deadlift numbers go up as much as the bench press but they wont because they cant use a friggin shirt to cheat with. Call me an ignoranus but when Rezazadeh lifts 273kg above his head in the Olympics he dont use ANYTHING but CHALK.

Yea so when andy bolton pulled his world record 935 all he had on was a singlet, belt and chalk…this is what i get so confused of??..rezazadeh is unreal lifter and i have 100% respect for him and would never say 1 bad thing about his lifts…but guess what he cant deadlift 900 and he certainly cant bench 1005 in any bench shirt in the world…so how are his lifts more real than genes or andy???..there not there just 2 diffirent things…lets have respect for every one…if benching a 1000 pounds in a shirt was so easy and all shirt why then is the next shirted bench almost 200 pounds less than his???..give the man some respect…no one else on the planet can do what he does shirt or not its that simple…bm[/quote]

My original point about the bench vs deadlift was not that Gene is not an unbelievabley strong guy, and not that he is not the best bench presser in the world. His strength, particularly in the bench, is nothing short of phenomenal, and nobody needs me to say that. My point is that the absolute number was distorted by the fact that the bench shirt gives so much support (especially in a way that a deadlift suit never will). My point is that the fact that the proportions of the lifts have been so drastically altered by equipment (raw, the biggest deadlift would always be bigger than the biggest bench) reflects that the help from equipment has gotten out of hand. It is still a phenomenal lift. (by the way, even though he doesn’t deadlift in competition, I wouldn’t be surprised if Razezah could deadlift in the 900s, or at least in the mid-high 800s)

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I don’t believe Franco ever did 5x bodyweight. I found a reference to him doing 730 @ 183 (a hair under 4x bw) and another to him doing 750 at an unspecified bodyweight (couldn’t have been much more than the 183, though). I can’t find the actual meets he did these lifts in, though.

There were several (though not many) guys who did 5+ times bw deadlifts, but they were in lower weight classes than Franco would have been in. If he had done 5x bw @ 187, he would have had the all-time deadlift record, regardless of bodyweight, and that’s just ludicrous.

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I’ve heard that Markus Schick benched 4xBW (645 at 161bw) this weekend. Amazing.

I can’t wait to see Joe Mazza come back and try to top that.

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[quote]big martin wrote:
see i dont get why people feel this way…its like saying well race car drivers are all ready known as good drivers why do they need to get in those really fast cars and race around for?
[/quote]
For the sake of pure competition.
Seocond of all race car driving has way more components then only the driver, like the crew, the machine, etc… If everything is not working near perfectly on that day you are not gonna win. That’s why that comparison don’t make sense.

The original thread was about the record breaking numbers due to the fact that you have performance enhancing equipment. There is no way in me knowing if these guys are physically putting up more weight or is it the equipment. There is NO HATE towards the powerlifters, ONLY RESPECT and ADMIRATION. I totally understand why they use equipment, i just think there should be some sort of standard. laters pk

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[quote]pkradgreek wrote:
The original thread was about the record breaking numbers due to the fact that you have performance enhancing equipment. There is no way in me knowing if these guys are physically putting up more weight or is it the equipment.[/quote]

That does not make sense to me. If they are moving a heavier weight than they are physically putting up more weight. Gene benching 1005 is more than Gene benching 900 and thus he must be able to physically handle more weight.

If it had nothing to do with increased physical strength than powerlifters would train to maintain their current level of strength while waiting for new gear to come out and that is just not the case.

Every powerlifter out there trains to become physically stronger regardless of the latest and greatest gear. I may be able to squat more because of a squat suit, but I know that I won’t hit 400 (my goal for now) without busting my ass and making myself stronger.

The gear can only take you so far.

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[quote]aaronm wrote:
That does not make sense to me. If they are moving a heavier weight than they are physically putting up more weight.
[/quote]
Are you kidding me with this quote?

And who are you to say if it is the actual strength of the man pushing the weight up or if it is the equipment assisting him. Look at the obvious huge difference between the raw and geared numbers. There is no way to quantify which one played a bigger role every time someone breaks a record and uses different equipment. I don’t care to keep track of what kind of suit someone was wearing to a given competition or if it was the nth time someone wore a certain suit to comptete so they got more efficient at getting more weight out of the suit. bottom line is these guys are the strongest in the world at those lifts and that’s it. laters pk

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[quote]Weminuche wrote:
The best analogy to me is cycling vs running. Running has always been around just as lifting heavy objects has always been there.

One day someone invents the bicycle. A guy hops on goes a mile in 2 minutes. We now have a new sport.

Go ahead and invent all sorts of contraptions to help people lift more. It could be pretty cool and exciting. Just make it a new sport and call if something something appropriate…like “assisted lifting.” [/quote]

wisdom

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Surely the best analogy is that of running.

70 years ago, runners wore heavy leather spikes and ran on cinder tracks. They did 11+ sec for the 100m.

Today they wear ultra light shoes and run on rebound surfaces.

Can you compare athletes from different eras? Was Carl Lewis better than Jesse Owens - his times were certainly lower.

Can you compare formula 1 track times from the 1960s with today? Does that make today’s drivers better?

Obviously the answer is no to both questions.

Why? Because the sports involve both body (or skill) and technology.

The bodies haven’t changed at the basic level (although, of course, training has changed significantly). The technology has.

With powerlifting there is the unusual situation that you can lift without technology or you can lift with technology - most of the time the sports change along with the technology (eg tennis or golf) rather than maintain a divide.

The two types of lifting are different activities. They cannot be compared. We can’t say a shirt adds 5lb or 200lb and so match it to a raw lift. We can’t even say that a shirt lift uses the same techniques as a raw lift. We can’t say a raw lifter will beat a shirted lifter (almost said 'shirt lifter . . ).

It seems to me, FWIW, that 2 versions of the sport have developed, with two records necessary. There is no point saying one version of the sport is wrong. Its just different. On the other hand, it needs to be acknowledged that there is a difference.

To hold the record in either is incredible.

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[quote]pkradgreek wrote:
And who are you to say if it is the actual strength of the man pushing the weight up or if it is the equipment assisting him. Look at the obvious huge difference between the raw and geared numbers.
[/quote]

The raw bench press record is 713 and I’d imagine if people cared about the raw bench press record (not to mention the injuries that go along with it) than it would be closer than it is.

But you are correct in saying that there is no way to quantify how much the gear helps, but it really does not matter because the man still has 1005lbs in his hands and is moving it on his own accord.