[quote]FULLSTERKUR wrote:
Raw record is 713 by Scot Mendelson.
The only people in powerlifting who care about raw benching are the internet keyboard jockeys. In the real world, shirts rule, and all the lifters use them. Its part of the sport.
Aw, now come on now Mr. Lattimer. you are grouping all natural/raw lifters into nerdy keyboard jocks not true. but not why i wrote.
I would like to know what everybody views as the greatest accomplishment.
now i don’t want this to turn in to a bash fest of insecurities but is the Mendelson raw of 713 or the Gene’s 1005.
to me both very impressive in their own right because getting under a grand and lifting it is elite in the squat, no less the bench
and bench pressing 713 with out in shoulder protection and it not ripping his arms out of socket is pretty impressive.
could gene do more if he trained for a raw meet, could lattimer if he trained for only raw. they don’t want to of course, but why.
what is the raw and natural bench press record? not saying Mendelson’s 713 isn’t natural i just don’t know?
i as a raw lifter I am impressed by both but if i had to choose, i guess i would go with the grand. unfortunatley raw lifting isn’t respected too much. [/quote]
Didn’t mean to group everyone in that statement, buts it is very nearly the truth. Basically everyone in powerlifting uses equipment. The few who do not are by far a minority.
I have lifted raw before, I think I still have a WNPF raw record with a 550 bench. That was a couple months after my first 600 shirted bench.
If you take the world of powerlifitng as a whole, the few individuals who are against equpped lifting mostly only have a voice on the internet. The gigantic outcry of “shirts have gone too far” exists pretty much only on the internet.
Scot’s 713 is impressive, it would be even more impressive if he could lift much more than that in a shirt. He can’t even get 200 out of a shirt, he doesn’t have the technical ability for it.
Gene has the technical ability to do 1005. Very impressive.
I look at it this way. It is actually pretty easy these days to gain strength. There are vast resources out there for strength training knowledge, nutrition, suppliments, drugs, etc. Its not all that hard to get strong.
However, to become incredible technically adept at a learnd skill, i.e., shirted benching, is much more difficult. It is a painstaking process, and very few people are adept enough to teach others properly. Even fewer have the tenacity to fail hundreds of times and keep trying and learning to perfect the technique.
Gene has perfected the technique, and can handle weights that so far, nobody else can touch. I find that impressive.