I have a feisty little friend who got a bench shirt to use as an accessory exercise for his unequipped bench, a la Jack Reape’s recent article. I can see the value of it as far as overload, but wouldn’t it make as much sense to just do a three board or a four board instead?
I guess what I really want to know is if we’re going to get appreciable carryover from shirt work or if we’re just going to get better at shirt work.
You may have to learn the shirt a little bit, but it is a definite different feel to board pressing. I have an F6 and never really had to do much to learn that, until it was put on properly and that’s a completely different ballgame. If you intend to compete in the future i wouldn’t say it was a bad idea to learn, if you don’t want to, for much cheaper you could get a set of bands and do reverse band pressing and get similar overload at the lockout without all of the questions from your girlfriend about the strange bruising patterns you have all over your body.
reverse band work makes far more sense to me.
Benching in a shirt to improve ones raw bench makes little sense to me, try raw boards, bench with chains our reverse bands.
It’s different to a board, and stops you changing you bench technique to get bigger weight with a board press.
I think its OK if you have a very loose shirt, but a tight shirt will kinda kill everything you’re after. Make sure you can keep in your normal groove and your timing off the chest is the same as raw.
Not trying to jack this thread, but is board work alright to do even with people who aren’t pushing huge numbers? or would I get more benefit from just regular benching? stupid question, but I’m curious.
I’ve actually been doing reverse band as my second exercise and I like it. I especially like how it doesn’t beat up my elbows and shoulder like board press.
i likes training in a shirt, best back off. i also do reverse bands or regular bands and some board work, then end on some shirted lifts for a more extreme overload since my shirt adds about 130lbs to my bench, it’s helped with stabilizer muscles,
tri strength and part mental when i do regular bench and the weight feels extremely light, i had some reservations at first also, didn’t seem to make much sense to train equipped for raw lifting, but there are articles advocating such, even though it seems counter intuitive at first. hate hate hate, clown clown clown, show charlie murphy yo titties
Isn’t the question; Does Jack Reape know what the hell he’s talking about? Check the stats, he does. Expert advice will make you stronger. “Internet Gurus” will not.
[quote]Kulturkampf wrote:
Not trying to jack this thread, but is board work alright to do even with people who aren’t pushing huge numbers? or would I get more benefit from just regular benching? stupid question, but I’m curious.[/quote]
I wouldn’t do it as a main lift, but as accessory work, why not. The people I train with who are newer (ie benching <275lbs raw) often do something like a 5x5 on full ROM bench. Then work up to a 3rm on a 2 or 3 board. A newer lifter can handle pretty good volume since they are not very efficient.
[quote]Kulturkampf wrote:
Not trying to jack this thread, but is board work alright to do even with people who aren’t pushing huge numbers? or would I get more benefit from just regular benching? stupid question, but I’m curious.
[/quote]
If you’re interested in getting into gear in the near future, you’re going to want to work on getting the top end of your bench stronger.
If you’re just looking for a bigger raw bench, I’d say play around a little and see what happens.
Just a little about my experience, take from it what you will:
I finally got back to doing my “DE bench” day consistently over the past 2 months but did things a little different. I started cycling a few weeks of floor press (usually with chains) with a few weeks of speed work.
After all the floor pressing, the last weight I take in warm ups before getting into my shirt went from 1, maybe 2 reps if I was feeling really feisty, to 4 easy reps. A few were a little slow off the chest, but I blasted right through them from about 2/3 of the way up.
Lol oh Scoops, you so thug. I kinda wanna try benching with a shirt as I have never tried it, I might try yours on if it will fit later this week just to see what I can hit, and what it feels like.
[quote]Kulturkampf wrote:
Not trying to jack this thread, but is board work alright to do even with people who aren’t pushing huge numbers? or would I get more benefit from just regular benching? stupid question, but I’m curious.[/quote]
Not a stupid question.
I just recently started training with guys who ARE moving obscene amounts of weight, and I do the same thing’s they do, just with way less weight. My strength has increased quite a bit in just a few weeks.
Plus, board work is a good way to get your body used to handling weights heavier than what your max is.
[quote]Island Strength wrote:
Isn’t the question; Does Jack Reape know what the hell he’s talking about? Check the stats, he does. Expert advice will make you stronger. “Internet Gurus” will not.[/quote]
Excellent point!