My gym is holding a bench your bw as many times as you can contest this week. I was just wondering what the best way to approach this is… Apply maximum force to every rep from the get go and move the bar as quickly as possible or go for more controlled reps. If it is relevant, I’m hoping to get between 20 and 25 reps.
Go as fast as you can get away with. After a certain amount of time your body actually starts struggling to continue repping weight almost regardless of what the weight is. The less time you have to spend performing each lift the more reps you should be able to get before you stat fatiguing badly.
^great advice. Also, don’t go first. Figure out what you can get away with. See if other guys are locking each rep, bouncing off the chest, bringing it all the way to the chest, letting their ass get off the bench, whatever. Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage just so you can say ‘yea he beat me but I had better form’.
I did strict pull ups in a pull up contest that allowed kipping one time, and I felt like an idiot afterward, because I had a decent chance at winning if I had used the loose rules to my advantage.
Its a week long contest and you can attempt it more than once. Its more a fun gym spirit thing. But still want to put in a good showing. I know the staff and the ass off the bench and bouncing seems to be a no go. Also touching the chest will be enforced. I can arch as much as i want though and my feet don’t have to be flat on the floor.
I don’t think I have a shot at winning but have a shot at getting my name on the leader board. There are a lot of serious competitors at this gym. My only advantage is only weighing about 150 haha. There is a 220 pound powerlifter that has a 4 plate + bench. Pretty amped to see him try this. Also there is an ifbb pro (Heinrich Vos). Interested to see what he can do.
Thanks for the advice, as fast as I can it is then Any opinions on doing this breathing squat style?
I would also suggest not going to complete fatigue before locking out at the top, take 2-3 deep breaths, and crank out a few more, then repeat. If you go until you are burning before getting the brief lockout pause, then you will struggle. When I have done 225 for 16 reps, I would knock out 8, pause, 3, pause, 2, pause, 2, pause, 1. If I push straight I fail sooner.
Jim Steel has advice on exactly this on his blog at Bas Barbell. I believe he has trained plenty of NFL guys for this exact same competition (with 225lbs) at the combine or whatever it is called.
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
Jim Steel has advice on exactly this on his blog at Bas Barbell. I believe he has trained plenty of NFL guys for this exact same competition (with 225lbs) at the combine or whatever it is called. [/quote]
Thanks for that. I am copying some of the article here for those who are interested:
“When doing the 225 test probably the most important factor is how FAST your move the bar. Show me someone who does 30-45 reps on the 225 test and I guarantee you they move those first 10-20 reps SUPER FAST!!! I’ve seen really strong guys who have high bench maxes not do well on the 225 test because they move the bar so dang slow. You should literally be thinking about throwing the bar off your chest every single rep.”
“When it comes to breathing you shouldn’t take a breath until you need to in my opinion. You want to get to 10-15 reps super fast and hopefully you won’t need to take a breath until then. At that point treat the weight like you are doing doubles (sets of 2). Take a huge breath in, do 2 reps and exhale, take another huge breath, do 2 reps and exhale; after you do a few reps like this you will need to treat the weight like doing sets of 1. Take a huge breath in, do a rep then exhale and continue on in this fashion until you reach failure.”
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha
I have little experience with training for something like this, but I know that I would NOT rep as fast as possibly can at first. Fast yes, but not speed work.
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing.
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing. [/quote]
I did a very easy triple with 85 before just to try make it feel lighter. will do a heavy single on thurs.
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing. [/quote]
Yeah, good advice. What is your best with repping 225?
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing. [/quote]
Yeah, good advice. What is your best with repping 225?
[/quote]
16, but haven’t tried it since Jan 4th. For about 3 months I did it om my 5/3/1 bench day after my main sets, and my best was always on my 1+ week because of dropping a greater weight from my main. I should try again since my 1RM is up a fair amount since then. I could probably hit 1-2 more reps now.
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing. [/quote]
Yeah, good advice. What is your best with repping 225?
[/quote]
16, but haven’t tried it since Jan 4th. For about 3 months I did it om my 5/3/1 bench day after my main sets, and my best was always on my 1+ week because of dropping a greater weight from my main. I should try again since my 1RM is up a fair amount since then. I could probably hit 1-2 more reps now. [/quote]
Thank god, I did 20 the other week. My ego couldn’t have taken the blow given that you weight 40% or so less than me. ha
I’m sure I could get 30 or so if I would actually train with sets higher than 3 once in a while.
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
I got 22 reps at 70kg, which puts me in joint 6th. lost my tightness on rep 16. Going to go for 25 on thurs which will put me in 4th. The top two guys did 75kgx45 and 95kgx40. The 95x40 was done after a 200kg bench. He said he stopped at 40 cause he didnt think anyone would beat it. he is going for 50 when he is fresh on thurs. Feeling pretty weak haha[/quote]
You should also work up to a heavy single before dropping back down to the rep weight. I should have mentioned that earlier. My best 225 for reps was 5 minutes after doing 315 for a double. That way more muscle units are firing. [/quote]
Yeah, good advice. What is your best with repping 225?
[/quote]
16, but haven’t tried it since Jan 4th. For about 3 months I did it om my 5/3/1 bench day after my main sets, and my best was always on my 1+ week because of dropping a greater weight from my main. I should try again since my 1RM is up a fair amount since then. I could probably hit 1-2 more reps now. [/quote]
Thank god, I did 20 the other week. My ego couldn’t have taken the blow given that you weight 40% or so less than me. ha
I’m sure I could get 30 or so if I would actually train with sets higher than 3 once in a while.[/quote]
I quit doing it because I felt it was becoming more of an endurance trainer than anything, which didn’t match my goals. I want to keep my focus under 8-10 reps for sure. But with nearly all rep ranges, I can go to the bench press max calculator at muscleandstrength and tell within 1 how many reps I can do at just about any weight. I weight 36% less than you, but I prefer to word it that you weigh 56% more than me. Seems more that way.
[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
Jim Steel has advice on exactly this on his blog at Bas Barbell. I believe he has trained plenty of NFL guys for this exact same competition (with 225lbs) at the combine or whatever it is called. [/quote]
Thanks for that. I am copying some of the article here for those who are interested:
“When doing the 225 test probably the most important factor is how FAST your move the bar. Show me someone who does 30-45 reps on the 225 test and I guarantee you they move those first 10-20 reps SUPER FAST!!! I’ve seen really strong guys who have high bench maxes not do well on the 225 test because they move the bar so dang slow. You should literally be thinking about throwing the bar off your chest every single rep.”
“When it comes to breathing you shouldn’t take a breath until you need to in my opinion. You want to get to 10-15 reps super fast and hopefully you won’t need to take a breath until then. At that point treat the weight like you are doing doubles (sets of 2). Take a huge breath in, do 2 reps and exhale, take another huge breath, do 2 reps and exhale; after you do a few reps like this you will need to treat the weight like doing sets of 1. Take a huge breath in, do a rep then exhale and continue on in this fashion until you reach failure.”[/quote]
This is how ive had my best showing. (225 reps, got 29 weighing 225) im not sure about the level of emphasis on the speed with “throwing the bar off your chest” but faster has been better. I dont take a breath til the 15th or so, then i did triples for a few, then doubles for a few, then singles til failure, so very similar.
In addition to this and whats been said, i think it should be mentioned that if you want to do well, train for specificity. My 1RM bench is probly 30-40 poinds more than when i got 225x29, but my best recent rep out at that weight was 24 or something. You can add some significant reps training for it specifically.
Iron_Made, Did you hit your 25 or more on Thurs?
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
Iron_Made, Did you hit your 25 or more on Thurs?[/quote]
Only hit 24.
Out of curiosity whatd the 220 PLer get?