I had my 1st meet on saturday and I was a little disappointed at my performance. I’ve been lifting about 18 months and the most I’ve benched in the gym (nonpaused) is 315. I’m only doing bench in the meets because my ACL is torn and I got a herniated disc. Anyhow, I chose my 3 weights 245, 275, and 300. 275 felt like cake so I figured 300 would be no big deal. I barely even budged the 300. So I was hoping you guys can help me out by looking at the video.
My main problem is I didn’t feel warmed up between lifts. There were 12 guys in my flight so about 12-15 minutes between lifts. I warmed up in the gym before lifts so I felt good for 245 and even a little for 275. But by the time I came up for 300, I was cold. When I max out in the gym its about 3-5 minutes between lifts.
How do you guys stay warm between attempts? The guy who ran the meet recommended against lifting between contest lifts so I went with his advice.
Also, do you guys see any problem with my form? I know I lack leg drive. I kind of lost it since I tore my ACL in September but I think its strong enough to try and get the leg drive back.
Overall it was a great experience and I plan on doing more in the future. Here are the lifts:
Congratulations on getting out there. You’re right, the 275 looked like a warm-up.
As for thoughts on the 300 miss, I’ll be interested in other people’s thoughts, but here’s what came to my mind:
1- Get a lift-off. You’re expending a lot of energy unracking and getting the bar into position. You also loose tightness (I train alone so I’m very aware of this).
2- Tightness. Can’t really tell from the video (and I don’t know how the disc and ACL affect it) but you don’t look tight at all. Retract scapula etc.
3- Once you unrack the weight (ideally by someone else) let it sink in for a couple seconds.
Hope the ACL and disc heal up soon.
EDIT: As for the warm-up. I’d say nexct time as you approach a competition, set up your training similar to competition a few times.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Congratulations on getting out there. You’re right, the 275 looked like a warm-up.
As for thoughts on the 300 miss, I’ll be interested in other people’s thoughts, but here’s what came to my mind:
1- Get a lift-off. You’re expending a lot of energy unracking and getting the bar into position. You also loose tightness (I train alone so I’m very aware of this).
2- Tightness. Can’t really tell from the video (and I don’t know how the disc and ACL affect it) but you don’t look tight at all. Retract scapula etc.
3- Once you unrack the weight (ideally by someone else) let it sink in for a couple seconds.
Hope the ACL and disc heal up soon.
EDIT: As for the warm-up. I’d say nexct time as you approach a competition, set up your training similar to competition a few times. [/quote]
Thanks for the tips. I train alone 90% of the time, so I usually don’t get lift offs. It kind of throws my timing off. But I’m starting to realize how important it is as the weight gets heavier. The disc doesn’t affect my bench at all. If I don’t look tight in the vid it’s because I’m fucking up. I’m getting surgery on the ACL soon so that should be good by next year.
This will help you more than anything we can say here in writing. Nice strength, if you get your technique down better I have no doubt you are good for well over 300 competition style.
Thanks for the link Vikings. I’m gonna work on getting my leg drive back. It was a big part of my lifting before the ACL injury and I think it’s responsible for at least 20 lbs off my PR.
You don’t have an arch, it doesn’t look like the weight is on your traps. There is no leg drive. Your wrist look bent back and not straight up and down
I think once that ACL is better, you will make 300 look like the 275
The main thought I would impart is that some lifters smoke a weight, then you add 10#'s and they get smashed. They either smoke it or get buried.
The converse of that is what I call the grinder. Their lifts almost never look fast and they can grind weight most people would eat.
25#'s is almost a 10% jump. Add the pause to that and it’s really a pretty big deal.
Getting a lift off would certainly help and in the absence of being able to affect true leg drive (due to injury) I would state you need to tighten up quite a bit from the waist down.
I guess I wouldn’t sweat it too much. The reality of things is if you have ever watched Coan or Bridges bench they are both flat backed benchers and give the appearance of having minimal leg drive and it obviously works very well for them.
Just work on tightening up and keep getting stronger.