[quote]strongmanvinny wrote:
I’ve had little injuries from benching too intensively with my arch. I remember feeling trigger points in my quad and low back due to it. I know myself and a lot of elite benchers use a technique where they keep their feet out towards in front of them using their heels to dig into the floor as opposed to feet back and using the ball of your foot to generate power. Might lose some arch integrity, but the arch is overrated. Especially when you’re grinding discs because of it.[/quote]
I’m actually much stronger with less arch. But arching super fucking hard is literally the only way I can keep my butt on the bench with any degree of certainty 
8/3/2014
I did a bodybuilding day in honor of my training partner Chia (BCPowder) who won best overall men’s physique in the Knoxville Classic yesterday. Big show, close to 40 competitors in the men’s physique open contest, packed auditorium. Chia beat a LOT of very good competitors, some pretty fucking jacked dudes up there. But he came in leaner than everyone, with the sickest v-taper, and with a back that was in a league of its own and ended up taking the overall win. Was pretty fucking radical.
Anyway, that was my first time watching a bodybuilding/physique/figure/bikini and so forth show, and afterwards I wanted to do arms so hard, so that’s what we did today.
Did some flat bench
Grabbed 70’s and did AMRAP at every setting on the incline bench from fully upright to flat.
Did 10 sets of 10 pullups superset with dips. We switched off on these back and forth with literally almost no rest. (I had to drop down to only 6 or 8 pullups after like the 6th round or so though).
Did supersets of barbell curls and super close grip bench, no rest at all, just going back and forth. Did I think 4 sets going up 10lbs every time on curls and 20lbs every time on close grip and then did all 4 sets back down. Up to 15 reps per set if possible. Went down to 10 after a few.
Did 10 sets of 10 of supersetted facepulls, rope pushdowns, and cable curls. No rest, just going from one station to the next.
I’ll bet your skin was about to rip from the pump!
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
I’ll bet your skin was about to rip from the pump![/quote]
It still is lol.
8/4/2014
Squat (beltless):
45 10x
135 5x
225 5x
285 3x
285 7x
285 4x
285 6x
285 2x paused
Bench (touch and go):
45 10x
135 10x
185 5x
225 5x
275 10x PR
Paused Bench:
265 4x
265 4x
265 4x
265 4x
Not too displeased with a tng PR the day after I annihilate my chest and arms with Chia, espeically with my pressing frequency. Anyway fun’s over I guess. I need to get back to pausing and painful arching. It’s funny how much stronger I am with a regular stance and less arch, but I just can’t guarantee my butt won’t come up. The only way I can make sure that doesn’t happen is to go back to doing the ol’ ankle lock arch haha.
It seems like it’d be more beneficial to practice keeping your butt down instead of going back to the “painful arch” since you’re stronger that way. I’m not trying to tell you what to do or anything, it just seems like it’d be more effective to me.
Enjoy your log!! A workout of few movements but you beat the hell out of them with volume! You and Loftearmen inspired me to buy an ab wheel today!
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Enjoy your log!! A workout of few movements but you beat the hell out of them with volume! You and Loftearmen inspired me to buy an ab wheel today![/quote]
Awesome dude. Thank you for tagging along! The more the merrier.
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
It seems like it’d be more beneficial to practice keeping your butt down instead of going back to the “painful arch” since you’re stronger that way. I’m not trying to tell you what to do or anything, it just seems like it’d be more effective to me.[/quote]
Well… There’s some backstory here.
This is what I have always tried in the past (for like the last two years) and thus far I’ve been relatively unsuccessful. I’ll have sets that look great, but it has been extremely inconsistent to the point where it’s basically a coin flip whether or not my butt stays down. This has resulted in me never getting anything more than my bench opener at a meet. I’m just desperate at this point to find something I can reliably get passed so that I can put up a decent bench that’s actually reflective of my strength rather than some token opener crap lift.
Ideally though you are completely correct. It’s just that I’ve been hurt before Loftearmen. The pain is deep hahaha!
8/6/2014
My schedule is a bit off here, because it’s likely I won’t be able to make it to the gym tomorrow. Given that I’ve missed maybe two training sessions in the last three years, that in and of itself should key you in to how busy work is at the moment lol. It’s been a bit of a nightmarish week work wise, and I’ve gotten way behind.
Deadlift (beltless):
135 10x
225 5x
315 3x
405 1x
455 1x
495 1x probably my smoothest and easiest beltless 500 pull
405 5x
405 5x
405 5x
405 5x
Paused Bench:
45 10x
135 10x
185 5x
225 5x
275 3x
275 3x
295 2x
295 2x
315 1x
315 1x
275 2x
275 2x
Okay Loftearmen I did try my old form (which feels the best) again today to see if I could get the pause without my butt coming up. I had a couple mishaps, but on the whole I was surprised with how much better it was than in the past. The two best powerlifters in the gym (one of which is lilpower) were there getting on to me (in a good way) about tightness and setup and such which helped a lot. The key is tightness. If I’m even the tiniest bit loose with that setup my butt will lift off the bench 100% of the time.
I don’t want to get my hopes up yet, but I will give this one more go, because I can’t say that today went poorly.
Here’s a little benching from today:
Don’t mind the calf cramp…
Benches are looking good, brother! You use a lot of foot drive which I’m sure makes it harder to keep your arse down.
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
Benches are looking good, brother! You use a lot of foot drive which I’m sure makes it harder to keep your arse down.[/quote]
Yea my training partner said the other day “your butt isn’t just coming up by default, at some point your brain is telling it to!” Which obviously is true, but it’s just such an ingrained movement lol. Those are fine, but you can see that my ass is hanging on there by a thread sometimes.
I believe there are some lower body mobility improvements I can make that will help as well.
[quote]csulli wrote:
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
Benches are looking good, brother! You use a lot of foot drive which I’m sure makes it harder to keep your arse down.[/quote]
Yea my training partner said the other day “your butt isn’t just coming up by default, at some point your brain is telling it to!” Which obviously is true, but it’s just such an ingrained movement lol. Those are fine, but you can see that my ass is hanging on there by a thread sometimes.
I believe there are some lower body mobility improvements I can make that will help as well.[/quote]
Maybe you could do some assistance lifts that focus on pressing without foot drive as well like floor presses and narrow grip incline presses. It seems like if you were able to press more without foot drive it wouldn’t be as necessary. Just my $.02.
Made 315 look like a baby weight! With all of the overhead pressing you have done, have you noticed any carryover in a positive or negative way to your bench press?
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Made 315 look like a baby weight! With all of the overhead pressing you have done, have you noticed any carryover in a positive or negative way to your bench press?[/quote]
Honestly no 
I wish it did, but the only thing I think I notice from the overhead pressing is improved shoulder health, which is important of course. So that indirectly allows me to train bench better, but I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten any direct strength carryover.
[quote]csulli wrote:
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Made 315 look like a baby weight! With all of the overhead pressing you have done, have you noticed any carryover in a positive or negative way to your bench press?[/quote]
Honestly no
I wish it did, but the only thing I think I notice from the overhead pressing is improved shoulder health, which is important of course. So that indirectly allows me to train bench better, but I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten any direct strength carryover.[/quote]
I haven’t either, of course my bench sucks! As I was getting stronger with overhead pressing my bench wasn’t moving with it. A friend of mine at the gym said at the rate I’m going my strict press will surpass my bench. Not a compliment on my overhead pressing but more of a diss on my bench pressing!
[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
Maybe you could do some assistance lifts that focus on pressing without foot drive as well like floor presses and narrow grip incline presses. It seems like if you were able to press more without foot drive it wouldn’t be as necessary. Just my $.02.
[/quote]
But that would mean I would actually have to get stronger…
Anything but that!
8/8/2014
Squat (beltless):
45 10x
135 10x
225 5x
275 5x
315 4x
315 4x
315 4x
315 4x
Paused Bench:
45 10x
95 10x
135 10x
185 5x
225 5x
255 3x
285 4x
285 4x
285 4x
285 4x
First set:
