He was actually claiming to be natural for a long time, some time last year he even posted the results from a blood test because people online were talking shit. All I know is that he wasn’t making progress at this rate a while back, so maybe he really was clean up to a certain point before starting to cycle and upping the dosage and such. There is no logical explanation for any of this, so I don’t really know what to think.
Just imagine you have a guy who is a real freak of nature and can bench over 600 weighing 350 or so and natural, and then he gains 50-60lbs and goes all out with the supplements, and on top of that has a way above average response to them. How much could he bench?
790 lb miss. Not super far off but getting there in 3 weeks is a bit of an ask I think. Could’ve set the event up as World Record Bench Press attempt vs 800 lb attempt
Whether he breaks 800 or not is definitely up in the air based on that video, but he could EASILY set a new ATWR. If I’m not mistaken his current record is 760? That’s a 790 lb miss that I don’t feel was that far off and could’ve just as easily been “misgrooved” (as opposed to just not being strong enough). And if he was truly fatigued from the training block/prep/peak, a good deload might be exactly what he needs to hit 800 lbs. and drugs or no drugs, 800 is stupid impressive.
He never takes more than 2 attempts in a meet these days, his coach Josh Bryant says that’s all he has in him. With the kind of weights he’s moving, you can be sure that every attempt takes a lot out of him.
Opening with a world record and then taking a 20lb jump doesn’t really sound like a good plan, but neither does failing 790 a few weeks out so we will see what happens. One meet is not really a big deal, the main thing is he’s still making progress and if he can keep it going then he should have 800 soon enough.
He missed Sarychevs WR quite a few times in the past before and was ok but weights even heavier now so I imagine failing has always been relatively risky.
Yeah, remember they almost killed him at Boss of Bosses. But people have been crushed by even bigger weights and lived, like when Blaine Sumner failed something around 1000lbs (equipped obviously) and the spotters didn’t catch it in time. He got bruised up but nothing broke at least.
He dumps the weight on himself all the time anyway because that’s his bench style no worries.
I’m more worried about something in his elbow shoulder or pressing muscles going pop. He tries to grind thru his fails stalls with 800lb as his muscles fail, one arm locking out uneven, bar rotating and other structures have to try not to explode.
Using Wendler’s formula, his 2 reps alone would equal a 773lb bench. 3 reps would be 797lbs. But I have no idea how accurate that is when you’re lifting weights that heavy, haha.
If the calculator uses the same formula for all lifts it is probably low on something like bench in which you don’t lift your bodyweight too. A 200 lb man that has a max squat of 500, is still lifting his BW, so a 400 lb lift is actually a higher percentage than 80%. How much of the BW you want to count is a bit fuzzy to me, but it seems reasonable to consider some of that BW in the lift when considering what percentage you actually lift.
I find the calculators work out for me on the lower body lifts, but overestimate the upper body lifts which don’t involve lifting my BW.
