Im 6’5’’ (270 lbs, so not skinny…) and see a dramatic difference in my pushing and pulling strength, - and have a hard time increasing the pushing…this goes for both upper (bench press) and lower body (squats).
I havent tested 1RM on anything but squats (needed that for Coach Davies “Nitro Squat program”), but here are some numbers to compare
Full back squat 185 lbs (1RM)
Full front squat 165 lbs (1RM)
Bench press 180 lbsx3
Romanian deadlift 225x4 (last workout, can be increased)
Sumo deads 270+ lbs x4 (last spring, havent done in a while)
Waterbury walks 240+ lbs x4 (last spring, havent done in a while)
Am I just destined to be weak in pushing, stronger in pulling or is there anyway of targeting this smartly…? Any kind of special “Tall Guy” training I can do ?
how long you been training? no one is built only for certain things… if you are tall, long arms etc, you have to move the bar way further than a smaller guy with shorter arms… so that 185 you are doing is impressive, you are still applying alot of force to the bar. same goes with the squat.
how long you been training for though?
im no genious, but for bench i would work alot on partial movements, like, on bench day do: full bench and a partial range bench (ie lockouts), do lockouts from 3 inches, then 6 inches, then … etc… this worked wonders for me, more than anything it built my confidence up 100%, when i started moving alot in my lockouts my bench went up, bigtime… and i am ‘tall’ 6’1…
also overhead pressing helps the bench alot, so you can do the same thing for overhead press + overhead press lockouts…
and besides that ! speed work and starting strength benching/squating really helped me.
just keep working real hard at those lifts, working them from different angles/distances, and you will overcome the tall-man disorder
well, i only box squat, but i box squat heavy and box squat with speed. i also do some quarter squats with 10x heavier poundage than i can box squat.
on squat day i usually do smt like:
low rep box speed squats followed by
many low rep heavy box squats sometimes followed by heavy ass quarter squats…
every other week i usually try to throw in some high rep box squats (or “breathing squats”), man i learned these breathing squats from dinosaur training book… first time i did them i almost
puked
collapsed
and i couldnt workout/run/straighten my legs for 4 days! hehe
anyway, westside/alot of successful lifters do those things, and its definitly worked for me… westside always shows them doing ‘3 board press’ or ‘2 board press’ or ‘1 board press’, close grip lockouts, floor press, etc… working the bench from all different distances/angles… it can be applied to everything
