Road to a 405 Raw Bench

Training Powerlifting
81

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
I just get in there and lift. I probably identify myself more with bodybuilding than powerlifting, but a huge focus of mine is getting as strong as possible. In general though, I go in and and ramp up to a top set on bench and incline (or derivatives of those, but they’re my favorites) once or twice a week, shooting for 4-8 reps generally. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes I go in and hit some heavy doubles, triples, whatever, and occasionally I’ll see where my max is at.

But generally, I stick in the 4-8 rep range. Has worked for me so far. (I’m 21 years old, 6’1", and ~230lbs btw)[/quote]

You’ve made really good progress since we’ve first talked 2 years or so ago… Depending on your goals I can see you get up to 495 for reps in a few more years…

Good luck with your arm spec, keep me posted on that… Watched the vids, looking good and no worries about the weak points now, you put in a half year up to a year of specialization for each and you’ll be good brother.

82

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
I just get in there and lift. I probably identify myself more with bodybuilding than powerlifting, but a huge focus of mine is getting as strong as possible. In general though, I go in and and ramp up to a top set on bench and incline (or derivatives of those, but they’re my favorites) once or twice a week, shooting for 4-8 reps generally. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes I go in and hit some heavy doubles, triples, whatever, and occasionally I’ll see where my max is at.

But generally, I stick in the 4-8 rep range. Has worked for me so far. (I’m 21 years old, 6’1", and ~230lbs btw)[/quote]

You’ve made really good progress since we’ve first talked 2 years or so ago… Depending on your goals I can see you get up to 495 for reps in a few more years…

Good luck with your arm spec, keep me posted on that… Watched the vids, looking good and no worries about the weak points now, you put in a half year up to a year of specialization for each and you’ll be good brother.[/quote]

I really do owe it to you man, you got my head in the right place and everything else has started to fall into place little by little. That first talk about a year and a half ago really kicked my butt, haha.

495 for reps would be awesome some time before 30 years old (9 years).

Regarding the arm specialization, I used the principles from that John Roman article, coupled with talking with some of the BOI guys, and did something for 5 weeks that worked pretty well and put half an inch on the guns. Definitely looking “fuller” all around, especially in the biceps. Tris… well, they just need lots and lots of work. Playing with some new approaches to tricep training and we will see what happens. Arms are up to 17.5 inches, btw.

Anyways, not to derail the thread with this homosexual bodybuilding drivel, lol, but I’ll be watching this thread to see you guys nail that 405. It feels pretty fuckin badass.

83

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
I just get in there and lift. I probably identify myself more with bodybuilding than powerlifting, but a huge focus of mine is getting as strong as possible. In general though, I go in and and ramp up to a top set on bench and incline (or derivatives of those, but they’re my favorites) once or twice a week, shooting for 4-8 reps generally. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes I go in and hit some heavy doubles, triples, whatever, and occasionally I’ll see where my max is at.

But generally, I stick in the 4-8 rep range. Has worked for me so far. (I’m 21 years old, 6’1", and ~230lbs btw)[/quote]

You’ve made really good progress since we’ve first talked 2 years or so ago… Depending on your goals I can see you get up to 495 for reps in a few more years…

Good luck with your arm spec, keep me posted on that… Watched the vids, looking good and no worries about the weak points now, you put in a half year up to a year of specialization for each and you’ll be good brother.[/quote]

I really do owe it to you man, you got my head in the right place and everything else has started to fall into place little by little. That first talk about a year and a half ago really kicked my butt, haha.

495 for reps would be awesome some time before 30 years old (9 years).

Regarding the arm specialization, I used the principles from that John Roman article, coupled with talking with some of the BOI guys, and did something for 5 weeks that worked pretty well and put half an inch on the guns. Definitely looking “fuller” all around, especially in the biceps. Tris… well, they just need lots and lots of work. Playing with some new approaches to tricep training and we will see what happens. Arms are up to 17.5 inches, btw.

Anyways, not to derail the thread with this homosexual bodybuilding drivel, lol, but I’ll be watching this thread to see you guys nail that 405. It feels pretty fuckin badass.[/quote]

Damn Carnage, I wish I had a talk with you two years ago so I could bench 405 now…why don’t you have a chat with me now!? haha. Great job bugeisha on the 405, if you can push that weight I don’t care if you’re a bodybuider or powerlifter, that’s impressive bro. Especially at 21, I’m the same age as you and have a 375 bench. Great work guys. Seriously though, what the hell kind of talk did you guys have?

84

[quote]tarheeliron wrote:

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
I just get in there and lift. I probably identify myself more with bodybuilding than powerlifting, but a huge focus of mine is getting as strong as possible. In general though, I go in and and ramp up to a top set on bench and incline (or derivatives of those, but they’re my favorites) once or twice a week, shooting for 4-8 reps generally. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes I go in and hit some heavy doubles, triples, whatever, and occasionally I’ll see where my max is at.

But generally, I stick in the 4-8 rep range. Has worked for me so far. (I’m 21 years old, 6’1", and ~230lbs btw)[/quote]

You’ve made really good progress since we’ve first talked 2 years or so ago… Depending on your goals I can see you get up to 495 for reps in a few more years…

Good luck with your arm spec, keep me posted on that… Watched the vids, looking good and no worries about the weak points now, you put in a half year up to a year of specialization for each and you’ll be good brother.[/quote]

I really do owe it to you man, you got my head in the right place and everything else has started to fall into place little by little. That first talk about a year and a half ago really kicked my butt, haha.

495 for reps would be awesome some time before 30 years old (9 years).

Regarding the arm specialization, I used the principles from that John Roman article, coupled with talking with some of the BOI guys, and did something for 5 weeks that worked pretty well and put half an inch on the guns. Definitely looking “fuller” all around, especially in the biceps. Tris… well, they just need lots and lots of work. Playing with some new approaches to tricep training and we will see what happens. Arms are up to 17.5 inches, btw.

Anyways, not to derail the thread with this homosexual bodybuilding drivel, lol, but I’ll be watching this thread to see you guys nail that 405. It feels pretty fuckin badass.[/quote]

Damn Carnage, I wish I had a talk with you two years ago so I could bench 405 now…why don’t you have a chat with me now!? haha. Great job bugeisha on the 405, if you can push that weight I don’t care if you’re a bodybuider or powerlifter, that’s impressive bro. Especially at 21, I’m the same age as you and have a 375 bench. Great work guys. Seriously though, what the hell kind of talk did you guys have?
[/quote]

Honestly bro, basically what he told me was I need to get my shit straight and decide how i want to train and not piddle paddling in this and that. If i wanna be big and strong and look like a bodybuilder then I better fucking train like one. So yeah, it’s been for the best.

On a side note, and to brag a little, I hit 365 for 3 reps, plus 1 forced rep, today. I was pretty stoked.

85

Well, no great news to report, maxed out today and got 380 pretty easily. (+5 lbs PR) Jumped up to 405 to give it a shot since I felt good, and got it a little off the chest then nothing. Looking back I definitely should have gone for more than 380 on that set, it was my last good explosive set and I know I was good for at least 5 more lbs if not ten. I tried 390 after failing 405 but I was blowed up. Anyone else got any news?

86

On a side note, my squat has gone up 60 lbs in a little over a month, I got 515 on Tuesday. First ever 500+ squat. And my deadlift has gone up 20 ish lbs in the same time frame, got 545 on Tues. I know these aren’t bench, but my bench isn’t moving much so figured I’d throw it out there.

87

Damn dude, pretty big squat. Got me beat there. I think the best I’ve ever done is 425 x 3 ATG, Probably putting me around 450 or so max. Need to step my game up.

I got 365 for 4 reps + 1 forced rep yesterday. Was pretty damn happy about that. Will go for another max before I leave for Japan in about 7 weeks. Hoping for like 415 or so.

Biggest dead I’ve pulled is 565 with some left in the tank.

88

Nice, good job on the bench reps! Get 415 or more before you leave! Yeah I pulled 545 after my squat max and jumped to 585, didn’t try anything in between. lol

89

great work tarheeliron…at that rate the SRC is going to run out of weights for you to lift.

90

Thanks bro I appreicate it! Haha I hope the SRC runs out eventually, hopefully I won’t hit too big of a wall here soon.

91

I love this thread! my bench is 335lbs now and I’m also aiming for a 405lbs PR. I remember when I was younger I tought that someone benching 300 pounds was a fucking beast and now im here going for 400+ like all of you guys and that is very ecxiting! I have to say also that I found easier breaking the 300lbs barrier than breaking 225, this might be due to the fact that you get more experienced and you know better what works or not for you and you also develop a much better technique than when benching 225, any tought on that?? But hey im following this thread very closely and btw sorry if my english is not perfect.

92

I would just like to say that this is an AWESOME thread that deserves bumping. Though I’m nowhere near 405, some of the advice here really helped me plow through a plateau! I’ve been doing 5/3/1, and my estimated bench has been stuck at ~235 for a while, and, per Hanley and Rasturai’s (sp) advice, I threw in some more frequent heavy lifting, and I managed to get 210 for 6 where I only got 190 for 7 2 weeks ago. Maraudermeat’s bench videos taught me some technique too.

tl;dr: nothing to add, but this thread rocks.

93

Pressed 385 paused in competition on the 30th of jan… and I still had some pounds left in me. Unfortunately, it was my final attempt. In retrospect, I should have set up for a touch and go 405 attempt on a side bench, lol.

I don’t think I’ll be hitting 405 anytime soon though;I weighed in at 194 at the meet w/o any dehydration and am going to work on getting down a weight class (or two) for the next meet… this summer perhaps. If I can maintain my strength through that I’ll be plenty happy.

94

[quote]ALKoHoLiK wrote:
DoubleDuce, holy shit bro that is awesome.

You really exploded off your fucking chest with that.[/quote]

he did right? fkn impressive pause right there. real strength. not like the poons who lift at my gym and bounce the shit out of the bar.

95

Here is my first successful comp 405 from this past weekend… this was second attempt… got 425 on my 3rd, which was a 30lbs PR… working on getting that video up on my HUB page

96

That’s a nice clean bench, jerkwad.

I’m in the hunt for 405 myself, hit a PR paused 375 tonight with enough speed to get another 5 lb. I’d love to hit it in a meet in May/June.

97

[quote]jerkwad55 wrote:
Here is my first successful comp 405 from this past weekend… this was second attempt… got 425 on my 3rd, which was a 30lbs PR… working on getting that video up on my HUB page[/quote]

yoo jerkwad55 i might be completely off here but was this meet in vermont last saturday??? I recognize the backround. if so, i was there! Random considering i go to school at Umass, but i wanted to check out my first powerlifting meet because i am competing on the 27th.

awesome bench!

98

[quote]Cronus wrote:

[quote]jerkwad55 wrote:
Here is my first successful comp 405 from this past weekend… this was second attempt… got 425 on my 3rd, which was a 30lbs PR… working on getting that video up on my HUB page[/quote]

yoo jerkwad55 i might be completely off here but was this meet in vermont last saturday??? I recognize the backround. if so, i was there! Random considering i go to school at Umass, but i wanted to check out my first powerlifting meet because i am competing on the 27th.

awesome bench![/quote]

Yes it was… I was impressed with the gym and number of people there considering it was kind of off the beaten path. Good luck at your meet… my only advice is open light.

99

Thought I’d resurrect this thread. Anybody getting closer? I did 335x5 and 350x3 today, and both sets were pretty easy. I think I can get 405x3 before the end of the year, but I’ll be happy to be back to 405 for one in the near future.

100

I got 325 x 10 last week. I’ll probably be going for in again week after next.