Ryan Kennelly's 1074 Bench Press, New World Record

Training Powerlifting
41

Well, you can quarterback and what if this to death but the simple fact remains that the squat and benchpress are potentially dangerous lifts at heavy load. I’ve been on the platform spotting when someone lost an 800lb squat. At these heavier weights, you’re asking alot of anyone to catch it. He just dumped forward, with no warning. Took himself, the weight and the monolift almost into the laps of those sitting in the first row.

My point is this; it’s time to come up with some spotting devices for bench and squat. With restrictions and logistical problems of spotting v. blocking the judge’s view v. the amount of weight involved sometimes (who the hell has real experience catching 800lbs for instance in the squat, as a team???!!), it’s high time for these lifts to be performed in some protective cage with pins. I’m thinking of a “floating” type pin that rises with the lift and is unobstructive at the bottom of the lifts. I have no idea how to engineer it, but it should be done.

Straining a muscle, blowing a ligamenet or joint, etc. is all risk of competing to your individual limits; however, risking serious injury and maybe death shouldn’t be part of the risk when it is easily preventable with a suitable device.

Just my .02 …

42

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
These are numbers these people are not capable of without the equipment they’re using, and at some point there’s gonna be a limit to what the most heavy duty shirt can realisticlly take. I was wondering what those more knowledgeable than myself think that number might be, or are we gonna have to witness a horrible situation before the answer is known?[/quote]

Really, even though geared lifting has been going on for years now, up until 10 years ago or so, it wasn’t all that advanced. I would say that rapid changes have been made the past 5 or 6 years just from materials and designs and I actually think we’re just on the cusp of what’s to come.

Within the past 2 or 3 years, guys are starting to train in gear almost exclusively and the numbers are moving up fast. They’re just on the front end of figuring out how to train in it, so I think Kennelly will hit 1100 and probably 1200 real soon. We’ll probably see a 3000 total at some point too.

We’re just at the start…I don’t think anybody really knows where the limits are yet.

43

[quote]Dominator wrote:
We’re just at the start…I don’t think anybody really knows where the limits are yet.
[/quote]

Probably when they start allowing you to squat and bench in a smith machine! I’ve used gear, but as you can probably tell from my snide remark, I’m not much of a fan of it any longer.

There was a time when the line was somewhat blurred between a geared lift and “assisted”. Now the line is obliterated with lifters getting several hundred pounds from gear. When it gets to that point, as it has, I challenge you to tell me the difference between the current gear and just doing the lift on a smith machine.

44

[quote] Matt wrote:
apwsearch wrote:
WhiteFlash wrote:

AP, I’m sure you bench over 300, as do I. I have missed 315 before and I’m still here. I haven’t put on a shirt and benched 300 over what I’m naturally capable of [I obviously know that no shirt in the world is gonna double my current max or that I can throw one on and automatically bench more, I’m just saying this for arguements sake.] and had the bar cave in my ribs/sternum/head.

I’m aware of strains and tears and all of the inherent dangers that come with heavy ass weight.

But, the difference between 300 and 500 is huge, and the difference is even bigger from 500 to 800, and 800 to a grand,etc… These are numbers these people are not capable of without the equipment they’re using, and at some point there’s gonna be a limit to what the most heavy duty shirt can realisticlly take.

I was wondering what those more knowledgeable than myself think that number might be, or are we gonna have to witness a horrible situation before the answer is known?

I don’t consider dumping on your chest or stomach catostrophic. I view it as damn lucky.

I was at a meet 2 years ago where a new female lifter with 155 on the bar touched too low in her shirt got up about 3-4 inches and proceeded to lose the bar over her head and neck. Arguably b/c of the weight the spotters were more relaxed and they missed.

The only thing that saved her was she slid off the bench as it was happening and the bar landed crooked hitting the right side of the bench first, catching her chin as she fell. She had a nasty scrape on her chin from the center knurling but that was it. What do you think would have happened if she would not have somehow acrobatted herself out of it?

Try dumping 300 on your neck, then if you are still with us and game, dump it on your face and report back. Hell, do it with 225. The point I am making is irregardless of weight if it lands unchecked in a vulnerable area you’re screwed.

Does more weight make you more screwed? I would argue not really. Dead, disfigured or disabled is dead disfigured or disabled.

That’s why having attentive spotters that know what they are doing is so important. Even then, shit happens. You take a risk every time you push the limits of your body’s capabilities.

There have been two situations I am aware of in IPF where lifters have dumped on their face. One was pretty bad. You don’t hear much about them, though but it was what prompted the safety bar requirement.

It’s almost impossible to alter risk tolerance in a performance based sport. People will continue to push the envelope. It’s the nature of the beast.

I remember a story from a couple years ago where a kid (15 or 16) here locally died from 135 across the throat. He was working out alone and the father found him dead, I think in the end they found out that he dropped the bar and crushed his throat causing him to suffocate.

No different really from NFL players breaking their necks etc from hitting so hard. Sports are dangerous, so is getting in your car every morning. How many people die everyday in cars?

[/quote]

Matt, I think you’re thinking of the 17yr old in Katy [maybe Spring]. It was 245, but your point remains. Somehow it didn’t make that big of a splash in the local news.

45

[quote]beeph wrote:
As far as safety goes you’d have to think it would be easier to spot 600-700 lbs than 1100 lbs. The gear which was meant for safety reasons has gotten to the point where its counterproductive.

I remember listening to a brilliant road designer or something for safety and he was talking about all the features of this new road with the banking, phosphoresecent lightning, high-tech road material etc make the road sooo safe it allows people to act like idiots and not pay attention to the road… making accidents just as likely as if it were not safe.

He said that the safest car in the world would be a car with a giant metal spike pointed directly at the driver’s heart to relate the dangers to our primitive mind of driving a 2 ton piece of steel at 70 mph.

I’m not dissing gear or the lift, im just questioning the ‘safety’ rationale behind it… nothing else.

[/quote]

Actually all that they would have to do is set up a bench press in a power rack with the pins set so that if the bencher lost his arch, that the weight would fall down on the pins instead of the bencher. It seems like a no brainer.

46

[quote]beeph wrote:

I’m not dissing gear or the lift, im just questioning the ‘safety’ rationale behind it… nothing else.

[/quote]

I have never bought a shirt for safety. Every one was bought with the express intent of using it to bench the most weight I could. If I was worried about safety, I would stick to raw rep-outs with 225 and 315.

47

Non- powerlifters talking about gear is pretty funny. There are now saftey bars used whenever there is a monster bench in most feds, if the bar is lost over the face or head the bar crashes down unto two steel bars that are bolted or welded to the upright supports, but not all feds use them; but I am sure that will change soon. Mike Womack droped 821 on his face and got over 20 stitches for his effort.

Just so you know only a small handful of guys get more then a hundred lbs. from a shirt. There are some who get 200+, but these are the very elite of the sport. No one and I mean no one just throws a shirt on and gets 100-200lbs more on their bench. The main reason is they can’t handle the weight. I have a high school kid who legals a raw 405 bench at 240 lbs. I put him in a very good Titan F6 and he could not get 445. He was not used to the big increase in weight and he didn’t have the tri’s to handle the weight. I laugh my butt off every time I hear some non-powerlifter say those shirts are cheating, or I could get another 200lbs. if I used a shirt. Yea, RIGHT!

George

48

just a newb question. why does he wear a mouth guard? how is that going to stop 1000lbs from smashing his face to bits?

also. where can i get one of these giant metal spikemobiles?

49

[quote]schultzie wrote:
just a newb question. why does he wear a mouth guard? how is that going to stop 1000lbs from smashing his face to bits?

also. where can i get one of these giant metal spikemobiles?[/quote]

Sometimes when i bench heavy (heavy for me at least), i tend to bite my teeth really hard together, can hurt pretty badly if my teeth aren’t “placed correctly” if you know what i mean. That may be the reason, but I really don’t know.

50

[quote]Evensen wrote:
schultzie wrote:
just a newb question. why does he wear a mouth guard? how is that going to stop 1000lbs from smashing his face to bits?

also. where can i get one of these giant metal spikemobiles?

Sometimes when i bench heavy (heavy for me at least), i tend to bite my teeth really hard together, can hurt pretty badly if my teeth aren’t “placed correctly” if you know what i mean. That may be the reason, but I really don’t know.

[/quote]

My dentist recommended I wear a mouth guard cos I’m prone to teeth grinding. I haven’t done so yet, but really should.

51

Yea, there are quite a few guys and gals using them these days. Heavy shirted bench can be a real load on the body and mind. You’re using weight that you were never intended to lift and it takes practice and stubborness to lift the big weights.

George

52

The guy is a hero, he missed bench above my total, and didn’t kill himself missing it, just mind-blowing, and it goes like that for quite a time now.

He looks head and shoulders above the others, but this doesn’t seem to hurt his motivation.

53

On shirt carryover… It’s not really that hard to get 100+lb out of a single ply shirt. I’ve just worked board presses and top end work hard forthe last 18 months or so and done alot dedicated shirt work (12 out of the last 15 weeks) and I’m now getting circa 110. I won’t be happy til I’m getting at least 150.

54

Hanley,

It is true that with a little effort 100 lbs. can be added to your bench, but only if you were a pretty good bencher before hand. I have had guys come into my gym, who thought they could just throw on a shirt and bang a 100-200 lbs., it just doesn’t happen that way. I have some of my young guys like my son who can’t get 40 lbs. out of a good shirt. Bigger men do it easier because of the marsh mellow factor, as Ryan would call it, where the more body mass you have the more pressure can be built in the shirt. This works due to fluid and the fact that water does not compress.

George

55

Noone’s dissing gear or the lift… just 1100 lbs seems scary considering that noone can really handle 600-700 if something goes wrong. Yeah fat guys can get a bit more outta gear than skinny guys. But some boxers benefit more from lighter boxing gloves than others too. Main point should be safety. So I think they should add in some more higher tech safety shit beyond spotting when people are putting up inhuman weights. Maybe a forklift under the bar lol.

56

Beeph,

Or they can use straps that hang from a power rack, some feds have started using them for squats, and it would not be that big of a deal to hang them for bench.

I have been to several meets where guys have dropped 700-800+ and it is scary as hell every time.

George

57

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
Well, you can quarterback and what if this to death but the simple fact remains that the squat and benchpress are potentially dangerous lifts at heavy load. I’ve been on the platform spotting when someone lost an 800lb squat. At these heavier weights, you’re asking alot of anyone to catch it. He just dumped forward, with no warning. Took himself, the weight and the monolift almost into the laps of those sitting in the first row.

My point is this; it’s time to come up with some spotting devices for bench and squat. With restrictions and logistical problems of spotting v. blocking the judge’s view v. the amount of weight involved sometimes (who the hell has real experience catching 800lbs for instance in the squat, as a team???!!), it’s high time for these lifts to be performed in some protective cage with pins. I’m thinking of a “floating” type pin that rises with the lift and is unobstructive at the bottom of the lifts. I have no idea how to engineer it, but it should be done.

Straining a muscle, blowing a ligamenet or joint, etc. is all risk of competing to your individual limits; however, risking serious injury and maybe death shouldn’t be part of the risk when it is easily preventable with a suitable device.

Just my .02 …[/quote]

What about like a mono-lift type hydraulic jack set-up? If I worded that to sound like the picture in my head it shouldnt be to bad. Or how bout making safety stands that heavy duty chains would hang off of, with the bar in them. So if you dump it the chains will catch it at x-height, kind of like the suspended good mornings some guys do.

As a side, I read in Dinosaur Training that John Davis could bench press 430 lbs, but thats not the good part. He did this by deadlifting the weight up, sitting on the bench and setting it on his thighs, laying back, rolling it up to his chest and then pressing it. I dont remember the point I was trying to make, but that is nuts.

Westside barbell, team supertraining and other big gyms with big squatters probably have some experience spotting 800+ lbs.

58

[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
There was a time when the line was somewhat blurred between a geared lift and “assisted”. Now the line is obliterated with lifters getting several hundred pounds from gear. When it gets to that point, as it has, I challenge you to tell me the difference between the current gear and just doing the lift on a smith machine.[/quote]

The difference between multi-ply,geared lifting and using a Smith machine is about as off as comparison as apples to sausages.

The issue here that people can’t comprehend is that the gear isn’t doing the lifting. I hear the same thing from the single-ply guys too…they always try to add (or subtract, however you want to look at it) what the extra ply will increase. It doesn’t work like that. I can vividly remember my first shirted bench day and my first squat day with briefs…both days were quite deflating. I thought I’d get 150 out of my shirt and I couldn’t even get one rep to touch. I threw on the briefs thinking I’d get 100 and I couldn’t come close to making depth plus they totally threw me out of position and shifted me forward. It takes time to get good at the gear, and really, it’s a totally different lift all together when compared to raw lifting.

My very first bench outing with a double-ply shirt yielded a whopping…you ready for this…15 lb increase. In fact, in the same day, I took off the double-ply, put my single-ply back on, and matched what I did with the double. So what does that tell you…does the gear do the lifting, or is it the person?

I now can lift much more in double-ply, but it’s because I’ve trained in it and made the adaptation and have gotten stronger. The gear is nothing more than a training tool.

The numbers have gotten cartoonish because they’re now separating the apes from the men. The guys that can make the adaptations are getting stronger and stronger while the others complain and try to blame the numbers on the gear.

I think we need to give credit to these guys perfecting their lifts in the gear…it’s not as easy as just throwing it on and getting mass carryover.

59

Nice post!

George

60

[quote]Dominator wrote:
TheBodyGuard wrote:
There was a time when the line was somewhat blurred between a geared lift and “assisted”. Now the line is obliterated with lifters getting several hundred pounds from gear. When it gets to that point, as it has, I challenge you to tell me the difference between the current gear and just doing the lift on a smith machine.

The difference between multi-ply,geared lifting and using a Smith machine is about as off as comparison as apples to sausages.

The issue here that people can’t comprehend is that the gear isn’t doing the lifting. I hear the same thing from the single-ply guys too…they always try to add (or subtract, however you want to look at it) what the extra ply will increase. It doesn’t work like that. I can vividly remember my first shirted bench day and my first squat day with briefs…both days were quite deflating. I thought I’d get 150 out of my shirt and I couldn’t even get one rep to touch. I threw on the briefs thinking I’d get 100 and I couldn’t come close to making depth plus they totally threw me out of position and shifted me forward. It takes time to get good at the gear, and really, it’s a totally different lift all together when compared to raw lifting.

My very first bench outing with a double-ply shirt yielded a whopping…you ready for this…15 lb increase. In fact, in the same day, I took off the double-ply, put my single-ply back on, and matched what I did with the double. So what does that tell you…does the gear do the lifting, or is it the person?

I now can lift much more in double-ply, but it’s because I’ve trained in it and made the adaptation and have gotten stronger. The gear is nothing more than a training tool.

The numbers have gotten cartoonish because they’re now separating the apes from the men. The guys that can make the adaptations are getting stronger and stronger while the others complain and try to blame the numbers on the gear.

I think we need to give credit to these guys perfecting their lifts in the gear…it’s not as easy as just throwing it on and getting mass carryover.

[/quote]

Its definitely impressive, but It’s more about technique now. Trying to use as little as rom as possible, getting the most out of your shirt ext. Its like you could have a 600lb bench press and try to throw a shot putt with one arm, and if you don’t know how to throw it wont go anywhere. Your still strong, its just a technique you have to master.

The amount of strength and especailly technique that goes into these lifts is amazing. I wouldn’t call a geared lift better then a raw lift or vise versa, its simply different and you have to compare it to other geared lifts. And well ryan is definitely well above everyone else in the bench press.