Only 5 lbs to go, thats it. Very impressive bench press, but I have to say, once you get that 200 lbs bench press, keep wanting more. You can push your max way past 200, easily. You’re capable of it.
[quote]c. wrote:
Nice job!!
You always seem so shocked to hit those new bench pr’s. I think we all here, already know you have that 200 in you, and more 
You’re super strong!
That bar meet sounds fun. But I know you’ll get your 200 bench at the March 15th meet.
c. [/quote]
Thanks Kalle, and thanks C. And yes, I have been very shocked every time I’ve benched these last couple of weeks. I was stuck at 180 for so long. Than I changed my routine up a little and it seems like everything is finally coming together. I honestly didn’t expect to pr so much. Several people have told me that it would take a year to but 10lbs on your bench and I’ve increased it by 15lbs in 2 months.
I would love to have 200 clean and legal by March 15th. We’ll see.
thanks again
G
[quote]Synthetickiller wrote:
Only 5 lbs to go, thats it. Very impressive bench press, but I have to say, once you get that 200 lbs bench press, keep wanting more. You can push your max way past 200, easily. You’re capable of it.[/quote]
Thanks and yes, I am already setting my eyes on two big boy plates (225!). Does anyone know what the heaviest Raw bench is for the 123s (drug free of course)? I would love to have a number to focus on. I know that JT (Jenn Thompson) can press 285 raw at 132 and she is lifting this weekend at the Arnold, no telling what she’ll push than. Jenn is amazing and in a class and league of her own, I would like to have an idea of what the 123s are doing out there. Any ideas?? Everyone I know wears a shirt and they typically don’t list their raw numbers.
thanks again for the encouragement!! I have gotten so much support from this forum, it has really motivated me to kick ass in the gym!!
G
I just took a look at the 100% raw powerlifting site and it looks like 180 is the national record for 123 open. Looks like you’ve got that beat already I have no idea what the heaviest raw bench is across feds though, so I guess that doesn’t help much.
Congratulations on your bench PR. The bar meet sounds awesome. As long as you don’t drink too much, you should nail 200lb:)
Claire
[quote]cvb wrote:
Congratulations on your bench PR. The bar meet sounds awesome. As long as you don’t drink too much, you should nail 200lb:)
Claire[/quote]
Yes, it is always a blast, they have free beer and wings for the lifters and music is blasting, everyone is screaming, its a riot! I will take a video of some of the crazy lifts and post them.
Heres a photo from last year:
[quote]buckeye girl wrote:
I just took a look at the 100% raw powerlifting site and it looks like 180 is the national record for 123 open. Looks like you’ve got that beat already I have no idea what the heaviest raw bench is across feds though, so I guess that doesn’t help much.[/quote]
Thanks Buckeye Girl, Yes I noticed that, her name is Kerry and I think thats going to make my decision as to which meet I do on the 15th. There is a USAPL meet here in Charlotte that I normally do and than there is a 100% RAW meet in VA the same day. I never have anyone in my weight class for the USAPL meets. The only time I’ve actually competed against someone was at Nationals and at Worlds. I really want competition, so I think I will travel to VA for the RAW meet.
G
Saturdays Bench workout:
Ok, so this is my last Heavy workout till after the meet. My goal is 3sets of 5 on the flat bench. Last heavy day I got 170x3x5, so its time to go up 5 lbs.
Warm ups
bar
95
pushups
135
155
Worksets:
175x4
175x3
175x3
Decline Bench: goal 2x5
175x5 (struggled with the last 2, so lower weight)
165x5
*the 175 on flat bench wore me out.
negs. 205x2x3
cable flies: 30x3x10
sled pulls: 4 minutes of 20seconds on, 10seconds rest
G
Great workout. I have really gotta work on my upper body strength.
Diana
Last Bench day before my meet. I went and trained with the best of the best, Jenn and Donovan Thompson this afternoon. They live just an hour outside of Charlotte. Just did a run thru of my workout, nothing major.
Warmups: bar, 95, 135, 155
Singles with pause:
165x1
175x1
Band work 3 sets of 5 of 115lb
Inclines 2 sets of 5 of 115
Declines 2 sets of 5 of 155
I planned on entering the 100% Raw meet on the 15th in VA, but found out that I was not going to have any competition, so I’ve decided to stay here in Charlotte and compete in the USAPL meet. Now that they are accepting RAW records, it will be worth my while…not to mention saving money by not going out of town.
AND more importantly I was asked to be on this years IPF World Bench Press Team!!! We compete in Prague this June!!! Just a little over 12 weeks to get my act together in the shirt!
G
[quote]GBench wrote:
Bench day!
Goal of 170 for 3 sets of 5. Last time I got 3 sets of 4.
Really focused on warming up my hip flexors and hams today and it really helped when setting up for my arch.
Hip Flexor warmup:
Set the bar on the smith machine low and did high side steps over it. Then I raised the bar one and did wide side steps under the bar. Did this for 3 sets of 10 each and I could really feel my hips open up and relax a little.
Bench Warmup:
bar
95x10
135x8
155x5
worksets
170lb x 3sets of 5!!! Life is good.
Decline Barbell: (goal 2x5)
175x5 very slow on the last 2 reps, but no help needed
175x4 very slow on the 4th, didn’t go for the 5th
Negatives:
200lb x 2sets
Cable fly
30lbs x 3sets
G
[/quote]
Congrats on hitting 170, nothing sexier than a woman who can bench 
Right now my best is 210 X 2 at a BW of 115
I love doing cable flyes, pushing each handle past touching and holding the contraction gives me an intense burn.
[quote]GBench wrote:
Last Bench day before my meet. I went and trained with the best of the best, Jenn and Donovan Thompson this afternoon. They live just an hour outside of Charlotte. Just did a run thru of my workout, nothing major.
Warmups: bar, 95, 135, 155
Singles with pause:
165x1
175x1
Band work 3 sets of 5 of 115lb
Inclines 2 sets of 5 of 115
Declines 2 sets of 5 of 155
I planned on entering the 100% Raw meet on the 15th in VA, but found out that I was not going to have any competition, so I’ve decided to stay here in Charlotte and compete in the USAPL meet. Now that they are accepting RAW records, it will be worth my while…not to mention saving money by not going out of town.
AND more importantly I was asked to be on this years IPF World Bench Press Team!!! We compete in Prague this June!!! Just a little over 12 weeks to get my act together in the shirt!
G[/quote]
Good luck next week at your meet. You hit a lot of PRs recently, you will do awesome:)
[quote]GBench wrote:
Last Bench day before my meet. I went and trained with the best of the best, Jenn and Donovan Thompson this afternoon. They live just an hour outside of Charlotte. Just did a run thru of my workout, nothing major.
Warmups: bar, 95, 135, 155
Singles with pause:
165x1
175x1
Band work 3 sets of 5 of 115lb
Inclines 2 sets of 5 of 115
Declines 2 sets of 5 of 155
I planned on entering the 100% Raw meet on the 15th in VA, but found out that I was not going to have any competition, so I’ve decided to stay here in Charlotte and compete in the USAPL meet. Now that they are accepting RAW records, it will be worth my while…not to mention saving money by not going out of town.
AND more importantly I was asked to be on this years IPF World Bench Press Team!!! We compete in Prague this June!!! Just a little over 12 weeks to get my act together in the shirt!
G[/quote]
Good luck at the meet!! Can’t wait to hear how great you did.
congrats on getting invited to join the IPF bench team. You must be really excited
c.
cool thread, very interesting! and good job gbench. its interesting to see what helps people achieve their max goals “everybody responds different”
Thanks Claire, C and Hangiron!
Yesterdays meet went well (Bench only). I competed in a USAPL meet here in Charlotte NC. I had planned to lift in VA with 100% RAW to set some new numbers there and to hopefully have some competition, but found out the week before that no one would be in my weight class, so I opted to stay in town and save my money for Prague (World Team!)
For VA I planned to do:
170
185
190 and go for 195 on my 4th
But I had to change my numbers for USAPL, they are a little tighter with the judging, they make you work for your lifts (which I love by the way, can’t stand when judges hand out “whites”)
And with USAPL they use Kilos so that also affected my numbers
So I did:
159.7
181.7
187.2 new state raw record
Smoked each one!!! I would have loved to put 192.7 on the bar, but no 4th attempts at state meets 
There were 5 females there, and they put us all together and judged by formula. There was one chick who benched 253lbs raw! outstanding but she weighed 220 so I got first place.
G
[quote]GBench wrote:
Thanks Claire, C and Hangiron!
Yesterdays meet went well (Bench only). I competed in a USAPL meet here in Charlotte NC. I had planned to lift in VA with 100% RAW to set some new numbers there and to hopefully have some competition, but found out the week before that no one would be in my weight class, so I opted to stay in town and save my money for Prague (World Team!)
For VA I planned to do:
170
185
190 and go for 195 on my 4th
But I had to change my numbers for USAPL, they are a little tighter with the judging, they make you work for your lifts (which I love by the way, can’t stand when judges hand out “whites”)
And with USAPL they use Kilos so that also affected my numbers
So I did:
159.7
181.7
187.2 new state raw record
Smoked each one!!! I would have loved to put 192.7 on the bar, but no 4th attempts at state meets
There were 5 females there, and they put us all together and judged by formula. There was one chick who benched 253lbs raw! outstanding but she weighed 220 so I got first place.
G
[/quote]
Nice Job!!
Save the 192.7 for Prague
congrats on first place!
c.
[quote]GBench wrote:
Thanks Claire, C and Hangiron!
Yesterdays meet went well (Bench only). I competed in a USAPL meet here in Charlotte NC. I had planned to lift in VA with 100% RAW to set some new numbers there and to hopefully have some competition, but found out the week before that no one would be in my weight class, so I opted to stay in town and save my money for Prague (World Team!)
For VA I planned to do:
170
185
190 and go for 195 on my 4th
But I had to change my numbers for USAPL, they are a little tighter with the judging, they make you work for your lifts (which I love by the way, can’t stand when judges hand out “whites”)
And with USAPL they use Kilos so that also affected my numbers
So I did:
159.7
181.7
187.2 new state raw record
Smoked each one!!! I would have loved to put 192.7 on the bar, but no 4th attempts at state meets
There were 5 females there, and they put us all together and judged by formula. There was one chick who benched 253lbs raw! outstanding but she weighed 220 so I got first place.
G
[/quote]
Congrats on your new state record! Great job!
[quote]c. wrote:
Nice Job!!
Save the 192.7 for Prague
congrats on first place!
c.
[/quote]
Thanks C!
I’ll be using gear for Prague, so I should be opening with over 200. Plan to get back in the shirt the first Saturday in April. I’ve never quit figured the shirt out, so it will be interesting, but with my raw strength up, I am actually excited to see what I can do!
G
[quote]cvb wrote:
GBench wrote:
Thanks Claire, C and Hangiron!
Yesterdays meet went well (Bench only). I competed in a USAPL meet here in Charlotte NC. I had planned to lift in VA with 100% RAW to set some new numbers there and to hopefully have some competition, but found out the week before that no one would be in my weight class, so I opted to stay in town and save my money for Prague (World Team!)
For VA I planned to do:
170
185
190 and go for 195 on my 4th
But I had to change my numbers for USAPL, they are a little tighter with the judging, they make you work for your lifts (which I love by the way, can’t stand when judges hand out “whites”)
And with USAPL they use Kilos so that also affected my numbers
So I did:
159.7
181.7
187.2 new state raw record
Smoked each one!!! I would have loved to put 192.7 on the bar, but no 4th attempts at state meets
There were 5 females there, and they put us all together and judged by formula. There was one chick who benched 253lbs raw! outstanding but she weighed 220 so I got first place.
G
Congrats on your new state record! Great job!
[/quote]
thanks Claire! I hope your training is going well, I’ve got to get caught back up with you and Cs training.
G
nice job gbench “you kick ass” that girl that hit 253lbs she’s jealous of your size-lift ratio …lol