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Strength in Interesting Places

And if it makes you feel any better, I can't squat or deadlift for shit. Lol.
 
EndoGlo said:
200? Why stop there?

In my opinion, the best way to increase your bench, is to bench more. For me, it always seems like I make progress, and it just never ends. That's my lift that I've never capped out on. I've had slow times, but I've never really been stuck. Sometimes I restart my bench from 135 and work my way back up, but that's about the extent of it. Granted, I benched 3x a week more often then not, so my bench saw gains that most see with squats, because of their consistency, and drive to always have more.

For assistance work:
-If your issue is coming off your chest, then you could try rack lockouts. I've never personally done them, but I hear that they work. In fact, EliteFTS had an article dedicated to the exercise.

-If you're having issues with your lockout (and this is where most do have issues), heavy tricep work is a great way to overcome this. Weighted dips, tricep pull-downs, close-grip bench, OHP, board presses, etc.. Do them.

Fun fact: When I was pressing my strongest, I had a tricep PD of 120x4x10 all day, and could easily pull 150x4x6.
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Great tips, thanks. I am a little limited in the assistance I can do as I just have a barbell, bench, squat rack and a place for chins and dips (at least here in Kabul). But that still leaves me close-grip and weighted dip. I already do weighted dips actually. And of course, OHP. That is actually the lift that I care more about, but I wanted to focus on bench for a while because I suck at it and don't like it.

I won't stop at 200. I'll keep working just as hard, or probably harder. But I won't worry if it hardly progresses, or progresses really slowly.
 
Just realized we haven't had any eye-candy in my log for a while.

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That's better!
 
EndoGlo said:
Just a couple articles you might be able to benefit from. Keep in mind that you can train board press yourself, just be careful with how hard you hit the board. Also, if you're feeling any pec strain, ease off a bit before you tear something.
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Thanks! I used to have trouble coming off the chest, but I started practicing pause bench and it went away pretty quickly. Now I am weaker in the lockout. Don't have any boards here, but we have some quite light, thick plastic weights, I could probably balance a stack of them on my chest. When I am back home I have access to a power rack, so I can do various heights of pin presses and also floor presses. For Bench I was thinking weighted dips and Z-presses.

One thing is that I need to get on a programme where I can do all this stuff. I am on this Smolov Jr break right now, but I have been on SS with weighted chins and weighted dips added. I had started to think about moving to 5/3/1, but I want to get my squat max up first before I do that, or I'll be squatting 200lbs or so for the next six months.
 
JauntyAngle said:
Squatrack-a-go-go in Kabul

Great news!

The head of the firm I worked for here promised that he would get a squat rack for the gym in my guest house if we won a bid we were going in for (that I was down as team leader for). We won the bid, and true to his word, we got the squat rack- it arrives in a few hours. (I work for a good firm, obviously.)

This means that I can re-rack the bar safely (no walking backwards and sitting down onto the edge of the bench), and have safety bars.

Pics to follow!
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That's great news. Your boss (or boss's boss) rules. Let me know if he ever has plans to expand in Charlotte.
 
scoopj said:
That's great news. Your boss (or boss's boss) rules. Let me know if he ever has plans to expand in Charlotte.
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Yeah, he's great. The company looks after us very well in general, but the squat rack is above and beyond, as it cost $900 and I am the only person who will be using it. So it really is just for me.
 
That's awesome that they bought you a squat rack! You must be really good at your job and/or really persuasive.
 
Either that or he cashed in all of his JauntyPoints.
 
*would normally post pics of hot chicks in squat racks*
 
DrBdan said:
That's awesome that they bought you a squat rack! You must be really good at your job and/or really persuasive.
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I actually didn't have to persuade them at all. My boss said he would buy one when we were trying to get the project, and I wasn't even sure if he was serious. Then, when the project was awarded, he started talking about it. A few days after he asked me to go with him to look at the options available in Kabul, a few days after that he started the procurement, a few days after that the procurement officer asked me to go with him to buy the one we chose.

Most people think they are good at their job, so I won't say anything about that. But they definitely like really like me. It's why they sent me to Southern Sudan in December, January and February- they were worried that if they kept me doing filler work in Kabul I might get bored, and they wanted to give me experience of another country. They don't do that kind of thing with most of their consultants.

Edit- here's a picture of the rack, which I have named 'Gertrude'. I plan to move it off the mats some time soon:

GertrudetheSquatRack.jpg
 
Last edited:
Nice squat rack jaunty! At least now you can squat properly.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
just don't forget that there is more than one lower body excerise






now girls in squat racks



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Kabul: Smolov Jr Bench Cycle, Week 2, Day 3

Warmup C2 rower, 3 minutes
Bench 75kg: x4, x4, x4, x4, x4, x4, x4, x4 (8*(week 1 1RM+5kg))
Deadlift 138kg: x3, x3
Weighted chin +8kg x5, x5, x5
C2 Sprints 1 min fast/1 min slow, 9minutes, 1700m (4 sprints total)

Notes

- Bench was a breeze. I actually wanted to do more, or heavier. But tomorrow will be much tougher, so I kept my powder dry for then. While doing one set I found that if I really press my hands into the bar and outward a little bit, my triceps activate much more and the bar goes up easier. I was doing this with my press and I think it is why I made more progress on that recently. Hopefully this leads to gains in the bench.
- Deadlift was weird again. First few reps weren't heavy at all but I was distracted by not getting the grip right. Took a break after three, did another, and it was super slow off the ground but the grip was better. Two more reps were okay, but I was a little tired by then. I guess normally when I have weird deadlift session I repeat the weight the next time, but only DLing once a week, that seems so slow.
- Didn't feel like BOR after DLing, so I did some weighted chins. Put the weight down because I haven't done them for ages. They felt extremely light, but I tired doing each set and started to struggle to get full height.
- Only done one conditioning this week, and thought I probably wouldn't do it tomorrow or the day after, so did sprints. Last time I did 1.5mins slow/1 min fast, this time did 1 min/1min. Much, much harder. Breathing pretty heavy, and after a while I had the feeling that I was willing my body to go faster but it just wouldn't quite go as fast as I was telling it to.
- I have been eating more than usual to help me get through Smolov Jr. Think I am putting on weight. Need to get that under control after SJ is finished. With how weak I am, being over 200lbs would be pretty embarrassing.
 
JauntyAngle said:
Thanks! I used to have trouble coming off the chest, but I started practicing pause bench and it went away pretty quickly. Now I am weaker in the lockout. Don't have any boards here, but we have some quite light, thick plastic weights, I could probably balance a stack of them on my chest. When I am back home I have access to a power rack, so I can do various heights of pin presses and also floor presses. For Bench I was thinking weighted dips and Z-presses.

One thing is that I need to get on a programme where I can do all this stuff. I am on this Smolov Jr break right now, but I have been on SS with weighted chins and weighted dips added. I had started to think about moving to 5/3/1, but I want to get my squat max up first before I do that, or I'll be squatting 200lbs or so for the next six months.
Click to expand...

You can use damn near anything as a "board". Hell, you can use a cardboard box, or phonebook (or any book for that matter), as long as you don't come down on them too hard - which you're not supposed to be doing anyways.

And I have no fucking clue what a Z press is. Lol...
 
SlaveToTheDark said:
i'm happy for you man!
good looking rack! :D
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You want to see a good-looking rack? Sure:

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Seriously, though... it is sturdy as hell. You can sit the safety bars on while you're recovering and you get the sense this thing is not going anywhere. It feels nice to re-rack in, as well.
 
EndoGlo said:
And I have no fucking clue what a Z press is. Lol...
Click to expand...

It's just an overhead press done when you're sat on the floor. They're called that because Zdrunas Zavikas does them a lot (and he is one of those few guys who is strong enough to have one of his favourite lifts named after him). Plus of course he is a complete beast at overhead lifts.

I actually experimented with a couple with the empty bar today, unracking it off the safety bars of my new squat rack. Got to say, even from the empty bar I could tell they are going to totally kick my ass.
 
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