Last heavy bench day for James Strickland @ 10 days out with a bit more than a week to go now until his meet. He’s looking to be the lightest man to bench 700lbs but going off the footage his last heavy day did not go to plan.
Looked like misses with 640lbs, then 660 “Gym PR” and 675lbs tho he says he just stalled a bit and I’m assuming he feels his spotter didn’t help him. I think that’s just the way his bench is with the close grip. There’s a hard sticking point midway thru and there’s no room for error bar path wise.
Anyways he says he is happy with the results but I’m damn well worried for him. Let’s send him some good bench vibes leading into the meet.
Hopefully his programming is on point so that he is at the peak (pun intended) of his powers going into the meet.
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I’m not too sure about him benching 700 at this meet, but give him a few more months and he will do it. He’s also only 295 here, he can gain another 13lbs and still make 308. Keep in mind that he is also training in a fatigued state here, deloading can make a big difference.
Also he kinda had the same thing going on before his last meet, he did 661 in the last meet and hit a super grinder 2 weeks out at 630 or something like that, so I’m guessing he has this whole deal dialed down
Y’all so positive and shit. Go drop a comment on his vid showing your support and that he should trust the process and maybe with your combined positivity we can see 700.
His coach seems confident that it is there. Just a matter if it he peaks well or not.
I would say the odds are 50/50 at best right now. If he adds a few pounds of muscle and keeps doing what he is doing then a year from now he should be capable of more than 700.
Why doesn’t he bulk to 350+ and go for the all time record?
heres josh’s take on his last heavy day
i like the part where he says “you have guys repping 300lb on cable chest flies but cant even push open the saloon door”
james is a meet lifter he says! I think he has 702 in him!!!
672 Meet PR for James Strickland @ 293 lbs. Missed 702 third attempt. Haven’t seen footage of it yet tho.
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I wonder how much we will see the bench record pushed up, there seems to be a lot of guys in the high 600’s, I would guess in the next 5 years we will see a 800 pound raw bench
I’m not a fan of those feds that give the press command basically before the weight touches the chest. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to sit there with it either but with a regular comp pause I don’t think it wouldve left his chest more than an inch.
I don’t really get why they feel the need to keep the bar past it coming to a clear stop. So I like this.
You exaggerate good sir but do you mean cos the bar and his chest were bobbling around a bit or that the pause was as short as possible? For a ATWR attempt outside the IPF I reckon the pause length was legit tho it wasn’t stationary yet on the chest.
Sarychev’s pause was about the same as Stricklands and was a lift that many people praised for having a legit pause (at least compared to Eric Spoto’s bench at Mark Bell’s Backyard Bullshit lel)
Kinda a tangent but in some feds I see dudes anticipating and preempting pauses by a fifth of a second. It’s hard to judge and get’s whites often enough
Id say kirills was a tad longer but because he has far more control it looks like a better lift. I really hate the sink and heave. This is borderline getting there. Dan green is a good example but that coupled with a split second pause just seems more like a big bounce than a lift.
Hmm I can’t really see it. The plates are about whipping loads which makes it look like a sink and heave. in 0.25 speed if we focus on the centre knurl and the part of his chest where it touches there’s only a tiny little bit of sink and his chest barely collapses in height at all. Could just be suit/shirt/fat on his chest and back getting compressed a little but he probably loses a bit of arch.
In 0.25 speed we can see sinking after the bar touches The Boss’ chest. The bar is displaced at least a few inches which is quite a bit aways from the cm or two that Strickland gets.
I wasnt really pointing out him for sinking. More so for such a fast call. It really helped him going back up. Where as kirill easily had that max with room to spare even though it was just as quick. I prefer a noticeable pause.personal preference.
???
*tells head ref, “Oi pause me longer you garage federation ugly-arse looking motherfucker. Thank you.”
Borderline lol means close to but not quite. I wouldn’t want this type of pause for my comp.
