metal militia

what the hell is it? what type of system is it? Anybody have any experience with it?

If ya need to know how to work your bench shirt, you’re going to wanna work these guys.

I’ll be giving Mike Miller a holler when I get mine, that’s for sure.

Basically in a simple sense its a 2x weekly system. Full raw bench and low board work on one day, and on the other, a much higher volume including shirt work, and lots of high board and lockout work.
Heavy a lot of times per week, but it works nicely.
Ive been doing it for 8 weeks, but without hte shirt work mainly cos I have noone to put it on me weekly. All my weights have headed upwards by ~5% or so in that time, including 1down week.

The metal militia is a group of elite bench press specialist, coached by the great Bill Crawford. Their system is composed of a shirt day and a raw day. Their workouts are usually several hours long and involve a large volume of exercises. Unlike Westside they do not perform any speed work. If you are interested check out metalmilitia.net

It’s also a Metallica song! :slight_smile:

For those who missed it, I interviewed one of these monsters here: Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION

In the pics in the article his toes are pointed while he benches, i thought this wasn’t allowed

So all they do is focus on the bench? Kinda sucks…what about deads, squats?

As a guy who has no hopes of ever squatting huge numbers, I’ve read a lot about the metal militia. I still have two issues that I can’t get straight in my head.

  1. I know they say that the system works great even if you aren’t roided up, but I just find that hard to believe. 4 hours of benching on Saturday’s? Good lord.

  2. The technique is completely different than the Westside approach. I’m talking about no speed work and benching in an arch back over your head. How can these two systems that both produce such strong people be so different?

In terms of time, just adjust the volume. Start off very low and work your way up. It aint rocket surgery.

In terms of the groove. Westside is focussing on using the shortest possible ROM, however some in the milita dont like benching this way (some do tho).
I feel it is better in a specific arch becuase you are utilizing a stronger motion

cuffs of steel :slight_smile:

MM really teaches you to really get the most out of your shirt. even though they say it can be applied to raw benchers, i see no point… at all. however, i am leaps and bounds behind crawford so my opinion doesn’t mean much

a few MM members/practicioners post on elitefitness.com’s (not efs) powerlifting board. a lot of them hae said they simply don’t beliee speed work is neccesary, at all. obviously, it’s honestly hard to disagree with them, considering the monsterous numbers they’re throwing around.

but then again, wsb’rs have great benchers too… so… yeah.

also, the setup MM uses for benching is drastically different from what tate would prescribe for example. i have tried to setup like MM benchers describe (i have their bench video), and yep, my bench went up after practicing for months with it… but my dead went down, and since i am a 3 lift competitor, i simply can’t sacrafice.

“So all they do is focus on the bench? Kinda sucks…what about deads, squats?”

these are what bench specialists do. although mike miller is a monstrocity in squats too. there’s a vid of him hitting a 1000 lb box squat that’s just insane

iirc bob youngs had tried to continue lower body training via westside while implementing a lot of MM ideas. you can probably find a lot of info by reading his logs for a few months back

Im a predominantly bench only lifter, but also occasional 3lifter. I train bench monday/thursday and sq/dl tuesday/friday.
I have no problem with squatting after learning techniques to do with the militia style training.
Militia for drug free needs to be lower volume to start with (can increase over time) and also take a down week every few weeks, otherwise the training will catch up with you

I train westside style and will never switch because i do all 3 lift meets and westside is the best powerlifting gym in the world… but i like the bench form of metalmilitia better i like the throw and catch technique and the bring it low throw it high style…i fell much stronger on my lockout since focusing on opening my tris up at the lock out position…big martin

It’s a great song by Metallica!

(Damn, someone beat me to that one.)

Ok folks…I train with Mike Miller and the boys and girls at Nazareth Barbell (not as much as I should though)…otherwise known as the “Pa Chapter of the Metal Militia.” I have trained for the past 3-4 years classic Westside style, and have recently switched to modified Metal Militia / Westside routine. Some misconceptions that you may have read, or heard about the MM…1-they only train for the bench(not true), 2-Their Saturday bench workouts last 3-4 hours (not true), 3-they do no speed work (not true), 4-you need to be juiced to train that way (not true), 4-Mike Miller is a homo (we are still debating this).

Anyway, their Sat. workouts consist of warmups, max triples using their shirts, 4 and or 5 board presses, then maybe some rack presses…that’s it. The workouts are lengthy because there are 8-10 people lifting. Accessory work is done on Wednesdays, the 2nd chest workout of the week…accessory work consists of Tate presses, rolling dumbell presses(triceps)…since I do not lift with them on Wed., I don’t know what else they do…but it is not much. Mike did mention that he was thinking of incorporating speed work back into his workouts. Remember, that that either Westside or MM styles constantly change…so what you may have heard about what they do or not do, could change next week if they feel something different works. At the end of the day, one does A TON less work training the MM way Vs. the Westide way. I know I have missed something…so I will call Mike and have him post some more on their style in this thread. In any event, the guy is very knowledgeable, extremely helpful, and you will increase your lifts if you follow his advice…give him a call at Nazareth Barbell in Tatamy, Pa…may cost you a bit for a consultation, but it is more than worth it…just don’t make fun of his boyfriend Tarzan, you don’t want a 400lb giant chasing you.

oh yeh…ck. out his site…www.nazbar.com. Great clothing with the Nazareth Barbell insignia.


I’m Mike Miller, I run Nazareth Barell and the Pa. chapter of the Metal Militia. The Militia is a group of lifters who have a commmon bond, treat others as you want to be treated and to be the strongest lifters in the world. If you have an question or wish to talk to me my gym phone is 610-438-2902. Leave a message and a number and I will call you back.

So all they do is focus on the bench? Kinda sucks…what about deads, squats?

I recently squatted 1015 benched 750 1765 sub total the highest in the IPA and the second higest of all timeand d/l 640 total 2405. this is after a three year layoff from full meets. I have been competing since 1998.
Some of us do full meets as well

Mule,

I read about your bench systems/workouts…where can I find more about your squat, DL workouts?