Rick Weil

I can’t believe I didn’t notice this thread until just now.

Could you go into your take on leg drive a bit? I notice some guys you can really see their lower body “pop” when they get the press command, and other guys look more like they just keep their lower body set as tightly as possible throughout the lift.

Was your bench press grip width pretty standard or were you one who liked benching with a closer grip?

On your bench pause, did you ever let the bar settle into your chest like some guys do, or did you try to keep it just barely touching?

I apologize if you’ve gone into that before elsewhere, I couldn’t find it online. Thanks for taking your time out to talk lifting with us!

csulli, first of all… I love tennessee.
My leg drive was a tightness that I kept throughout the drive. I was steady up and down in the lift. No settling into my chest. It came down, it stopped and it drove up all at the same speed. I did the first record 485 at 165 with a close grip. Larry Pacifico kept telling me to widen my grip. I finally did after a pec tear.

[quote]raw bench 556 wrote:
csulli, first of all… I love tennessee.
My leg drive was a tightness that I kept throughout the drive. I was steady up and down in the lift. No settling into my chest. It came down, it stopped and it drove up all at the same speed. I did the first record 485 at 165 with a close grip. Larry Pacifico kept telling me to widen my grip. I finally did after a pec tear. [/quote]
Exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much! I love Tennessee as well; Knoxville is a great place to live.

So i have looked around and found some of your articles or routines you have suggested. One was on critical bench and you suggested a routine for adding 30 lbs in 10 weeks i believe. yOU also suggested the heavy negatives which i love. On this routine you had your shoulder presses ,cable rows,and tricep work on the same day as your bench.

Would you recomend this always? as i know your a fan (as am i) of only working each muscle once per week or is doing a tricep, shoulder, and back day instead of doing them on your chest day sound ok also? The heavy negatives and using a one rep max that you suggested in the program helped me alot. I compete @ 181 and currently have a pause of 460. Just your suggestions of those took me from 440 to the 460 rather quickly. As most dont do the heavy negatives in raw lifting i was wondering how often you did them also?

I think it is great to have a powerlifting legend posting on here. Thanks for your time Rick

Heard your name mentioned on Mark Bell’s powercast yesterday. Ed Coan was talking about walking for miles with you trying to make his weight class haha. Also Mark Bell, who is famously infatuated with the bench press of course, was marveling at your 181 record. Probably tears him up seeing someone that light with a bench higher than his, although I bet he would be thrilled that you liked to employ overload training (via the heavy negatives) since he sells the slingshot to do something similar.

Hi Rick, first off thanks for posting the info on here that you have. Its great getting advice on here from someone like yourself. I was curious what your favoured assistance exercise was for your chest? All my pressing movement (including decline) are just dominated by my shoulders and triceps leaving my chest lagging. Any advice on exercises and how you programmed them would be really appreciated.

Tom

[quote]Trevshenko wrote:
Hi Rick, first off thanks for posting the info on here that you have. Its great getting advice on here from someone like yourself. I was curious what your favoured assistance exercise was for your chest? All my pressing movement (including decline) are just dominated by my shoulders and triceps leaving my chest lagging. Any advice on exercises and how you programmed them would be really appreciated.

Tom[/quote]

[quote]raw bench 556 wrote:
I loved reverse grip bench and seated dumbbell presses. I also did front raises with dumbbells.
[/quote]
You can do a google search and find a few places where he outlines his programming in more detail. Looks like assistance was mostly 3x5 and benching was between 5’s and singles with heavy negatives thrown in.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Trevshenko wrote:
Hi Rick, first off thanks for posting the info on here that you have. Its great getting advice on here from someone like yourself. I was curious what your favoured assistance exercise was for your chest? All my pressing movement (including decline) are just dominated by my shoulders and triceps leaving my chest lagging. Any advice on exercises and how you programmed them would be really appreciated.

Tom[/quote]

[quote]raw bench 556 wrote:
I loved reverse grip bench and seated dumbbell presses. I also did front raises with dumbbells.
[/quote]
You can do a google search and find a few places where he outlines his programming in more detail. Looks like assistance was mostly 3x5 and benching was between 5’s and singles with heavy negatives thrown in.[/quote]

Thanks csulli. I had a look at his routine but other than incline presses theres seems very little in the way of chest isolation/dominant accessory exercises except maybe incline dumbbell press. The last thing i need to be doing is more shoulder isolation work in terms of sorting out my bench weak spots :slight_smile:

really hope if youre reading this rick, that you come back!ha. definitely the greatest powerlifter ever to post on tnation.