Spidey: Eudaimonia

Hey man,

great work going on in here, liking the sumo’s. I switched to sumo this past year after messing up my back on conventional. It’s a tough one to learn but it’s a lot of fun too once you get past the initial awkwardness of the movement.

In regards to your bench press, I knwo you’ve said it’s your worst lift and the form feels awkward for you. I can see you have long arms. Did you notice in that video you posted, when your bar path was all sorts of wonky on those last 2 reps, when the bar finally did move up was probably in the strongest position for you.

I could see some people saying that your elbows wouldnt be tucked in, but they look like they are at 45 degrees when the bar finally moves up in that position. I personally think if there wasn’t all this wonky bar movement and stuff, you would have gotten 5. Also, while some people are really good with that slight diagonal bar path, it’s not as pronounced as yours.

And while some people will say the only force from the bar is vertically, your muscles are still holding that puppy up when you’re moving it horizontally, making them more tired and perhaps a longer/more arduous repetition.

if the above looks like it makes zero sense, basicslly im saying that I think you should really try and hammer home the spot on the chest where you hit the bar (I think you need to go higher, closer to the nipples), and potentially tuck your elbows slightly less. Mike Tuscherer’s bench is a thing of beauty (not the strongest in the world, but the dude is so technical).

Yeah peace, hope I didn’t step on your toes, you’re killing this progress, last time I checked was months ago and I think your squat has progressed a RIDICULOUS amount since then dude, killing it man.

[quote]santisua wrote:
Hey man,

great work going on in here, liking the sumo’s. I switched to sumo this past year after messing up my back on conventional. It’s a tough one to learn but it’s a lot of fun too once you get past the initial awkwardness of the movement.

In regards to your bench press, I knwo you’ve said it’s your worst lift and the form feels awkward for you. I can see you have long arms. Did you notice in that video you posted, when your bar path was all sorts of wonky on those last 2 reps, when the bar finally did move up was probably in the strongest position for you.

I could see some people saying that your elbows wouldnt be tucked in, but they look like they are at 45 degrees when the bar finally moves up in that position. I personally think if there wasn’t all this wonky bar movement and stuff, you would have gotten 5. Also, while some people are really good with that slight diagonal bar path, it’s not as pronounced as yours.

And while some people will say the only force from the bar is vertically, your muscles are still holding that puppy up when you’re moving it horizontally, making them more tired and perhaps a longer/more arduous repetition.

if the above looks like it makes zero sense, basicslly im saying that I think you should really try and hammer home the spot on the chest where you hit the bar (I think you need to go higher, closer to the nipples), and potentially tuck your elbows slightly less. Mike Tuscherer’s bench is a thing of beauty (not the strongest in the world, but the dude is so technical).

Yeah peace, hope I didn’t step on your toes, you’re killing this progress, last time I checked was months ago and I think your squat has progressed a RIDICULOUS amount since then dude, killing it man. [/quote]

Thanks man! I appreciate this a ton, and please, NEVER think you’re stepping on my toes or whatever when giving advice, I’m always open to it.

A few guys have said the same thing to me, touching too low or over tucking, and I’m trying to slowly adjust my form accordingly. Today I had a ‘deload’ so I played around with my form, and some things that help are

*raising my head a bit off the bench on the eccentric
*adjusting my grip to the style on the right in the picture above
*Putting feet not as far back, just enough to get knees lower than hips
*Not concentrating on ‘tucking’ as much as keep wrists and elbows in line

I know it’ll be a slow progress to feeling ‘stronger’ in this never position and a higher touch point, but I’m hoping the accessory work with no-arch Benching and Wide Grip benching will help out a bit. Thanks a ton dude!

Looking good spidey.

Looks like you have added some quality mass to your frame. Ive always liked Deadpools phyique as well.

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[quote]theBird wrote:
Looking good spidey.

Looks like you have added some quality mass to your frame. Ive always liked Deadpools phyique as well.

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Thanks dude, hopefully I can not embarrass myself with the Deadpool cosplay

Deloading this week so nothing to write about.

Did a little extra ‘pump’ back work with my little brother. he’s 16, using John Meadows intermediate program after just doing 5/3/1 Boring But Big to get to a BW Bench (he’s only 130, but really ridiculously lean.

On top of that, my little sister, who is 15, just started lifting. For a month or so I had her doing a a simple 3x a week program with just goblet squats, push-ups (incline so she could do them), DB and BW Rows, and light DB presses. So Sunday I taught her how to properly Squat, Sumo DL, and Bench Press. Made her a simple 5x5 routine, and her first day was able to Bench the bar for 5x5 paused! So pretty happy about that. She also has really good Squat form, naturally has a wide stance and gets a lot of drive out the hole.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
DL Day

Sumo DL: So I filmed the 3rd set, and like me left thigh kept rubbing against my thumb, unhinging my grip. So yeah, set got ugly lol. Was dead after that so repped 365
405x3x6
365x11

Paused HB Squats:
205x2x8

Chins. Calves, Rear Delts

Good workout. About to gain as much weight as possible on gorging. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. [/quote]

Nice lifting dude, lots of good stuff going on. The best thing, however, is the screenshot of this video.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Did a little extra ‘pump’ back work with my little brother. he’s 16, using John Meadows intermediate program after just doing 5/3/1 Boring But Big to get to a BW Bench (he’s only 130, but really ridiculously lean.

On top of that, my little sister, who is 15, just started lifting. For a month or so I had her doing a a simple 3x a week program with just goblet squats, push-ups (incline so she could do them), DB and BW Rows, and light DB presses. So Sunday I taught her how to properly Squat, Sumo DL, and Bench Press. Made her a simple 5x5 routine, and her first day was able to Bench the bar for 5x5 paused! So pretty happy about that. She also has really good Squat form, naturally has a wide stance and gets a lot of drive out the hole.[/quote]
Thats awesome.

You are teaching them something that will be useful to them for the gets of there lives.

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G1579 will forever and always make fun of my face, never fails. lol Thanks dude!

Birdy: I agree, I think lifting as whole teaches a lot of lessons outside of the weight room, and I’m a firm believer in it being a tool that promotes virtue ethics, so I’m excited for them to both have an interest in it. Just have one other sibling, who is 11, got to wait until he’s a little older

Squatzz

Back Squats: These were rough. 2nd set (filmed) felt hard but the weight felt light, if that makes sense, which means there’s just a weakness somewhere that needs addressing.
335x2x4
315x2x5
285x3x6

Front Squat: I’m using 225 for awhile, until it becomes butter
225x3x4-5

Chins: Elbows have been acting up so doing these much more strict now
BWx10
+10x8
+20x9

Abs + Rear Delts

So I’m actually getting into weights that I’ve never really done any amount of reps with, just tried for heavish singles. I’m having to kind of work myself up for the top 1-2 sets, and after that I kind of seem to gas out and have to lower the weight, which is fine just an adjustment Pat and I will need to think about next cycle.

I honestly think I’d benefit from maybe a slightly wider Squat stance, where I can stay a bit more upright (same principle as my Sumo), but I’d need to bring up some lagging hamstrings I think, because I definitely have the bar as ‘low’ as I can get comfortably, but I feel the bar is still drifting in from of me. The weight feels light, I’m just making for a shitty lever arm physics blah blah blah

Here’s the video, sorry for the grunts/yells, was accidental. I feel douchey doing it and think it’s ineffective for keeping tight, will try not to next time haha

Bench was so shitty again it’s not worth writing.

Just posting this so I can look at it next week, remind myself of the failure, and maybe light a fire under me.

Man your crushing it lately I have to play catch up to you now. Keep givin’r buddy your killing it with those squats.

What exactly is the issue with bench? Is it a technical issue? Mental? More to do with energy systems?

[quote]Jlabs wrote:
Man your crushing it lately I have to play catch up to you now. Keep givin’r buddy your killing it with those squats.[/quote]

Thanks brother!

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
What exactly is the issue with bench? Is it a technical issue? Mental? More to do with energy systems?[/quote]

Um a combination of everything kind of.

Technical: When things get ‘heavy’, I instinctively touch VERY low, and REALLY tuck my elbows. This is something that’s kind of ingrained from years of reading bench advice from geared lifters. Nothing wrong with that, just not optimal for me. And while with lighter weights I can ‘out muscle’ the bad form, I can’t really at this point, seeing as tris and chest are seriously lagging.

Size: Obviously, I’m very lanky, and like I said my pressing muscles are lacking. So while I need to adjust my form, I also need to have the muscular strength to maintain my form and not just revert to old positioning when I strain.

Mental: I have some shitty mental cues instilled in my head right now, and overall just feel like whether I have flat feet, on my toes, flat backed, arched, whatever, Bench always feels ‘uncomfortable’, where as stuff like Squats and Deads I can literally fix a position where feel anything I can grip I can pull or anything I put on my back I can launch.

So yeah fuck it haha

Yeah man. Fuck it. Upper back strength and thoracic mobility is crucial too for positioning.

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
Yeah man. Fuck it. Upper back strength and thoracic mobility is crucial too for positioning.[/quote]

Ohh yeah I just found out my T-Spine mobility sucks but idk what to really do about it haha

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
Yeah man. Fuck it. Upper back strength and thoracic mobility is crucial too for positioning.[/quote]

Ohh yeah I just found out my T-Spine mobility sucks but idk what to really do about it haha[/quote]
Mine too. Looks like we’re in the same boat.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
What exactly is the issue with bench? Is it a technical issue? Mental? More to do with energy systems?[/quote]

Um a combination of everything kind of.

Technical: When things get ‘heavy’, I instinctively touch VERY low, and REALLY tuck my elbows. This is something that’s kind of ingrained from years of reading bench advice from geared lifters. Nothing wrong with that, just not optimal for me. And while with lighter weights I can ‘out muscle’ the bad form, I can’t really at this point, seeing as tris and chest are seriously lagging.

Size: Obviously, I’m very lanky, and like I said my pressing muscles are lacking. So while I need to adjust my form, I also need to have the muscular strength to maintain my form and not just revert to old positioning when I strain.

Mental: I have some shitty mental cues instilled in my head right now, and overall just feel like whether I have flat feet, on my toes, flat backed, arched, whatever, Bench always feels ‘uncomfortable’, where as stuff like Squats and Deads I can literally fix a position where feel anything I can grip I can pull or anything I put on my back I can launch.

So yeah fuck it haha [/quote]

Cant imagine how shitty benching is with your long arms. I have long arms for my body but yours are still much longer.

Howd you figure your tspine sucked? I know mine does still cant fix it lol

[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:
What exactly is the issue with bench? Is it a technical issue? Mental? More to do with energy systems?[/quote]

Um a combination of everything kind of.

Technical: When things get ‘heavy’, I instinctively touch VERY low, and REALLY tuck my elbows. This is something that’s kind of ingrained from years of reading bench advice from geared lifters. Nothing wrong with that, just not optimal for me. And while with lighter weights I can ‘out muscle’ the bad form, I can’t really at this point, seeing as tris and chest are seriously lagging.

Size: Obviously, I’m very lanky, and like I said my pressing muscles are lacking. So while I need to adjust my form, I also need to have the muscular strength to maintain my form and not just revert to old positioning when I strain.

Mental: I have some shitty mental cues instilled in my head right now, and overall just feel like whether I have flat feet, on my toes, flat backed, arched, whatever, Bench always feels ‘uncomfortable’, where as stuff like Squats and Deads I can literally fix a position where feel anything I can grip I can pull or anything I put on my back I can launch.

So yeah fuck it haha [/quote]

Cant imagine how shitty benching is with your long arms. I have long arms for my body but yours are still much longer.

Howd you figure your tspine sucked? I know mine does still cant fix it lol[/quote]

Haha combine them with some crappy shoulders and you have a recipe for a poverty Bench

Danny told me, saw my chest was collapsing on Incline bench and Squats. Plus I kind of knew because anything over like 3 reps on a Front Squat becomes a shit show reallyyy quick. Really just going to try to mash the shit out of my scapula area, see if that helps, and holding some positions that have me keeping my ribcage down with my scaps retracted

It’s been a long time since I’ve benched (since I haven’t reassembled my rack after moving, nor joined a gym), but… one of the things that did help me was spending time doing explosive concentric-focused dead-stop benching from pins. Because you have to build all your tension up, and have everything positioned just right before the bar moves, it worked well to teach me the right position at the bottom of the lift. If things were slightly off, the bar just didn’t move… so you could adjust your setup and try again until you found the sweet spot.

I was pretty unstable the first several sessions, but eventually my body found a groove. It wasn’t concentric-only, but basically I didn’t care about the eccentric… I was focused on exploding the bar from the bottom through to lockout. I found that ramping up with lighter sets did a good job of “activating” the speed, and then the heavier sets did a good job of drilling in good positioning.

Maybe something to try, especially since you seem pretty uncertain about where you’re really strongest at the bottom.