OH SHIT!-Powerlifting Edition 2.0

[red_donn]

Thank you for those videos, Donn, but

Powerlifting - a competition consisting of the squat, bench press, and the deadlift. No sandbags, no kettlebell high pulls/swings. We've got a lot of Beni's deadlifting, and Malanichev's squat plus one bench video, but precious little else.

no love for my Laura Phelps-Sweatt video?!?! That was some quality lifting.

To be honest, i was kinda hoping you could shed some light on the advantages of having her legs so far back. I'm not really what you'd call a "lifting connoisseur" and i'm just baffled by her stance.

Truth be told, I watched her squat then shut the video down. Depth might or might not have been good on all of those, but I've had a much greater range of motion doing partials in the front squat. Hell, I've done shrugs with a bigger ROM. That kind of lifting, super-geared and tiny ROM, just isn't my thing.

Now, on the legs.....

Bench form can be as highly variable as squatting or the Olympic lifts at the high level. All sorts of things vary between top-flight competitors, which stresses the need to find the form that works best for your build and mindset. For instance, there have been world-record benchers that press with their arms as far as the bar will allow and others that grip as narrow as many will close-grip bench.

This is a highly instructive blog post by Jamie Lewis on the subject of ideal bench form:
http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2012/05/stop-bitching-and-start-benching.html
http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2012/05/stop-bitching-and-start-benching-2.html

When it comes to leg positioning, most contemporary lifters will be attempting to maximize their tightness, solidity, and even leg drive via foot positioning. Presumably her foot placement does just that for her.

Scott Mendelsson was greatly pleased to hear that one person asking him questions had strained his quad while benching and most powerlifters that I've listened to have agreed that the ability to become uncomfortably tight in the bench setup is a sign that you are doing something right. I know that Mendelsson said that he took to wearing steel-toed boots to protect his toes while benching, and there's a picture of a Russian doing an arch/foot combo that is absolutely freaky. Some federations require the heel to be on the ground, and others don't, so that can factor into the decision.

In my case, I found that a high arch, tucked elbows, and tucked feet (though not fully on my toes tucked) worked best for me. When I say "tucked" I mean that they were probably at least as close to my hips as they were to my knees. Unlike her, I found that my base was a bit more solid when I kept my heels down, and this kept my hips tighter, transferring to all of my body. This overall positioning helped keep my legs, hips, back, and abs tight, and I could even start the press by driving my legs into my hips, and then pressing the bar up and a little towards my navel.

That "combined drive" was inspired by a tip from Dave Tate, I believe, who suggested that the "diagonal" forces would cancel out and allow for greater overall force. If that wasn't from Tate, then it was some of his other tips that helped me arrive at that little conclusion all by my lonesome.

Finding this to be my favorite setup was simply due to experimentation and note-taking on my form for a couple of months. Realistically I probably have only trained the bench with any focus for 4 months within the last three years, and haven't done it at all for over a year and a half due to my Olympic lift training. During that time, though, I probably got more dedicated improvements in my form than in any lift besides some recent work in the snatch/c&j, because I was bringing in so many new thoughts and looking at so many solid lifters/coaches.

In short:

look at how far back her feet are during her bench

what the fuck....ive never seen that before, though, I've never seen very many females bench.

Too flexible for their own good lol.

Don't knock it unless you've tried it. If you've tried it, and it didn't work for you, it might be that it works perfectly for someone else.

[KC Masterpiece]

Two of my favorite squatters:

Mike Mastrean:



Henry Thomason:



I'm tweaking my squat form pretty substantially currently, and it's ending up emulating both guys very closely.

[KC Masterpiece]

Jay Nera, best current raw 220 (awesome video):



Mike Tuchsherer, best current single ply lifter at 275, probably in any class. Also one of the most technical guys lifting out there (especially on the deadlift. Every single pull he does looks exactly the same):



Ben Seath, 308 (or SHW) JUNIOR lifter who will be lifting at the Meet i'm going to do in October in San Jose:

[KC Masterpiece]

Crazy squat compilation

[red_donn]

Ben Seath, 308 (or SHW) JUNIOR lifter who will be lifting at the Meet i'm going to do in October in San Jose:

Fuck - I wonder if that's the same one that Jamie Lewis will be lifting at.

[KC Masterpiece]

USPA on October 6th at Wild Iron?

[red_donn]

Dunno - I'm not exactly up to date on his schedule. He mentioned in a podcast that he was lifting in the fall in San Jose. If some of my favorite youtube lifters/bloggers plus you are going to be lifting, I might swing by the meet myself.

[Fearless6691]

This girl in the first few seconds is sexyyyy

[Fearless6691]

Wrong link lol

[discoowl]

EPICness

[KOdestruction]

EPICness

3rd time that lift's been posted in this thread....and you were the one who posted it the second time so i dont know what the fuck you're doing.

[Fearless6691]

Idk what was up with those last videos I posted.

Red.. I posted my first video as a joke.

Don't knock it unless you've tried it. If you've tried it, and it didn't work for you, it might be that it works perfectly for someone else.

Thanks for the first grader advice again, but I was talking about females who arch their backs like crazy. I cannot try it, because I simply am not that flexible.

[discoowl]

EPICness

3rd time that lift's been posted in this thread....and you were the one who posted it the second time so i dont know what the fuck you're doing.

lol its called af ucking ketamine loop fuck you very much....

[red_donn]

Idk what was up with those last videos I posted.

Red.. I posted my first video as a joke.

Don't knock it unless you've tried it. If you've tried it, and it didn't work for you, it might be that it works perfectly for someone else.

Thanks for the first grader advice again, but I was talking about females who arch their backs like crazy. I cannot try it, because I simply am not that flexible.

You're right - I should take it down to the special ed kindergarten level.

Note the use of the phrase "In short" directly above your quote. In the English language, this is commonly used to indicate a summation of some previous points made. You still with me, Tiny Tim?

See allllll that writing just above the bit that you quoted? It also relates to bench form, including arches and leg positioning, and apparently at a level too high for your "conversational" use of the forum. The links there include quite a few pictures of top level benchers using extreme back arches which you might have found useful.

You diss extreme arches, which are commonly praised by top coaches and pressers, apparently with no experience or evidence to back up what you say. I can't physically match her arch either, but if the literal interpretation is as far as you are able to take my statement and you refuse to actually experiment, read, etc then that's not my problem. Your arrogance in the face of your own ignorance deserves no more than the one line you managed to actually read and misinterpret, although if you had just managed to look up a few inches, you would've found more.

[discoowl]

Idk what was up with those last videos I posted.

Red.. I posted my first video as a joke.

Don't knock it unless you've tried it. If you've tried it, and it didn't work for you, it might be that it works perfectly for someone else.

Thanks for the first grader advice again, but I was talking about females who arch their backs like crazy. I cannot try it, because I simply am not that flexible.

seriously you're just butt hurt cause you got pwned in that other thread - you should just take your licks cause a) red_donn isn't exposing you to be a prick - you're doing that all by yourself and b) you might actually learn something if your pose your questions right - red_donn is a true font of knowledge in every area imaginable but particularly S & C - he's like a savant. What ever you think about your self or whatever you study I guarantee red_donn knows more than you about pretty much everything.