2006 Utah Summer Games - Bench Only Competition

Short Story –

1st attempt – 385 (success)
2nd attempt – 395 (fail)
3rd attempt – 395 (fail) My goal was 405 for 3rd if I got the 395 on the 2nd.

I was disappointed with my results in this meet, I had some surprises which threw me off, but next time I’ll be more prepared, not to mention stronger!

Here is a video of the lifts.

I did end up getting the gold medal in the open 235 and up weight category for the bench-only competition. So that was cool, but like I said when I started, it was the PR I wanted most, so getting the gold was bitter sweet.

Long Story -

Weigh in was at 8:00 am. I weighed in at 239. I was supposed to weigh under 235, so I was pushed into the heaviest category, 235 and up. I didn’t care too much as the only concern I had was with getting a new personal record, not what anyone else was doing.

At 9:00 they started squats. There were several guys squatting over 400 and a few at 500. I was in awe. They started with the youngest category moving to the open division and heavy categories. They didn’t start bench until around 11:00 or so. Then there were so many people doing bench only that it wasn’t until 1:30 that I did my lift. I was there drinking Gatorade and trying to get pumped for 4 hours and by the time I did my lift I was exhausted mentally.

About 15 minutes before my lift I did 275 twice with no shirt on, I was surprised at how heavy the weight felt. I knew though that the shirt and the pressure would give me that extra 100+ pounds.

As it turned out I was the last lifter for the day as I had the biggest opening lift (385 pounds). It was strange for me to see these really big guys lift and sometimes fail at weights that I have done. The heaviest weight benched to that point was 405 with the second best being 390! I had confidence that I could get the 385 and 395 since they were weights I had done before. At this point the gym had more people in it than the whole day. Here was the last bench of the day – talk about huge pressure and this was my first time doing a big lift outside of the Tomax basement!

My first lift did go up with some struggle, but it did go up. 385 down, 395 and 405 to go!

I had about 3 minutes until I had to lift 395. I was so anxious, it was hard for me to relax that whole time. I was angry earlier in the day that the lifters would take so much time (making me wait) so I felt self pressure to hurry up a little. What was most distressing was that it seemed as everyone was watching me. I hated that!

When I went for the 395 I couldn’t get it more than 3-4 inches off my chest before it stopped and started coming down. The spotters quickly grabbed it out of my grasp. What a bummer!!! My chance at 405 is gone! There is no way I’m going up in weight on my 3rd attempt if my 2nd wasn’t even close! So I had to at least tie my PR (395) on my third.

On the third I went further, but got stuck and couldn’t lock it out. I was upset that I didn’t meet my goals! However I was at least grateful I got 385. If I were to bomb out completely that would be the worst (and there were a few that did earlier in the day).

I was angry at myself because I have been struggling with my feet ever since I’ve started benching over 300. I have never had leg drive and my legs don’t give me any help at all. I talked with John, the master powerlifter who was the ref. He said I did need to work on my leg drive. He said to put 225 on the bar and let the bar sit on my chest for about 5-10 seconds (still pushing though so the weight isn’t resting on me) and then concentrate on my legs pushing my body up the bench so that they stay on the ground and help me get that weight up until the power transitions to my traps.

Lessons learned:
· focus on legs, not only for bench, but to get my squats and deadlifts to a respectable level.
· Next time I will not drink Gatorade all morning
· I will start major mental prep no more than 15 minutes before.
· Stay outside the gym until 10-15 minutes before my lift. Its too intense watching the others right before me.
· Make my opener smaller
· RELAX!!! Until its time to perform, and when it’s time do so with some RAGE! This meet I was unable to get some real rage as I was mentally exhausted by the time it was my turn.

Some things I thought were handled very well at the meet:
1. The organizers were good at judging. There were several people bouncing the weight off the chest, and they didn’t let that slide.
2. They were good at getting the crowd to cheer. When monumental lifts were being made they announced something that would cause the crowd to wake up a little and cheer.
3. They accommodated people who had music preferences and played their music during their lift.
4. John (the main judge) would give those who failed their lifts good direction on how to overcome their flaws and motivation to get the next attempts. But the fact is that without practice it’s hard to really adopt big changes unless those techniques are already mastered.
5. The gym was well cooled. It was probably 100 degrees outside (the doors were wide open too), but the gym stayed comfortable.

Some problems I had with the meet:
1. Two folding chairs. There was a lot of gym equipment, for spectators to sit on, but only two folding chairs! I was surprised at that! I had to sit in uncomfortable places for over 5 hours before my lift!
2. The water fountain was very wimpy and only had about a 1 inch arch. I was so sick of Gatorade by noon that I started drinking from the drinking fountain and I wasn’t impressed.
3. When I asked where the closest bathroom was, I was directed to a porta-potty about 50 yards away. I didn’t really think about this until I used it, but let’s say I take a dump in a portapotty with no facilities for cleaning up, and then go lift, my dirty hands are going on a bar that someone else is going to touch in the same place. I located a real bathroom where I could wash my hands but I don’t know if a porta-potty should be made available when a bathroom is twice as far, but people can wash their hands.

Thanks to everyone (Especially Cathi!) for supporting me in one of my passions in life!