Does this man deflate my dreams?

Been a little over a month, sorry about the delay in writing. My life has been stupid crazy...
I have NOT slacked on my bench however which is a very proud statement for me to make. The laboratory is alive and well and I am currently sitting at 305 pounds for my bench. It is not a thing of beauty by any means but it is a solid press.

I am now out of weight. So I have been doing high quantities of reps with the weight that I have. I see the plateau coming so I need to window shop craigslist and find 2 more 45 plates. Unfortunately for me, people selling weights always turn to google to find a reasonable asking price and wonderful google returns the command to sell it at one dollar a pound. So people usually then make it a flat 100 dollars.

Finding that extra 100 is a struggle for me right now so I sit frustrated. I just need that mom cleaning out her sons room after he leaves for college to give his plates away.....

Then I found this guy... Eric Spoto. I am angry with him yet I love him. Like a parent. He worked his ass off to achieve this unearthly feat, yet his success makes my goal seem so trivial. 722 pounds. He more than likely warms up with 400 pounds. It makes me wonder if Eric Spoto once had a goal of benching 400 pounds, like me.

I also notice, and it proves my point, that someone who is able to bench 722 pounds never misses a meal. YOU MUST CONSUME MASSIVE CALORIES!!!!!

Calories are the needle and thread to muscle repair. Never forget that. DO NOT ever think that you will gain large muscle growth while spending hours on an elliptical and sipping smoothies.

My Milestone

So yesterday I called my wife into the lab. "Spot me please."
It was not so much the need to have someone truly aid me in finishing my press, but more to have an eyewitness to what was about to take place.

I was going to bench 300 pounds.

I had all of the weight I owned on the bar.

She positioned herself as a spotter, kind of complaining, "So what happens when your ligaments separate? I think you are doing too much."

She is not being naggish, these are true concerns I suppose as I did just turn 42. "I'm not 80!" I humph onto the bench. "I am stronger than I have ever been! Now here we go." In my mind all I could see were my shoulder ligs and tendons unzipping and rolling back onto themselves. Halting my journey for good.

Ugh.

Whatever. I take a deep breath, position my hands, unlatch and raise the bar, down slow, press up, smooth. Down slow, press up steadily - no back arch, down slow - "OK, might have to help me" I tell her through clenched teeth. Up slow but steady.

Finish with a fourth press. All mine.

I have earned every single one of these 300 pounds. Every rep. All four. Few things in life you can claim as completely yours.

300 pounds baby. My wife walks off shaking her head, not really impressed.

I however, feel quite impressed with myself. 100 pounds to go.

Here Jonny, have your parents sign this... A Progress Report....

The grandeur of doing something grand. The feeling of power when you think of it. The trepidation before doing it. The sadness when you turn away from it.

When I was growing up I would, every chance I could, take a little shuttle bus from the south shore of Lake Tahoe to Sierra Ski Ranch (now Sierra-at-Tahoe). It is where I learned to ski. I would go by myself because I lacked a lot of friends then. I wore Levi 501's with these ridiculous gators and an even more ridiculous ski jacket. I had Head Radial Carbon skis, 180 length with awesome Nordica bindings, Rossignol boots and Apre' curved ski poles.

All of this gear would carry me safely down the hill with each run. I would stare at the ski trail map for hours. Plotting the journey in my head, but never leaving the green runs except for the couple of times I got turned around and had to snowplow to the bottom until my knees were pure fire. Then I set a goal. I would, before I finished school and leave for the Coast Guard, ski down Upper and Lower Dynamite.

These runs were terror to look at. Cliffs really. They ran directly underneath the chair to cap it off. The last place I would ever be caught. Until I caught the idea to make it my goal. So for a few weekends I would plummet helplessly down other black diamond runs out of view (Jackrabbit, Chute), and hate every second of it.

Then, there I stood. I sat at the top of Upper Dynamite looking into an abyss. A ski patrolman whizzes by like he's walking down the bread aisle. No fear. Smooth and Awesome. Heroic looking in his white cross jacket. Full speed over the edge and right into Upper Dynamite. I do not believe he even turned. Straight down at like 900 miles an hour.

I did it by the way. I conquered the Dynamites. It took forever and there were times I felt it the end of my life, but when I reached the bottom I felt more powerful than I had in my entire life. I have never told anyone that story until now.

So I write this as a progress report for this current journey I am on. Benching 400 pounds by the time I am 45. I started this skiing the greens. Enjoying the scenery. All of my weightlifting life I have been skiing the green. Now I am headed into the Dynamites and I feel amazing. I have posted a little video that shows where I am now.

 

My 265 bench (ok form, not great) and 135 curls (suck form)

I feel pretty great. Strong. I am taking in a lot of calories which aid my healing after a workout. I see awesome pectoral striations in the mirror. My form is lacking, but the cheating movements get me where I need to go.

My laboratory remains open and cold and dark and beautiful.  400 pounds is a great possibility. My Lower Dynamite. This time I wear no gators.

I am inclined to incline. How Incline bench Presses dominate chest development.

I will revert back to my previous posting about my orangutan arms. This also means my pectoral muscles are very wide. This is a large canvas to have to destroy and repair to invoke growth and strength.

You have all seen that guy, the one who lives only on the flat bench and has a chest with an almost Madonna like pointy anterior and nearly inverted upper chest. Without much thought you can deduce that this guy has rarely moved his bench beyond the horizontal. Unfortunately, by doing so, there is a whole undiscovered world of muscle tissue waiting to be shredded and reborn.

But, incline bench presses suck. They suck. Really suck. They are hard to do and many guys avoid them because of the smaller amount of weight they are able to press. This is detrimental to ones image you know.
A travesty though.

Since I started this journey, with my Total Sports America 2000 smith machine, I have relied on incline bench presses nearly 80% of the time and I have fallen in love. Contrary to positioning, the flat bench press calls upon more shoulder and triceps participation than incline. This not only means that incline presses target a more specific pectoral growth potential, but a wider area of chest development.

So after about two weeks of strictly inclines, I dusted off the pin and lowered by bench to flat. My strength was exponential. I benched 270 with no back arch, controlled, almost like a ballet. It felt beautiful.

Man I am loving this challenge.

It's alive... It's ALIVE!!!

I am not saying that marriage, almost fifteen years of it and all wonderful, nor am I saying that 2 daughters, again, all wonderful... I am not saying that this equation of marriage and children equal the departure of man-dome.

But I am saying that this equation re-arranges the pecking order of priorities and places the need to maintain the things necessary to feel mannish into the junk drawer of life. You rarely go there and when you do, you shuffle things around and then leave frustrated because you could not find what it was you were looking for.

So is this experiment of mine simply a spring cleaning of the junk drawer? Am I using this desire to be able to bench press 400 pounds as an excuse to be able to say I am working on something manly? Because I believe I have lost the majority of myself in this drawer?

I am surrounded by women and I believe that I was slowly turning into a woman. Do not laugh. I truly believe that I was morphing not only into a misshapen Dr. Seuss character, but I was also becoming a woman.

So yes, this need to bench press 400 pounds is a life-ring thrown deep into my soul. Into my internal bottom drawer where all the things you have lost can never be found. I am lighting the flare. I write this with excitement because what I originally started as almost a joke, has become something very deep to me. I have found that little bit of myself that was lost. I have realized a healing process. A magical elixir flashlight that shines brightly into the drawer and exposes the shivering, huddled mass that was my manhood.

While yes, I did just recently build a Barbie condominium out of an old bookshelf for my daughters, and yes I do love Project Runway and flipping through Elle magazine and quietly, inwardly judging the outfits, this goal of mine has taken on a new life and I have found my manhood again. In the drawer. In the back. In a fetal position looking hungry and angry at me. I begin a wicked laugh and look to the sky........

"It's alive.... Oh yes, IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!"

Yesterday I benched 265 pound in my cold laboratory. 3 full manly, growling presses at 265 pounds baby.

Welcome back man.

These dang arms....How arm length plays a role in bench pressing.

I am 6'4".
My wingspan is 6'5".

I think it is important to factor this in when attempting to increase your bench press.
It is a logistical fact that men with a shorter arm span are able to bench press more weight than men with longer arm spans. With a shorter travel distance this is an obvious.

Does this mean that a man who is 5'10" tall will always be able to bench press more than a man who is 6'4" tall assuming that the effort between the two is equal?

Mathematically, yes. Many forums and posts claim that a man with longer arms should widen his grip on the bar and by doing so, decreases the travel distance of the weight from chest to full extension. This is not a fix though. By widening your grip, your are decreasing your vertical leverage. Therefore decreasing your ability to press as much weight as a man with a shorter arm span with a closer grip who has a shorter distance to travel when pressing.

Livestrong claims this: If you have long arms, you will push the weight of the barbell across a greater distance. Your elbows will drop below your body at the start of the bench press. This position moves your upper arm lower than a parallel position so the muscles of your triceps, shoulders and back are not used as efficiently to move the barbell.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/458669-is-a-bench-press-affected-by-arm-length/#ixzz2IphLGaNO

 

So true. All of my life I have been disgruntled at the lack of my ability to progress and increase my bench press when compared to those around me who are not as tall. I had a buddy when I was in the Coast Guard who was 5 inches shorter than me and we worked out together almost daily on the ship. His bench skyrocketed beyond mine to the point of becoming a distraction when benching together because of having to change weight configuration with each switch.

 

The Oak, Arnold, who is 6'2"; says because of his height and wingspan, of all his body parts, it took him the most effort to get himself to a 400 pound bench press.

 

Should I find discouragement in this? No way. Although I am taller than Arnold, older than Arnold and missing probably a few key genetic markers, I am all in on this task.

One forum posting said this: It sounds strange but it is very true. If you see a stacked tall dude, give him some props, he's worked his ass off to get that way! http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3157&page=1

 

So in conclusion. Having long arms suck when attempting to bench press 400 pounds. But are great when trying to reach that can of tomato soup way back in the cupboard. Or for scratching your knees.

You gonna finish that?

Me so hungry.
All the time.

I now see why I have never seen to many 6 packs on men who can bench immense amounts of weight. It requires an outrageous amount of calories to keep a body going that is having to repair itself constantly.

Again, do not try and find a solid answer online for the amount of calories you should eat when strength training. You will find ten thousand times ten thousand answers.

When you are tearing your body apart via excessive weights, and are having to deal with a body that is crying for calories and fuel to provide repair to damaged muscle........

Listen to it.

I am hungry all the time and I eat a lot. I have been feeling so great lately though. Vitamin D regimen, increasing strength. Walking a little taller and look forward to every trip to the laboratory.

I am currently benching to failure 215 pounds. Today I did it 6 times throughout the day. The benefit of having your smith machine right inside of your garage.

Must go...... every cell in my body is begging for a burrito. I must obey.