Shanker Relearns How to Bench 05/13

Rough day, because of this rule that I have to bench with my feet flat on the floor for the AAU meet I have had to completely re-engineer my footplacement.

Where I used to keep my toes roughly 3-4 inches from the side of the bench, roughly under my hips, and pushing my knees out, now in order to get my heels on the floor, I have to anchor my feet something like 12-18 inches from the side of the bench. The problem is my seemingly longer than average femurs. In order to get any sort of tension through my thighs I basically have to fold myself around like a pretzel, and since my ankles are apparently quite inflexible, this "heel on the ground" concept has thrown me for a bit of a loop. Suffice to say I think I may have it, but for this workout at least, any type of progression of strength was shot to hell.

BP
45x10
135x10
155x8
185x5
225x2
230x1
225x2 F
225x2 F
185x5
185x4 F
185x5

In theory, the goal was to hit 230x4x4. Obviously that didn't come close to happening. So I backed off, then backed off some more. The last three sets at 185 felt/looked pretty good, I'm going to work some more additional bench work in on Saturday (not for volume, just to get more practice) and I guess we'll go from there.

Dumbbell Row
112x12
142x12x4 R
142x12x3; 142x6 L

Grip died in my left hand. Actually these were surprisingly easy on the initial sets. I'm a little puzzled I haven't seen anyone (except for Aaron) try DB rows for upper back/grip strength recently. Personally I find they work wonders and Danny can attest to my complete and total lack of grip strength last year. I place such a premium on this work because of how valuable I find them to be to my deadlift.

Reason 1: I don't want to think about my grip. I want it be like a lego guy, you just kind of bend over and lock the bar into your hands...no rotating, positioning...just get down and go.

Reason 2: I deadlift with my hips extremely high, as such if the bar moves forward even the slightest bit from its natural path, there is a huge amount of torque that I have to compensate for purely with my back. Kroc Rows give me the lat strength to, if worse comes to worse, partially row the bar back into the ideal path.

Anyway, to each his own, and not that it necessarily carries any weight, but Shanker recommends Kroc Rows.