Going Raw
By
Scott Yard
Disclaimer: Before you read this article, please note.
Because this is my first EliteFTS.com article and some may not read my log, I’ll
give a little introduction. First and foremost, I’m not an expert. I’m a lifter
just like you. I’m not a trainer nor do I have any connection to the strength
and conditioning field outside of EliteFTS. I love competition, and while I’m a
great dancer, I’m not very good at much else.
I have been competing since I was 18, and I’m a product of the current
powerlifting climate. I have spent most of my lifting in multi-ply equipment and
have loved every second of it. Early on, I had a lot of success. I hit my first
800 bench when I was 23. I totaled 2605 and benched 840 in a full meet a month
before my 24th birthday. I have placed third at the Arnold Bench Bash and even
got third at the First ProAm. So now you’re probably thinking who is this guy
and what does he know about raw lifting? He’s obviously a gear whore. Why not
write about gear?
Well to prelude to the point of this article, I did my last multi-ply meet in
March of 2008. At that meet, I hit a 925 squat, an 810 bench, and a 720
deadlift. After the meet, I had a bit of an empty feeling. I just wasn’t feeling
it. I walked through the motions in my training and had an “Oh well” attitude
about the meet. I remember saying, “Maybe I’ll get a deadlift PR. That’s
enough.”
While I have always loved the gear, I’m at a point now in my lifting career
when trying to squeeze another five lbs out of my bench shirt just doesn’t
excite me anymore. I needed to spice things up. What better way to mix things up
then to pull 180 and do the complete opposite of what you’re doing now. I
figured why not train for an unequipped meet—just wraps, a belt, and lots of
ammonia capsules. So that’s got us caught up to now.
After four months of training, I’ve completed my first unequipped meet and
have started training for another one. Because this has been such a different
journey, I wanted to share a few things I learned along the way. This isn’t a
how to guide but simply an observation of one gear whore’s experience to
another.
The squat: Where’s my box squat?
This was the hardest lift to get used to. Because I was used to squatting in
four layers of gear, going down to nothing was a big shock. Any raw full squat
that I did was off a box. While I did get plenty strong at box squatting, there
was no carryover to my full raw squat. I could squat in the mid-700s for reps
off a parallel box, but in the first weeks of my unequipped odyssey, a 700 to
legal depth box-less squat would have crushed me.
The first big thing to overcome was the total lack of any power coming out of
the hole. I have squatted wide for five years. My hips and ass were three times
the size of my quads. Going wide and raw didn’t work for me. I brought my stance
in to shoulder width and really stepped out of my comfort box. My quads were
terribly weak. My low back and hamstrings pulled the way for the first few
weeks. This worked, but my technique suffered. To bring my quads up, I began
doing high rep leg presses and high rep leg extensions every week. I needed a
crash course in quad development, and this fit the bill. Nothing fancy here,
just some burning quads.
I hit high reps to really condition my quads for the increased work load that
they were suddenly subjected to. The high reps also gave me a form of
pre-habilitation because now I was squatting much deeper and my knees were
susceptible to more injury. The second light bulb to go off in my head was that
I never realized how little abdominal work I did. One of the first things I did
was think about what I was missing without a squat suit. Core support! My first
goal was to get my abs into shape. I realized that doing some sit-ups after
squatting once a week wasn’t going to cut it. I began to hit my abs four times a
week. I did this religiously. I didn’t do anything special, but by adding three
more days, I had increased my ab work by 300 percent. I did mini band sit-ups,
standing cable ab work, twists with a barbell coming out of the corner of a
wall, and side bends. I had to hit my abs from all angles to get them to a level
to where I felt strong.
Basic pointers
Use a close stance—shoulder width or slightly closer for maximum push out of
the hole. Use a close grip. Keep your hands closer for a more upright position.
Keep your head up. The body goes where your head does. If your head is up, your
back is arched. Keep your toes straight out or just slightly turned.
Bench: A benchless bench routine?
Going into this meet, I had some very high expectations for my raw bench. At
my best, I was able to go up to the mid-500s a few times around the year while
consistently hitting 800 plus benches in full meets. Knowing this, I figured I
could finally focus on my raw bench and raw bench every week. What happened? My
raw bench dropped 10–15 percent over 8–10 weeks. I was benching heavy every week
and it just wasn’t cutting it. When I looked back over my training and wondered
how I was so much stronger, a few things came to mind.
One thing was I was 30 lbs heavier. Because gaining 30 lbs wasn’t an option
that I wanted to choose, the second thing that came to mind was how little I
actually raw benched. I mainly hit the board and various special lifts in
between my many shirt cycles. Knowing this and that my bench couldn’t get any
worse, I decided to do a “no bench” bench routine.
Figuring that I couldn’t get any lower, I decided to rotate foam presses, 2-
and 1-board work, and reverse band benches. I chose these exercises primarily
because I liked them and they work. Ten weeks out from my meet, I missed a touch
and go bench of 510 lbs. In my meet, I was able to hit an easy 500 and go on to
miss 525 for a technical reason. From never raw benching, I never gave myself a
chance to overtrain the movement. I’ve now learned to cycle my training and keep
my volume and weights relatively low. This is a topic for another article
though.
Basic “non bench” bench cycle
Week
1 2-board
2 Foam press
3 1-board
4 Reverse band
5 Deload
6 2-board
7 Foam press
8 1-board
9 Reverse band
10 Meet
Basic pointers
Maximum grip should be kept to the ring finger or closer for optimum drive
off the chest. Rotate the shoulders back and get your traps under your body.
Keep your feet behind your body for optimum leg drive. Squeeze the bar once it’s
taken from handoff. Let the bar settle into your body after handoff to shorten
the pushing distance. Get a big air. If your stomach isn’t tight, your legs
won’t have anything to push into to get your chest closer to the bar.
Deadlift. I actually have time to pull now.
From prior training and being in gear, a squat workout would take three hours
and then I was just warmed up. Now that I was raw and done squatting in 30
minutes, I had time to actually train my deadlift. The three things that I chose
to do were block pulls of a four-inch block, full pulls starting from the top of
the rack, and speed pulls. One thing I did was pull heavy every other week. I
had put five lbs on my pull in two years and knew I needed a change. The only
obvious change that I saw fit was more work.
I cycled these three workouts over the course of 16 weeks. I chose a 16-week
cycle for my pull because it’s a lift that doesn’t make huge jumps. It should be
treated this way with a longer, more realistic training cycle. I found that by
doing these lifts and not actually full heavy pulls, I didn’t reach stagnation
because I never actually pulled off the ground over 405 lbs in 16 weeks out from
the meet—only one time at five weeks out. (The full pull triple at five weeks
was to reiterate my form with the heavy weights.) I went on to hit a 20-lb
deadlift PR of 740 lbs but without a suit on. My best pull was 720 lbs with a
Metal Deadlifter.
10-week raw deadlift cycle
Week
1 Pulls from the top
2 Speed
3 Pulls from the top
4 Speed
5 Pulls from the top
6 Speed
7 Block pulls
8 Speed
9 Block pulls
10 Speed
11 Block pulls
12 Speed
13 Tripe at 90% if goal
14 Deload
15 Speed pulls
16 Meet
Basic pointers
Other than getting a big air before you pull, I’m not going to give any basic
pointers here because I don’t have any. I just bend over and rip that fuc#@% bar
as hard as I can. Because I pull conventional, this seems to work for now.
Assistance work: Cover it, don’t smother it.
What I mean is just get it done. Don’t create a workout for a bodybuilding
magazine. I found that without equipment, recovery was much slower and harder to
attain. You only have so many punches in your card before they’re all out and
you’re overtrained. When you’re out in the dessert and trying to survive, what’s
the first thing you do? Cut loose the things you don’t need. Early on, I learned
that less is more. While I’ve always believed this, I never believed in it more
than this training cycle.
The biggest example for this was my delt and lat work. Obviously, the rear
delts and lats are important not only for the set up of the bench but the
execution as well. In order to focus on the big three, I needed to cut back on
some things. I tried to pick exercises that were easy and efficient. I began
doing pull-ups and mini band pull aparts. These two exercises made up 90 percent
of my assistance work. I made these two exercises a staple in my training and
did both twice a week. I figured that these two exercises work and the worse
case scenario would be that I was a little undertrained. Being that the core was
more overly taxed than I was used to without squat gear, I had to give my low
back and core a break throughout the week. Sticking to body movements and band
work fit the bill well.
Summary
The biggest thing I have taken away from this training experience is the need
to cycle your volume and weight. In order to be efficient at the movement, you
must train it, But how and with what weights is the key. I know basic
periodization is frowned upon these days, but I did find it essential to improve
the big three. A deload week every four weeks was also crucial as it allowed for
enhanced recovery, which your body needs because briefs aren’t worn to protect
your hips.
Raw lifting is a different challenge then multi-ply lifting. I wouldn’t say
that it’s harder per say but different. To measure the two is difficult. I do
know that “going raw” in the bedroom is definitely better than going raw on the
platform. But again that’s a different article as well. You trade one
frustration for another, but I will say that I have a passion for lifting more
now than I did eight months ago. While I’m not turning my back on the gear, I’m
going to give raw lifting a few more tries before I dig out my suits again.
Scott Yard is a 2004 graduate of Western Maryland College. He is an
insurance producer in the state of Pennsylvania. Training competitively for six
years as a bench specialist, Scott decided to throw his hat at full meets. In
his second full meet in September of 2006, Scott broke the all-time world record
total for the 275-lb class. This was done at the age of 23. His 2605-lb total
consists of a 1050 squat, 840 bench, and a 715 deadlift. Scott’s 840 bench is
the heaviest recorded bench to date in a full meet across all weight classes.
Scott trains out of Club Natural Gym in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and hopes to
compete for many years to come.
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