RPS Last Man Standing Pro Bench-Off Write-Up
Ok, so this Last Man Standing Pro Bench-Off was my idea. Rhodes and I were inspired years ago, when we saw the same format used at a Pro Strongman deadlift event at the Madison Square Garden. It was very crowd-friendly. Knowing multi-ply benching is still out of the Arnold, I approached Gene Rychlak of the RPS with this idea and he quickly ran with it. The days of catching lightning in a bottle at the Arnold are now over. They want to see benches being made. To some of you, 700 might not sound like a big bench, but the rest of the world thinks it's huge. I competed at the Arnold. It's awesome, we need to get it back!
Ringing in Some Competitors
The next move was to get some competitors. There were two guys who I went to immediately, Rob Luyando and Travis Bell. I respect them both immensely as lifters and consider them both great friends. I shamed Tone Barbaccio into doing it. He's stronger than he knows and needs to get his head around that fact. Another great addition was my new friend Brandon Lilly. Seeing him go big – raw and equipped – I knew he'd be up for this challenge. A nice surprise was Gene Rychlak throwing his hat into the ring. Gene is one of the best equipped benchers of all-time hands-down. Last, but not least, was my training partner and over 900-pound bencher, Tee Tee McCray. My hommie jumped in, even though he's hardly been able to train.
For those of you who follow my log, you know I was training raw exclusively for a bench meet I did two weeks ago. So, I ended up getting one training day in my bench shirt the week before the contest. I decided to go with the Ace because I had a loose-fitting size 66 (with pinched sleeves) that I could get weight easy in. I hit a 700 and an 800 pound bench last week and that was the extent of my training.
The Contest
I rode up to the venue that morning with Jessica and Rhodes. I don't think we talked about the contest once. I stayed on my backload plan and did not eat any carbs prior to lifting. I did, however, eat breakfast, which I don't normally do and made sure to take in extra healthy fats to get me through the day. We got to the meet and hung with the competitors for a while.
Before I knew it, we were warming up. I warmed-up on a bench with Travis. He was matching me. I think his 500 raw was faster than mine. We both put the shirt on with 600 to a 1-board and we were ready to go.
The competition went like this: all the heavyweights hit 700 pounds. Tone missed a call and under the rules was allowed to take it again and got it. Big Gene showed what a gamer he was and hit a token 700, then stepped aside to get back to running the show. Brandon was out with 750 because he had no idea he had blown up to 325 pounds. His shirt looked tighter than a grape skin. He then took over the microphone and got the crowd going. Next out were Tone and Travis with 800 pounds. I have to say, Travis' 800 looked really close.
Three
Then there were three: Tee, Rob and I, had 850 pounds on the bar. I got out of my 66 Ace and jumped into my 62 Ace. I hadn't worn this shirt in over two years. When I took the weight I could not get it in. Part of the problem was the shirt was completely cold. It really is a good thing to get these things on and warm them up. Anyway, I almost panicked and went back to the 66 bench shirt. Travis told me to stick with the 62 and big Tone told me I was really close and to just push my belly up. Sure enough, I listened and got the 850 pounds. I can't believe I tied a PR on what was essentially a fifth attempt. Of course, Rob smoked his first 850. However, my man Tee didn't get one in.
Now we were down to two. Without getting too dramatic, neither Rob nor I got it. My first attempt at it got out of the groove, and I had them take it. I was really surprised I got a decent push on it for my seventh lift of the day. Rob was super close both times. The winner came down to the scale. Rob was 290 and I was 286. Rob was all class. He shook my hand and congratulated me.
Not to forget about the lightweights, they crushed it. Tim Hensley, Jeff Johnston, and Josh Stottlemire hit 550, 575, 600, 625, and 650. Tim and Jeff tied at 675 pounds. Tim won on by bodyweight. You have my respect boys, that was a lot of weight to be moved. Thanks for coming out.
All-in-all, I couldn't have imagined it going much better. My wife has been to far too many meets, God bless her. She usually corrects papers or reads books when I'm not lifting. She said she was riveted to the stage the entire time. The format was so user friendly, everyone knew exactly what was going on and it was a real competition. In total, I think there were 34 attempts made with only 10 lifters. That has to be some kind of record for a bench contest.
Thank You's
I want to thank all of the competitors for coming out. The camaraderie was like nothing I had ever seen before. Each lifter was cheering the next on. This is what lifting is about. Thanks to Gene and Ame of the RPS for putting it on, and thanks to Rhodes, Karsten, and Josh for helping me out. We have one of the tightest crews around. Thanks to my sponsors elitefts™, AtLargeNutrition, and DangerouslyHardcore, I couldn't do it without you.
I will leave on this, I am a man of my word. I took home $550 for first place. I said that would all go to the Special Olympics. I was overwhelmed by lightweight winner Tim Hensley who donated $100 of his earnings to the cause as well...so friggin' cool. Matt Rys also said he'd chip in $50 if I won. To my pleasant surprise, when I got home today and checked my email, he had already sent it via PayPal. Powerlifters are great peeps. This November, I will have the great pleasure of presenting a $700 check at the CT Special Olympics Powerlifting Meet. Good times.
Oh yeah, I don't think I saw a single person pick me to win this event. For all of you, I did my favorite "Suck it!" dance. That fueled me all week. I said it before and I'll say it again, the best way to get me to do something is to tell me I can't. Your silence spoke volumes.