There was about a 20-minute break between squats and bench while they took down the mono and moved a bench to the platform. There were two benches so warming up was much easier that it was for the squat. I have to admit the bench is my least favorite of the 3 lifts. Probably because I’ve never really thought I was good at it. Bench training for this meet was a roller coaster. My raw bench strength went up nicely as well as my dumbbell press and floor press. I struggled a whole lot with my shirted bench however. I was smoking off the boards in my Metal Ace size 56 but touching in it was all but impossible. At first I thought the shirt was too small and I wasn’t strong enough to control it all the way to my chest. SO…I got a size 58 but got little out of it. Fortunately, Matt Smith was at the compound and took an interest in helping me with my bench. In less than a minute he knew what needed to change. The biggest issue was that I was taking the weight too high during the hand out- or basically over my shoulders instead of over my belly where I needed to touch. Because of that I had to move the bar lower on my body and down once I began the movement. He brought the bar out much further at handout making it so all I had to do was bring it straight down. We worked that form and I actually had a complete shirted press for the first time in two years. From there I screwed up a few things and only actually touched one more bench before the meet. I’m telling you this so you know my head was kind of a mess about benching today. During warm-ups I asked Wade (head judge) when the latest time I could adjust my opening bench was and he just looked at me and said “Ted, just run your numbers.” I was kind of thinking I would take a token opener to prevent bombing out but after he said that I though what the hell… So I opened with 573 and it turned out to be my 3rd full bench in the Ace shirt in over 2 years. That really helped my nerves and I jumped to 600. I got the 600 and that was everything I had on that day. I passed on my third and went to look for my deadlift socks….
