Bencrush Mgc5 Training

[bencrush]

I'm deconditioned right now on grippers, pinch, vbar, well the list might be shorter if I listed what I had been training compared to what I have not been training. I've been DU and Reverse bending, and using the Vice Gripper exclusively for my gripper training for a few weeks. Enjoying the hell out of the VG and the bending is keeping me pretty strong too.

I've been focusing on some business issues and a few other things that have kept me super busy for the last few months. Still getting in some infrequent training with the vbar (very infrequent) and a bit of one hand deadlifting every month or so. And the first part of the year was spent focusing on DO bending to the exclusion of most everything else.

Now that DO is not in the program I can spread the focus to include everything that's going to be in the MGC5 in August.

I knew that my vbar strength is way down in terms of 1 rep max because a week ago I tested and barely pulled 346 to 2" with my left hand. For a while there 346 was my last warmup pull before going for broke. I've still managed to keep a decent level of strength though and that's comforting. I'll need to really get my training in gear and refocus on building a base and then getting stronger.

The plan for the bending part of the contest is simple. If I'm able to bend a Bastard at that time either DU or Reverse then I'll do that and a little more if I'm able to. If I'm not at the Bastard level with anything other than DO, then I'll try to get whatever I can DO. I don't expect it to be pretty or strong at that point. I'm counting on the ability to do a Bastard DO even without training...but I'm also a realist and know that by choosing not to train DO I've hamstrung myself and won't place very well overall. That's okay with me. It'll still be a ton of fun! I'll be going mainly for the camaraderie and the opportunity to get on the LGC Vbar Total list. And see some world class bending and other feats of strength both during and after the contest.

And so it begins.

3-27-07

FBBC VBAR

-186 pulled at least 2" both hands. No belt and easy.

-276 pulled at least 2" both hands. No belt and it felt much heavier than it should have. It's been way too long since I've trained this with enough frequency to make a difference.

-326 pulled at least 2" left hand. Put the belt on for this one. Nothing with the right. Not an easy lift with the left and close to my old max with the right. So the failure on the right didn't really surprise me.

-326 pulled at least 2" left hand. No belt for this set because it felt like more of a hindrance on the last set. This lift was much more solid than the first at 326. Felt it in my obliques though and will probably end up switching back to using the belt later in the workout.

-301 pulled at least 2" right hand. No belt again and barely made the lift. Ragged looking piece of crap lift.

-326 pulled at least 2" left hand. No belt and a very solid lift. 3rd single at 326. Surprising myself by being able to get 326 for more than a single. Although that's quite a backslide, I still take comfort in the fact that at least I'm not 100 pounds under my all time max of 387.

-301 went nowhere with my right hand. Disappointing for sure. I'll reset and try it again later.

-326 pulled at least 2" left hand. 4th single at 326! Not bad for my reentry to serious training. Wore the belt on this set. Solid lift.

-301 pulled at least 2" right hand. Good! Started to think I would have to work my way up to the 300s again on the right hand and that wasn't very appealing to me. Very solid lift. Had to focus more on getting my hand set right.

-336 pulled at least 2" left hand! Good stuff here. Wore the belt and it was a solid lift but felt very hard. Definitely near a max lift today. But after 4 singles with 326 I was glad to pull it at all.

-311 pulled at least 2" right hand. Wore the belt and barely eked the lift out.

-326 pulled at least 2" left hand. 5th single at 326. Wore the belt again and it was a super solid lift. Pulled it at least 6" off the ground.

Notes: I wanted to keep going and thought that I'd be able to make it to 10 singles at 326 if my skin cooperated, but before I could test that guess, my wife called and wanted me to pick her up from work early. By the time we got back and we had talked a bit I wasn't fired up to do any more vbar. Another day. But a good start for me.

3/4" WOOD 2HP

-116 pulled at least 16.5" for 2 reps. First time to get a double with 116.

-116 pulled at least 16.5" for a single. I use a height gauge now to familiarize myself with the contest conditions. I am sure the contest 3/4" steel 2HP block will be much slicker than my wood though. Although the wood I'm using is more like a bookshelf type wood and not super grippy. I really focus on using my palm to help me lift the weight too. Not just on using the fingers to pinch it.

-116 pulled at least 16.5" for a single. Felt solid.

-116 pulled at least 16.5" for 3 reps. Already another rep PR. That's cool! Keep 'em coming is what I say.

-116 pulled at least 16.5" for 3 reps. Again I replicated the 3 reps with 116. Very nice. High five!

Notes: I got 10 total lifts at 116 in this workout, which was my goal going into it. Next workout I plan on going to 126 and shooting for 10 total lifts in a workout. That might not happen if I don't have enough time. That's assuming there's enough strength in me that day to do it.

It's good to be back on the training wagon!

[bencrush]

Went to the kitchen after typing out my workout to bake a big oblong potato. How does that have anything to do with training, right? It suddenly occurred to me that the potato could be "Reverse bent" to the point of breaking if I was strong enough to do it. So I put it to the test and after 3 or 4 very hard hits it burst in two halves! Very cool food trick. Not super impressive, but I had never thought of it before and it's doable. So maybe someday we'll see threads of "Calibrated Potatoes Available At ..." The potato would flex quite a bit and then I'd run out of steam. Then I'd hit it again and it'd do the same. Felt like a Grade 5 bend for comparison. Course it doesn't take me 3 hits to get a 6" Grade 5 moving either.

[lifesnotfair]

Nice thin 2HP !! What are you using, wood?

[DuTCH]

Looking forward to reading this Ben!

Comeback..

[Scott Styles]

Oh no! Your dinner!

Good to see you back to logging the workouts. Thin pinch is deceptively hard.

[jad]

Good stuff Ben, looking forward to rolling up there with you!

[GatorGrip]

I knew you couldn't stay on the sideline for more than a few weeks. You have retired and comeback more than some Pro wrestlers.

[bencrush]

Nice thin 2HP !! What are you using, wood?

Thanks man. It's a 3/4" wide section of wood (@15" long) from a bookshelf. Starting to hold chalk a little bit though which is good.

Looking forward to reading this Ben!

Comeback..

I knew you were the spying type Theo. Thanks but there's nothing that I'll be teaching you or lifting that you couldn't lift in a warmup.

Oh no! Your dinner!

Good to see you back to logging the workouts. Thin pinch is deceptively hard.

Yeah my wife had a very puzzled look on her face when she saw the potato go BOOM. Thin pinch really surprised me with how deceptive it was at first. Now I seem to be getting the hang of it and the thinness is actually working in my advantage somehow. My hands are adapting nicely and I have lifted within 20 pounds of my best 2HP on any normal width setup. And although that number is very, very low I think it'll be at least mid pack at the MGC5.

Good stuff Ben, looking forward to rolling up there with you!

Thanks Josh! I can't wait man. Just driving up with you is going to be a fun time. The contest will be the icing on the camaraderie cake.

I knew you couldn't stay on the sideline for more than a few weeks. You have retired and comeback more than some Pro wrestlers.

LOL Walter. You're right man. It's good to be back again. Hopefully I can retain my focus long enough to make some serious gains.

[bencrush]

3-28-07

VICE GRIPPER

13 sets all told. 2 warmup sets of 20. 1 set of 10. 8 singles. 1 set of 30. 1 set of 5. Did some strength work and some size work too. Great pump at the end. Truly a phenomenal grip tool. And I love the awesome adjustability of the VG. Peerless tool.

[bencrush]

3-29-07

BENDING-DU-THIN LEATHER

-1/4"X7" CRS to 63 degrees in 1 second. I remember back in 2004 when a Yellow Nail took me about 40 seconds of all out effort to DU bend...

-1/4"X6" CRS to 48 degrees in 1 second.

-1/4"X4.75" Stainless to 62 degrees in 14 seconds. Length PR on the 1/4" Stainless. 5" was my previous best DU bend within the 30 second time limit. Hard stuff.

-1/4"X3.75" CRS to 44 degrees in 24 seconds! Beat my previous length PR by a full 1/4".

-1/4"X3.75" CRS to 42 degrees in 20 seconds. Had to do it again because on the video I saw that I interlocked my hands while still in the DU position, but it might not have qualified as a DU bend...

-1/4"X4.75" Grade 5 to 52 degrees in 6 seconds! That went fast! Previous best Grade 5 bend DU was a 5" done only 5 days before.

-1/4"X4.5" Grade 5 to 55 degrees in 8 seconds!!! Just beat my best Grade 5 bend again! Hell yeah to that!

Overall notes: I was good for more than the 4.5" Grade 5. How much shorter on that day I'll of course never know. Maybe 4.25" and maybe 4". Maybe doesn't count...

3/4" WOOD 2HP

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Good lift.

-126 pulled at least 16.5" for 2 REPS! First time getting a double on this weight. I'm getting stronger.

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Solid lift.

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Again a solid lift.

Overall notes: Had to stop the workout there due to time running out. I would have had enough strength to reach my goal of 10 good lifts at 126 though...

3-30-07

Quick hammer curl workout at my part time job. Keeps the elbow soreness away when I bend Reverse so it's invaluable. After 4 hours of work I went home and did the following workout.

3/4" WOOD 2HP

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Barely held on for a good lift. A warmup would have been a good idea. Duh!

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Little stronger than the first one but still a bit weak.

-126 pulled at least 16.5" for 3 REPS! PR on reps. Yesterday was the first time I got 2 reps with this weight so beating that rep count a day later is goooooooooooooooooood.

-126 pulled at least 16.5" for 2 REPS. Solid double!

-126 pulled at least 16.5" for 2 REPS again! Very solid double.

-126 pulled at least 16.5". Probably could have done at least another rep but wanted to increase the weight since I hit my goal of 10 good lifts at 126.

-136 pulled at least 16.5"! Barely pulled this one high enough. Fatigue is rearing its ugly head. Also my palms are both tearing. The best I've ever pulled is 147 and I must be right around there to pull 136 after 10 good lifts with 126.

[bencrush]

3-31-07

Quick full body workout on the Hoist multi station machine at work.

Later in the day...

VICE GRIPPER

Warmup set of 20 to get the blood flowing. Then a set of 10. 4 sets of singles. Then 5. Then a hard set of 3. Then 5 hard singles. A hard triple. Ended with another hard single. Great workout!

Overall notes: The Vice Gripper is breathing life back into my gripper workouts! I don't say that lightly either. A few weeks back after a very high volume week of grip stuff, I actually failed to close my Easy #3. That hasn't happened since early 2005! That also scared me a bit. I had already ordered the Vice Gripper and was thankful when it got here that it was such an awesome grip training tool. I'm also using it for my thumb training and that has paid off nicely with very quickly increased strength on the Thin 2HP. Anyway, long story short, halfway through this workout I wanted to test myself on just one gripper. The Easy Elite. Which is harder than my hardest #3. MMS closed it for a solid single on the right hand. I'm at least back to my previous level which does give me hope. I won't be using the grippers in my training though. Only the Vice Gripper. I may test myself every once in a while on the grippers just to see where I'm at...but if I don't improve above the Easy Elite level that's fine too. It's just doing too much for my overall forearm strength to ignore at this point. Plus it's making my forearms bigger.

[GetAGrip87]

Awesome Ben! Keep up the Training!!!

[jad]

Ben, are you training no-set on the vice or are the settings you list, with a set?

[pdfk20]

Ben i'd love to see a video of you DU bending 3.75"x1/4 CRS , to me this really is crazy sick! The best i've managed is 4.5" to 45 degrees, and that was beyond awkward.

Im liking the new journal, good luck with your training for Mgc 5

[Alawadhi]

If you can do a 4.5 G5 then the G8 will be a piece of cake

[bencrush]

Awesome Ben! Keep up the Training!!!

Thanks a lot Scott! I just hope to keep up the log. It's almost the old cliche of spending more time updating the log than actually training.

[bencrush]

Ben, are you training no-set on the vice or are the settings you list, with a set?

TNS only at this time. The spread is narrow as it is, 2", so I figure it won't hurt to train exclusively like that. Shouldn't hurt my MMS too much and will help my sweep a little in the process. No world class TNS strength yet...the highest I've closed it at is 7&10 TNS, which feels just like my Easy #3 to TNS close. I imagine in my TNS heyday a while back I would have repped that for 5...but it's a start.

Ben i'd love to see a video of you DU bending 3.75"x1/4 CRS , to me this really is crazy sick! The best i've managed is 4.5" to 45 degrees, and that was beyond awkward.

Im liking the new journal, good luck with your training for Mgc 5

I sent you the video Pete. Thanks man. Awkward is a great word for the super shorty bends. That and "Pinkie Destroyers!"

[bencrush]

If you can do a 4.5 G5 then the G8 will be a piece of cake

You should be very right man. I had planned on visiting Travis Mickelberry again (taught me to bend DO) on Wednesday. It's been quite a while since we got to train together so we're both jonesing for the inspiration/motivation that only we can give each other. Unfortunately I think his plans have been changed due to unforseen circumstances...I mention this because I was planning on attacking the 6" Grade 8 again both DU and Reverse at his house. And also figured if I felt strong I'd see what I could do to a 4" Grade 5 DU. If our plans fall through I might try the 4" Grade 5 tomorrow. Might just get it too with enough coffee and angel dust.