Gene Rychlak at 2005 Olympia

2 quick thoughts have sprung to mind upon seeing the picture . . .

1) What the hell happened to his right arm?

2) What the hell is he wearing? Is there a SWAT misson he's required for?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Jester @ Oct. 19 2005,11:59)]2 quick thoughts have sprung to mind upon seeing the picture . . .
1) What the hell happened to his right arm?
2) What the hell is he wearing? Is there a SWAT misson he's required for?
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My guess is his right arm is either broken or hurt in some other severe way. It looks like he was trying to support all the weight with his left arm so as not to get crushed. The clothes he's wearing are most likely the bench press equivalent of a squat suit. Hope he's doing okay.
 
It looks painful, no question about that. . . . this is gonna seem retarded I know, but suits...?
 
hes wearing a bench shirt like he is allowed to...

and hes fine, no injuries.

His explanation is that he lost 10lbs during the leadup to the comp, and his shirt didnt fit, so as he was touching the bar down, the shirt moved on his arm and the weight just got dumped on that side. To me it looked like he put the bar too low on one side and the weight got too far out of position and just dropped onto him. Nothing major
 
Hey Aaron, this is something that's been puzzling me for a time. How the devil does the bench shirt work? I know that with lots of practice (and with the right shirt), it can add a lot of poundage to your lift... but how or why does that happen? Is it because it makes the lift more stable so less stabilizers are required (similar to the logic why a regular bench press is heavier than a dumbbell bench press ) ?

:confused:
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Joe G @ Oct. 20 2005,6:15)]I am also puzzled how 1015 pounds can fall on you and you can not be seriously injured.
Joe G
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I don't think it fell on him, at least not from a great distance. Heavy benches like that, people help you get the bar off the rack and lower it, and then you press it up alone. From what I read/heard the weight was lowered and as Aaron said, was out of position on the right side.

With weight that heavy any change in angle or grip can create serious leverage disadvantages. So his right arm likely rolled and the weight fell on that side. Once it fell and was angled, maybe even touching the floor, he was using his left arm to lever it up and to the right to keep it from crushing him. He also probably instinctively contracted every muscle in his torso for protection.

So, in other words, it was likely a gradual fall onto him that he had some small amount of control over, and he had people there to pull it off of him quickly when they saw something was wrong. So, no injuries is a lucky outcome but not at all impossible. I've seen videos of lighter, but still heavy weights like 500 or 600 lbs falling on people because they pulled it off the rack themselves and then lost their grip or something. It's not pretty.

I prefer deadlift strength competitions. At most a knee cap or two will go flying into the crowd, and no one gets crushed.
 
Knee caps flying into the crowd sounds terrifying to me
crazy.gif


Maybe I'll only go up 10 pounds for my deadlift instead of 20 on wednesday after that visual. :confused:

Joe G
 
Bench shirts allows you to lift more weight - with the right one and with lots of practice of course. It's not magic.

The mechanics of just how it allows you to lift more is something I'd like to know for certain. Aaron?
 
Depends on what you are talking about with bench shirt, as they have evolved over they years.

Something like a Titan Fury has a stretchy back, and a ridgid polyester front, with arms sticking straight out. BAsically as you lower the bar, the front of the shirt get stretched and holds some of the energy from the lowering, which it then allows you to release on the way up, basically removing part of hte movement.

The extreme shirts like Gene is wearing are open backed, which allow you to wear the collar down lower. What this does (when combined with a 'super' collar) is that instead of the energy being put through one/two layers of chest panel, the stress is being put throuhg 8-10 layers of the collar (his federation has no limit to the collar thickness) enabling more load to be put through it.

a simple shirt such as the Inzer Blast is basically a tight fitting poly tshirt. Offers support to the shoulders and chest while offering little performance increase. Which is a good thing, as it allows soem people with shoulder injuries to train around the injury without adding to hte problem
 
Yea I was hoping hed get it too.... but i watched the video and it didn't seem as bad as that photo. The spotters got it off him really quickly.

Im sure hell be back and trying it again...

Joe G
 
Depending on what you are wearing, the bench shirts can add really heavy poundage. But it's not magic, like you buy one and wear one and suddenly you get 100+ on your bench. It actually takes a lot of work to make it work, which is why it isn't really "cheating" of any sort.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Joe G @ Oct. 27 2005,4:11)]Your thinking the shirt adds 300 lbs.?
Aaron do you agree with that?
Joe G
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Comparing him to other benchers, yes around 300...

he is a specialist towards shirt benching, which is a completely different movement to unequipped. Like comparing high jump to pole vault. In both you have to get over the bar, but the technique and training is different..
 
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