Ploomp!!!

I begin this by saying that I am not giving away anything classified here. Heck, you can see it on Discovery Channel, or Google it. That said, I had an epiphany after today's experiment with a two board press.

When a submarine fires a missile, the tube opens and surrounded by cold gas, it's surface reacts with the sea water and floats it up to the surface quickly where after it breaks the surface and pops up a bit, gyros sense this and sends data for the rockets to fire.

Yesterday, I worked up to 240 lbs on the two board press, which is about 3" off the chest. All my rotator, shoulder, and overload work is paying off: I had near complete control of the weight coming and going - - - it was a tad wobbly. It also moved at a good rate. I have always said that 3-4 inches above the chest is where I get stuck, but that's the "1/2 dozen of the other" analysis. In reality, I need more "ploomp".

In an overload, I bench shrug the bar off the j hook with nearly locked arms, so I know from experience that the action of my lats/upper back at the bottom of the bench will move the weight between 1-1.5 inches just from that action itself. That's my modus operandi for pounding my upper back and lats with two exercises each.

The triceps have to kick in at that point, and that is one of my crutches, thus the use of dips and close grip benches as tricep movements. I have to increase my tricep strength enough to get 240 lbs to that 3-4 inch point so I can be in the clear. Remember, I don't use a bench shirt so I don't have rebound helping me here.

My other experiment was on the Nautilus Nitro Bench, where I worked up to a 190 single. The back rest was set to 4, so that my arms were in the same position at the bottom as my bench. I had no pop this way, since there is also no leg drive. The first rep has no stretch reflex, since the start position is at the chest. That needs work, too.

The last part of that equation, hopefully, is speed. 60% of 240 would be 144 lbs if doing speed work. Without better force production, that 3-4 inch point would be like a wall (or the slight dip of the missile just before the rockets engage) - - - so I have to bust it. The bands are at least starting to help. The only downside, and I hope the other work takes care of this, is that band work helps at the expense of bottom-end power (due to reduced bar weight).

As Ricky Dale Crain says, don't always work at or above the sticking point, work below it.

Ploomp!!!