Today’s post by Mike B.
I’m sure everyone has seen him: the guy whose bench PR is 225×5, and has been for five years. He comes in Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to knock out his flat, incline, and decline bench, along with some curls. He sometimes stares off into space when not flexing his “abs” in the mirror and wonders why his bench is “stuck”. Where this individual failed was in measuring his progress, or perhaps being ignorant that it’s been some time since he made any. I have been there myself, and that’s why I want to discuss several mistakes I made.
I’ve sucked at the bench press for years, and honestly, will probably never be amazing on the bench. Nevertheless, I continue to try and get better. While spending 4 years in England, I tried numerous ways to improve it. I bought boards, bands, and Westside Barbell seminars. I was determined to not suck…as much. For a while I did get better. Without ever being coached, and without knowing what the word “programming” meant, I increased my bench from a paltry 190 in 2005 to a less-than-respectable-for-powerlifters-but-OK-for-casual-gym-goers 295 when I left in 2009. I was still irritated, but at least it was going up.
Since moving to Texas I have managed to compete in 3 competitions, spaced out over the course of a year. In my first meet I hit 281, 292 in the second meet, and 303 in the third (all paused, obviously). Are these fantastic numbers for a guy my size? Absolutely not. However, they are indeed measurable gains. They mean that something I did between meets 1, 2, and 3 worked. By using the meets as a guide, I could at least tell that I was making progress. The four years I spent training in England was not in vain, but I think they would have been accelerated if I had started competing. Had I not competed in the past year, would I have known I was getting better? Personally, I think a powerlifting meet is the perfect opportunity to do so. If you leave your ego at the door, and just worry about performing as well as you possibly can that day, I don’t think there’s a more legitimate way of seeing how far you’ve come.
Nah, I don't need a spot.
It’s also important to be brutally honest when measuring any type of progress. In the past six years, I’ve spent numerous months having to lose weight in order to pass my PT test. I always pass and then go right back to doing what I love to do: lifting heavy shit. Recently, this has become more difficult for me, particularly because the military has come down so hard on the PT program. Personally, my issue is the waist measurement. I’ll always be in decent enough shape to pass the sit-ups, push-ups, and run, but the waist circumference kills me. My belief is that I was built incorrectly in the factory (long arms/legs, short and wide torso), but that’s something I’ve learned to live with.
The challenge this past year has been to try and make sure that I don’t become too weak, but that my waist is still kept in check. When I started dieting back in November, I was convinced two months would be long enough for me to diet down and get my waist to a 37. I was wrong. During the months of November and December, I dieted (cut carbs significantly) and increased my cardio (moderately paced walking) dramatically, and looking in the mirror, I thought I was good. A week out from my test, I measured my waist. It was still a 39…fuck. Knowing that failure was not an option, I pulled out all the stops. I performed over an hour of cardio a day, decreased my calories once again, and within a week, was at a 37.5. Where did I go wrong? I failed to measure my progress. Instead of measuring my waist weekly, like I knew I should have been doing, I waited until the last minute. I was worried that if I measured too often, my methods of losing weight might become too drastic. This was a big mistake, and something I encourage you not to try.
In both cases I didn’t measure my progress correctly and was unaware of my gains. Logging your training is necessary to gauge progress in a training program, but you also have to take measurements that are relevant to your goal. I didn’t measure my waist and put myself in a shitty situation to have to lose an inch and half on my waist circumference in a week. I aimed to get stronger on the bench years ago but never really saw precise progress until I started competing. Again, I highly suggest competing in something to see where you’re at, no matter how “weak” you think your numbers are. Real vs. relative, right Brent?
They measure your waist in the US army?
Is this a fucking joke? BMI isn’t enough?!
@domjo54
It’s the US Air Force. And that part of the test is for “body composition” to make sure that you look better in uniform as well as being healthy. There is a positive correlation between waist measurement and the risk of heart disease. Along with the waist measurement, there is a 1.5 mile run, one minute of crunches, and one minute of push ups. To me, the test is more of a health test to weed out unhealthy individuals rather than to measure true fitness.
There are height/weight standards according to BMI, but if you pass your PT test they don’t really care. At least my nurse changed my weight on the form since my BMI is close to or over 30. I’m 5’7” and 190-195. If she didn’t do that, I would have had to go to mandatory counseling on my weight.
Personally I think the waist measurement is stupid. In college, I knew someone who ran Division I cross country and track and ran the 1.5 mile run in like 7 minutes something and maxed the push ups and crunches, but couldn’t get a hundred on the test due to his waist measurement. He was like 6’2 or 6’3 with wide hip bones. This guy was more “fit“ than me and couldn’t get a 100. They did rework the test last year to change the 32” max points waist measurement to 35” so that’s a step in the right direction, but now you have to pass all the different sections of the test. Before if you failed a section and got over 40″ on the waist measurement, you can still pass the test by getting a total score over 75 points. Now to pass you have to get 75 points and pass all of the minimums in each section. The waist measurement needs to be under 40”.
Last year, I had an E-6 who had been in for about 18 years and risked getting kicked out due to failing the PT test. If it doesn’t make it to 20 years, he would lose his pension. He could run faster than most of the younger Airman and max the push ups and sit ups, but his waist was like 42”. He was about 5’11” or so and like 240-250 pounds. I don’t know whatever happened to him since I transferred units and bases since then, but examples like that show the stupidity of the waist measurement and that test in general.
The military in all branches highly stresses cardiovascular fitness. I think some cardio is good, but it isn’t like we have to march to battle anymore. We have trucks, HMMWVs (Humvees), etc. According to Air Force safety videos, if something is too heavy you are supposed to just get more people to help you out. That isn’t going to fly if someone is in a burning vehicle from a roadside bomb and I have to pull them out fast. Plus there’s that study that stronger people are harder to kill.
The PT test tries to fit everyone within a cookie cutter standard to make sure they aren’t too much of a drain on the military healthcare system, but people have unique body types and I don’t think doing only cardio is beneficial for modern day combat.
http://www
Where were you based when you were over here Mike, Mildenhall?
Boom
mike b i think you make a good point
This goes along with an adage that I try to keep in mind: “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
In other news, fuck this guy Scott Herman. I think he’s been mentioned on here before. His videos keep coming up when I search for anything weight lifting related on youtube and he just fucking sucks in every way possible.
I’m more tempted every day to record a video response doing actual deep squats for a set of 20.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-EGNWwBDKA&feature=player_embedded#at=236
Totally agree that the waist measurement sucks. One way to ‘prepare’ for the test is to wrap your waist in plastic wrap and duct tape a half day before the test. Usually cuts an inch or two.
Otherwise you can stick with the whole diet and exercise thing…
Honestly after awhile I started to lose motivation because I stopped logging my lifts. Once I got my notebook back out it seems like everything has skyrocketed again. To be honest, lazy planning makes for lazy lifts in my opinion. If you don’t care about what you’re lifting that day compared to other days then you won’t care if you miss a set, bomb on a weight, or don’t go at all. Tracking progress is a good practice in any walk of life regarding improvement based performance. Good post Mike.
Good post. The factory built me the same way!
37 is pretty ridiculous. They should loosen that up.
Sweet post. Lol that vid of Scott or whatever his name Is doing those goodmorning-half-squats is funny. Tsssssssst!
As we all know, I condone minimum ass circumference standards for women. However, limiting a 70’s Big adult male’s waistline?? . . . no dice!
Good post, Mike
Scott Herman must be trolling. Mustn’t he?
I was stationed at Lakenheath, where morale goes to die.