02 Jul Zane Geeting, Tuesday night bench training

I’m currently in an off-season training block, focusing on bringing up work capacity and some weak areas. During the busy summer months I’m only training 2x per week, and so far, making very good progress with it. As I approach my competition season through the fall and winter, I will probably kick it back up to 3 days per week. As of right now competition plans involve a meet in the fall, and then the XPC finals at the Arnold Classic Sports Festival.

Tuesday night put me back to benching with a barbell in my rotation. This is actually the part of my training cycle where I would normally reintroduce gear, but I was late getting out of work so it was only Tuesday (my wife) and I at the gym. Probably not a great idea to put on a bench shirt with just my wife handling. So, I opted to use my super loose Inzer Phenom that I use in place of a slingshot. Here’s what I did:

Warm up

Bird dogs, McGills, Cat/Camel, Side laterals, Scarecrows

Bench

45×25, 135×15, 185×10, 225×5

Add giant Inzer Phenom and shoulder saver

275×5

315×3

365×3

– These all felt good, RPE of 7 or so

Close grip shoulder saver, no shirt

225×8

255×8

275×8

Seated DB OHP

Warm up set, then… 80’s x10x2 sets

Rolling extensions

Warm up set, then… 50’s x8x2 sets

Rope pushdown drop set

70×10, 50×10, 30x a bunch (one drop set)

Kroc Row

90’s x20x2 sets ea arm.

– I did these with a big stretch and hard contraction on every rep. We need bigger DB’s, lol.

Rear delt flys

warm up set, then… 50’s x12x2 sets

– That was the end of it. I got some good work in, and did it all in about an hour and a half. The best news of the session is that there was little to no tightness or pain in my destroyed pec. While I’m still weak, it seems that as time goes on, things are getting better and better. I know I’ll never bench anything heavy raw again, but the future looks brighter and brighter for shirted pressing. I just need to get into a well fit Super Phenom and see what happens.

– So, a quick breakdown here. I used the shoulder saver pad to focus more on the mid and upper end of the bench press. As training is focusing on a bigger shirted bench, I need to have stronger triceps. This work is good for a raw bencher too, but only if you’re using it to address a weak area, and not just making an already strong area even stronger while neglecting the areas that you do need work. Also, let me say about this old, huge phenom that I’m using, that I much prefer this over a slingshot for guys that have pec and/or shoulder issues. To give you an idea, this thing is a size 60, and I’m only 225 ish lbs. This is the kind of size that most SHW lifters would use. I can do push ups in it, but it gives me that good pressure on the pecs and front delts that a slingshot cannot reproduce. Its more expensive, but its a hell of a lot safer for guys in my position, and I know I’m not the only one of us out there.

-After my main pressing movement, I kept the shoulder saver on, took the shirt off, and moved my grip inside the rings for some more direct triceps work. Next was seated DB OHP, these are to keep my shoulders strong and healthy, and also work the triceps as a secondary mover. My shoulder stability is very important with the loss of my right pec, so direct shoulder work is a must for me. I followed that with a couple sets of rolling extensions to hit the tri down by the elbow, then finished them off with a high rep drop set to pump the tri’s as full of blood as possible. Now, this is more volume for the triceps than I would have most people do, but I’m also only training them once a week, so I have a long time to recover.

– After all the chest/shoulder/tri mayhem, I hit the upper back and rear delts with some high rep stuff. This is good for hypertrophy and building a good solid base to bench off of. DB rows are one of those movements that Matt Kroc definitely got right, they work much better with high reps than other rowing movements.

– That’s about it, I am considering doing Dan Dalenberg’s APF meet in October. I think several of the team members are doing it and it should be a great meet as Dan and Ezra Salmon always put on top notch meets here in MI. More on that as I see if I can make it work with my schedule.

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Zane Geeting

Zane Geeting is a pro multi-ply powerlifter with best lifts of a 935 squat, 625 bench, and 765 deadlift. He is coming back to competitive PL after a year and a half layoff that was a result of several serious injuries including a severe rupture of the right pec that could not be repaired. Zane has an extremely busy schedule that would make most people quit before Friday. He works 55+ hours a week as a finance manager. As a renaissance man, he is also currently restoring a 140 year-old farmhouse and maintaining a hobby farm. Despite all this, Zane still finds time to train 2-3 times per week, as well as coach other lifters.  

Latest posts by Zane Geeting (see all)

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