. . . a Denie feature
Ironco@webtv.net
I was about 16 when 'IT' happened.
As most hormone driven and insecure teeners are who take up weight training, I was bench press fanatical.
At 14 as a beginner, I could just handle 55 pounds on the bench having lifted the barbell from the floor to my chest and laying back on 'something' to accomplish my chest building mission.
By my late 16th year...the rush of iron had launched me forward...I owned a small storefront gym and could bench press 400.
But somewhere along the way 'IT' mentioned above was to change me.
The books and magazines always tell you. Never bench press without a back up, or spotter. And definitely never...never alone.
When you're power hungry and cocky strong, such advice really falls on deaf ears. Missing a workout due to being a lone iron wolf, is not an alternative.
Well, there I was in my little side street gym that afternoon...alone. The place only opened at night
you see...and of course I felt like bench pressing.
I'd taken a layoff from the bench...cycling in and replacing it with parallel bar dips...running my dipping
poundage up to 155 pounds on my dip belt.
That cycle of dipping would help break my sticking point stalled bench when I returned to it...it was common practice in those days to substitute supplementary exercises for main moves to let time kill staleness, when you returned to the main power moves...in a few weeks.
This was bench press return day...a hookey day from high school as well, and I was alone.
Grabbing the bar I proceded to mount my attack on the bench for a few sets. My shoulder joints couldn't believe how good the weight felt. Dips can really jack up ligament and tendon elasticity...with pec and front delt stretch receptors getting some finite fast twitch neuro efferent directiles jimmied in without being shagged by afferent loggies. The short of it was...I was iron smokin...big time.
With ease I transended a few sets and tapped into the 285 barrier...Gawd dam! It was good...a joke !
Sadly, than "IT' happened !
I had the power...but pushed the envelope. My hands and wrists were not coordinated for the bar lay back on the heels of my palms...with a thumbs over grip. Dipping had changed my support feel and balance.
As I repped...I knew I was alone for sure. Ahh but that was the challenge. More reps my mind screamed and they were easy. But than on what would be the hardest final rep because I was alone.
The bar slipped off the supporting heel of myright hand and crashed like a freight train down on to my chest crunching and squashing into the ribcage. The shock caused the left arm to collapse and follow
in a mocking like pattern.
As I lay there with the bar crushing my ribcage inward. My aloneness was painfully apparent. I had made the critical mistake many training neophytes make...but I was no neophyte.
I was getting a crushing pain message...laying there helpless trapped under 285 pounds of teenage hungry iron. How bad was I hurt...how could I get help which was always there when I used a spotter.
I couldn't roll the heavy bar forward because it would wedge itself into my abdomen cavity pushing it in and being blocked by my higher pelvic bone as an obstacle.
The bar in devastating fact, was starting to roll upward toward my throat.
I wasn't sure I had any power to 'lever seasaw' flip the bar to the left or right...without it collapsing the cartilage factored ribs snapping them on the choosen side glide path... far worse than what was there as an inward and downward crash injury.
I laid there...maybe 30 critical past life evaluating seconds. "No blood in my mouth yet...not choking for air yet. But maybe soon ." ... I thought.
Finally, only one solution lumed to the predicament...I regrabbed the bar with my hands and a slight hope...and yes, yes,...it started to move. The power was there, I bench pressed it up surprised as it ascended, and reracked it. Than the moment of truth came. How bad was I hurt...would I be able to train again any time soon ?
The answer was...the ribcage is a very flexible bone and cartilage structure...I had a little red bruise
and an experience which would follow me as a memory ever time I flopped into a bench press zoned
area.
In later years as a hardcore Bodybuilding photojournalist and eventually a muscle magazine editor. Being pinned under an unspotted bench press bar was a common complaint I ran into among many new and even seasoned training bravado boys.
At least once every year for 2 decades I would receive by mail newspaper clippings about 'death by bench press'.
During this period in the 1970's when Arthur Jones was peaking interest with his Nautilus Machines training revolution...another movement was also underway. A movement which tried to force barbell training, and the barbell specially to be labeled a prescriptive instrument regulated by the Federal Goverment for physical therapy and by medical practicioners.
The irrate mothers, who lost their training teenage children (and some husbands) to the bench press careless security precautions in basements across the country due to 'death by bench press'...certainly agreed with this in principle. I often heard them loudly by attack mail at the magazines where I worked. So
did their representatives in Washington D.C..
Still, after three decades of this...the bench press remains Bodybuilding's and resistance training's most
popular free weight upper body training action. It is no safer now, for the careless ego sycophants than yesterday.
Surfing the web recently something exploded into my bench press happy, portal worm hole net vision, still being BP crazy after all these years.
Something extraodinary, for enhancing bench press performance. There it was...an answer to neutralize the 'bench press kill zone'. A product so remarkable we knew we had to feature it here in review.
Yes...can you believe...a 'non human' automatic bench press spotter and security check...just incase you're bench
bombs out. And you don't wish to crush your wind pipe (trachia) as a consequence, or mush and degroin your testosterone loading nodes with a couple of hundred pounds of iron rolling pin.
Called the 'POWER PRESS' it can be found on the CONCEPTS 2000 inc website http://www.concepts2000inc.com/
with all the strategic details of how it works.
It's 21 st Century totally new, completely original and does what no other accessory machine can do - provide a safe way to spot yourself when working out without a spotter."
Need I say more. I thrive on the art and sport of resistance training and specifically going after those fast twitch power fibers...I, we must.
It's crucial for torso strength, to emergency reinforce a surefire way to safely 'max out' without becoming a victim of the 'B. P. KILL ZONE' .
My nomination for the Strength Builder's Academy Award goes to the 'POWER PRESS' at CONCEPTS 2000 inc. for Precision Instrument Achievements in the Field of Sport Safety And Longevity.
Notes on the Author: Denie is a former internationally
known photojournalist (70-91)and magazine editor (Editor: Muscle Training Illustrated Magazine (80-84) (86-90); East Coast Editor: Flex Magazine (84-85) ). He held the title of Mr. New Jersey and Mr. East Coast and served as Medical and Press Liaison as appointed by Ben Weider for the IFBB and also in association the NPC.
IRONCO WORLD (back)
http://community.webtv.net/Ironco/DENIEIRONCOWORLD
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