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Bench Press Videos

By Gary F. Zeolla

This page links to all bench press videos available on Fitness for One and All. Benches are the best exercise there is for upper body development and is one of the three powerlifts. But proper performance is critical. The videos were taken during various workouts by this writer.

The shorthand is date (month/day/year), followed by pounds/ reps, then supportive gear used in parentheses. Raw means without gear.

2007 - 2009

• Raw Benches - 5/9/07, 162/4
• Raw Benches 2 - 5/9/07, 165/4. This was when I was planning on competing raw. So I was trying to pause all of my reps, but I didn't pause as long as I'd like on some of the reps.
• Frantz Shirt Benches - 6/6/07, 180/4. (Frantz double-ply poly shirt, APT 24" Black Mamba wrist wraps). With this workout, I decided I would compete with gear, not raw. So to ease back into using gear, for this workout I used my Frantz shirt, which is my least effective bench shirt.
• Crain Combo Shirt Benches - 6/15/07, 210/3. For this workout, I switched to my Crain "combo" shirt. I call it a "combo" since it is two older shirts sewed together. But it works quite well. I was so excited in this video as I tripled just five pounds less than I benched at my last contest. But my form was not quite right. Too shakey coming up, and I didn't pause enough.
• Final Workout Pre-contest - 9/12/07, 215/2. This was my last workout before IPA PA States, September 22, 2007. My form here looked impeccable.
• Final Set Pre-contest - 9/12/07, 230/1. This was a gym PR, hence why I was so excited. But looking at the video, I doubt it would pass. I didn't pause enough, and I probably came back down on the ascent. At my contest, I went 3/3 on benches, going, 200, 210, 220.
• Unequipped Benches 1 - 6/4/09, 175/2. This and the next video are from my final heavy bench workout before my contest June 13, 2009. As can be seen, things did not go as planned.
• Unequipped Benches 2 - 6/4/09, 182/1. I am not pausing enough on the reps that I got, but I paused longer on the reps that I missed. I will need to take that into account in picking my attempts, and it is something to work on after this contest. I also need to stop playing around and taking so long to get set.

2015 - 2017

When I started powerlifting again after a break of six years, I started lifting exclusively raw with wraps. Specifically on benches, I am wearing a Crain power belt and Genesis wrist wraps, plus Adidas AdiPower lifting shoes.

• Benches - 4/15/15, 160/2. I might need to pause just a tad longer.
• Benches - 9/10/15, 160/2.
• Benches and DB Benches - 10/26/15, 170/1, 62s/3.
• Benches - 12/9/15, 162/2.
• Benches and 3-Count Pause Benches - 12/24/15, 165/2, 135/8; 145/2.
• Benches, 6/26/17, 147/4, 155/2