I'll be in business class on Korean Air thanks to a wonderfully timed upgrade certificate. I wouldn't even think about doing any heavy lifting over there if I had to make the trip economy. I'd need a week just to recover.

I may have to back off from very heavy close grips as they are obviously the source of my shoulder irritation. Before I make such a decision, though, I'm going to try Roger's advice and spend more time warming up before the heavy sets.

John, just a thought.....Your warmup seams to be awful short. I know I usually go overboard on warmups, but only four-short rep-sets isn't very much. Especially when you're a master lifter now.....

JP:

1. I sincerely want you to succeed in your training.

2. I stopped caring some time ago about how you trained since it seemed pretty clear that you will do your own thing.

3. I stumbled upon your post during a check to see where Illini Powerlifting was referenced on the web. I reacted to the "drama" comment, the comments on "paranoia" about overtraining, and the way work capacity was elevated to the point where it seemingly became a primary goal of training.

4. I said my piece about overtraining . . . experienced lifters know it's real and it's potentially dangerous. That's not paranoia; that's over twenty years in the sport, i.e., wisdom.

5. I appreciate the discretion that you've shown in your posts on the Illini Powerlifting board in recent months. Yes, our image and what people think of us matter, and it especially matters to me since I've worked hard at cultivating a positive image for us from the very beginning. You don't need to understand why this is so, nor do you need to agree with it. You simply need to respect the wishes of those who put in the hard work of building this team in this regard. Again, I appreciate the discretion you've shown and I trust it will continue.

6. By all means, use other forums to vent whatever you need to vent. I hope, however, you will use the Illini Powerlifting name on those forums with great care. From the posts I looked at, we look like a bunch of backward dumbasses, a perception that certainly doesn't fit the very real success we've achieved on the platform in meet after meet after meet.

7. I consider this matter closed as I hope you will. You do your training and I'll do mine. You and I have nothing further to discuss.

That rant was good, John! Nice, but stern way of getting your voice across.

-Brett "LIL' SUPERMAN"

Alex,

I rarely get mad, and I'm not mad at you. You're a terrific young powerlifter, but I had to give you shit because you defined who should be allowed to talk by the criterion that makes you look best. Why couldn't it be raw bench, squat coefficient, or any other combination of raw vs gear, absolute vs weight adjusted, or sq vs bp vs dl? The fact is that none of us are uniformly better than the rest under all possible criteria, and this board would be a horrible bore if we didn't let everyone state their opinions.

The person in question has always stated his opinions, regardless of what forum he is on. John and others have always stated their opinions in response. That's all fine. The dangerous thing that has taken place here in the last few hours is that not knowing this person's identity makes it easy to be critical and speak of banishment and cowardice. I'll admit I'm a little disturbed by that because this person is a friend of mine.

Jeff

Alex,

It's easy to find out who that is. He has a much greater deadlift than you, higher everything in fact, and you never worry about talking.

Jeff

John, seriously who is that?

If he doesn't have a high coefficient in the DL then he is not allowed to talk.

John

If one of your "team members" has some shit to talk about "the team" and they can't say it directly to anyone on the team or even on this forum, well what does that say about them. COWARD!

I'm about to rant:

I found this post in another forum. It's written by one of our members. "The people" refers to some other Illini Powerlifting members.

John and Janne,
I appreciate the mention, it's nice to feel like you played a small part in somenone elses success. Emphasis on small. Ron, if you reading this, Both of these guys got where they are buy working their butts off. During last summer, when I was able to work out with John consistently he would go 5-6 weeks consecutively handling 600 plus pounds several times during the workout. Janne is also capable of doing the same thing. In addition, both of these guys have brains as well as brawn. There were students of powerlifting (Now I would consider both of them Masters). Bottom line work hard and listen to your body. Just my .02

Randy

You are making me blush, John. Don't forget all the hard work you have put in bench pressing. I really miss the original Bench Church.

John and I benched raw for years. We both had some kind of experience on shirted benching, but the shirts back then sucked big time. When we finally found Titan shirts we were amazed how well they worked for us right in the beginning. Then we moved on to tighter shirts for better success. A tight shirt is a though nut to crack, and there was nobody who could really teach us how to use it. Randy was of big help, but he used denim shirts back then and didn't know so much about Titan shirts (he does now). So we figured out many of the secrets ourselves as a team. If someone learned something new, then he
shared this info with the others.

Wednesday, February 1 - Supplemental from Ron

At one point on the BBS you refer to the fact that you are a 'hard gainer'. I have read all the meet results over and over again (what a great resource and motivation) and you seem to have started with just deadlifting in meets, then suddenly in a meet you benched like 455. Then seemingly quickly you are benching upwards of 600 lbs!!! Those are some amazing gains, and a tribute to your tenacity and knowledge. What were you benching when you first started back in the sport? How long before you got the 455, then how long to the 600+ ?? What do you most attribute your increase to.... any special excercise, movement, strengthening of a specific body part????

Best coach in the world. Nice job on your bench day and every other lifting day. U rule!

-Brett "LIL' SUPERMAN"

I gotta tell you John, the more I get back into PL'ing the more impressed I am with how frigging strong guys like you, Andrew, Roger, Doug, Janne etc are! I know now from experience it is not just a matter of putting on a shirt and suddenly benching 500 lbs. The hard work and discipline you guys have shown is obvious in the incredible weight you are throwing around!!!