richieirish’s BodyBlog

september 06 - chest day, for some the highlight of their training week and a chance to show off to their gym-rat buddies how strong they are in the bench press! for me, it was a much more modest affair as i had only been training in the gym for four months and i knew the massive ammount of work i had to do in order to achieve my goals!

one of these goals had just been achieve a couple of weeks prior to that nights training session - bench 100kg! having achieved that goal i now set my sights on improving on this! feeling strong and solid on the bench i worked my way up in weight and decided to do a set at 105kg! having set myself up for the set both mentally and physically i unracked the bar when suddenly i felt the left side of the bar shift dramatically forward, someone had just walked into the barbell!! regaining control of the bar and trying to focus on the set i lowered the bar and was able to do 2 reps before re-racking it! getting up from the bench i noticed this big polish guy ( the person who walked into the bar) looking at me bemused! he made his way over to me and foolishly i thought he was going to apologise for his stupidity and ignorance, instead he passed me and dramatically started counted the plates on the bar before announcing "huh, only 105?!" - the feeling of wanting to kill this gym-rat was only matched by my humiliation that all my hard work could be so easily dismissed by someone so arrogant! it was my first real negative experience in a gym and it left a very sour taste in my mouth!

january 17th 2009 - arm day, feeling strong today and the first exercise is close grip bench press. the gym is fairly quite with only a few people training. i see that big polish guy is in the gym after being absent for quite a while. first set warm up 25 x 20kg then taking very little rest its 12 x 60kg. chalk up my hands and take a little rest and on to my next set 10 x 100kg! coming up from this set i see i have caught someones unwanted attention - mr.polish his attention increases when i load the bar to 130kg for my next set! as soon as it is loaded he is over asking me " do you want a spot?". this is unlike him and i know deep down he is expecting me to fail miserably on this set and he wants his ringside seat! being polite i accept his offer and ask him to give me a lift off with the bar, i usually count reps in my head but this time i was counting them differently " 1. . . . 05, 1 . . .05, 1 . .05, 105, 105!, 105!!, 105!!!, 105!!!!" 8 perfect reps using precise form before re-racking the bar! short of breath i turned to him and thanked him for the spot and in doing so killed one of the demons that had been in my head since september 06! he did not expect me to get one rep, let alone 8! he could not compliment me on my efforts but that did not matter, he . .  did not matter! did he offer to spot me when i loaded the bar to 150kg?? . . no! he was probably to proud to do so knowing that such a weight was within my capabilities but beyond his!!

its days like this that drive me and motivate me to be constantly better and you must keep telling yourself that any negative critisism is only more fuel for the fire within!!! if everyone told me how strong i was when i was benching 105kg would i be in the position now where i am benching 170kg??? i know, 170kg is not that big a weight to be benching . . . .  but please . . do me a favour . . be the first person to tell me that its "Only 170?!"

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