Slate has a terrific piece on the quest for the 1,000-pound bench press.

Mostly, the article looks at the phenomenon of bench shirts, and how they’ve changed the sport of powerlifting:

“High-end shirts are so taut that for the bar to even reach a bencher’s chest, the fabric has to be compressed with incredible force. (At one meet, [world-record holder Gene] Rychlak had to abandon an 890-pound lift because it wasn’t heavy enough to force the weight down to his pecs.)”

Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell likes to say that it’s not the shirts or the steroids that allow these mammoth lifts. But the shirts do add between 100 and 250 pounds to an elite lifter’s max. (The record without a shirt is 713 pounds; with a shirt, it’s 965.)

It doesn’t mean the race to a half-ton bench press isn’t exciting, but it puts it into a different category…

Tags: Tags: strength

After a few more fits and starts, it looks like the training wheels have come off the weblog, so please check this space regularly for updates.

If you have a question or comment, please use lou@louschuler.com for now. I’d thought I was getting email for asklou@louschuler.com, but now realize I haven’t been. I’ll figure that one out soon.

Other features–particularly “Read Lou Schuler’s Email”–will have to wait a couple more weeks, but I think you’ll enjoy them when they’re functional. I’ll probably update RLSE multiple times a day with health, fitness, and nutrition advice.

Also, I’m hanging around on the message board at JP Fitness, if you want to ask a question or join in a discussion of something exercise-related….

Tags: Tags: strength