mrt.jpg (8627 bytes)Welcome to Mr T's Gym - Drug Free

Mr T's Gym is a good, old fashioned 'spit and sawdust' gym.  You will get no frills here, but you will get well-maintained equipment, a clean environment and expert World Recorder Holder help and advice.

Based in Fakenham, Norfolk, this is a gym dedicated to power lifting and dedicated lifters, but it also caters for people who just want to keep fit.

This is a non-membership gym where newcomers are welcomed and coached on a personal level by Ian Tudor in relation to their strengths and weaknesses.  Ian holds many World and European Records for Drug Free Power Lifting and other records.  He also holds many British titles and records, so you will be tutored by an expert in his field.

groupphoto1.jpg (10677 bytes)The Gym is also the training ground for many other lifters who compete and are as dedicated as Ian.  The Gym boasts many other British, European and World Title holders in it's membership list.

Ian also does an enormous amount of fundraising work for charities, The British Heart Foundation and South Creake Rainbow Guides are just two of them.

He also does a lot of work for the Winged Fellowship charity, which provides holidays for people with physical difficulties and their carers who live in Norfolk.

If you would like to find out more information about Power Lifting, please feel free to give Ian a call, he will be delighted to help.

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A bit of information below:

THE BENCH PRESS

I should emphasise that this is my method of bench pressing. It is based on the sink method used so very successfully by Ian Tudor, World Champion and record holder, but it differs, in many respects, to suit my temperament and physique. It also includes techniques adapted from the old Olympic press, much practised in my youth. The method described here enabled me to bench press 145kg at age 76 and at 90kg bodyweight just before undergoing a major cancer operation, at Christmas 2002..... Modify my style to suit you. I will try to say what I do and why.

THE METHOD

PART ONE: SETTING UP THE START POSITION AND RECEIVING THE WEIGHT FROM THE LOADERS.

Lie on the bench as close to the stands as your style will allow.

NB. Place feet flat on the floor and check for shoe grip on the floor. This is vital.

All weight is to be carried solely on feet and shoulders. Buttocks are in touch with bench but do not support weight, except at the bottom of the sink.

  1. Push gently with feet to help raise chest and rotate shoulder girdle on to upper scapulae (shoulder blades).
  2. Once in this position receive the weight from loaders with your preferred grip width. The weight at arm's length now presses the shoulder blades firmly onto the bench.
  3. So steadily push the feet firmly (in the direction away from the bench) so that the body is pushed towards the weight. The weight of the bar will prevent the shoulders from sliding, and the shoes should not slide either. Keep up the leg pressure and raise the chest still further so that the shoulder girdle rotates to maximum and weight is supported by the upper shoulder blades (and feet) only. At this stage the back should be fully arched but with buttocks remaining in light contact with the bench.
  4. Practise this until you are very familiar with it. Test your ability to apply foot pressure enough to 'roll' the shoulders. Repeat by relaxing and then reapplying pressure. Keep the weight overhead throughout to prevent sliding. Repeat.

Aim to get the chest as high as possible and practise feeling how foot pressure helps to achieve this.

Feet push this way <..........: Body pushes this way ...........> Chest pushes up /////////// and along .......> Shoulders cannot move along so they rock and roll like a chocked wheel.

I use an obtuse knee angle,feet forward of the knees, because pushing with an acute angle tends to raise knees and hips ... which leads to disqualification ... but find what suits you.

PART TWO: LOWERING BAR TO THE CHEST

  1. Maintain the leg pressure, high chest and 'rolled' shoulder. Keep the chest as high as possible during the lowering of the bar. This is the most efficient position for the pectorals, the fibres of which now run downwards from the sternum to the humerus. Any deviation which takes these fibres away from the vertical direction weakens the effect on the bar.
  2. Aim the bar to contact the chest just below the pecs. The bar makes an arc as it travels downwards and slightly forward to 'hit the groove'. It should be controlled but not delayed. Do not waste energy which you need to reserve for the press but try to get the feel of what the press will be like. To help with this I keep my elbows very slightly forward of the bar so that I feel it is under the control of the triceps. The elbows 'lead' the bar down, just as they will later lead it back up in the press.

PART THREE: THE SINK

  1. AS SOON AS THE BAR TOUCHES THE CHEST lower the chest and the bar and relax the leg push. Let the bar lie heavily on the chest. Your shoulders will unroll, your back will flatten and your body mass will tend to move towards the feet. Feel the bench under you holding both you and the weight. Do not expect to feel comfortable, the more crushed you feel the better. Your arms and shoulders can relax somewhat. Your body takes on the characteristics of a coiled spring.

NB. THE BAR SHOULD NOT COME TO REST UNTIL YOU HAVE TAKEN IT ALL THE WAY DOWN. If you allow it to stop on contact with the chest the referee may clap and penalise you for lowering after the signal.
The 'sink' should be continuous with the lowering of the bar to the chest.

PART FOUR: THE PRESS

Preamble. You cannot simply p-u-s-h a maximum weight from the chest to arms length. Forget It! You have to learn first of all how to deploy all your strength to overcome the inertia of the 'loaded bar'. This is best done by leg, back and shoulder muscles, working together. This is where the 'coiled spring' comes in. When you are given the referee's signal you are going to release that stored energy thus:

  1. Vigorously push with your legs as you have been practising and use the power to return your chest and shoulders to their previous positions. Your leg push is horizontal not upwards (the buttocks are not forced off the bench) but the back and chest are forced upward because the shoulders resist horizontal movement. (The chocked wheel again). The resultant force on the bar is diagonal. The weight is directed both up and back. In that instant it is no longer an inert mass. Gravity has already lost some of the grip. For practical purposes it weighs less. This is the moment when you must HIT the bar with all the vertical drive you can muster.

    NB. This drive is NOT simultaneous with the leg thrust but is timed to continue the movement which has been imparted to the bar by the legs, chest and shoulder roll. Practise this in training. Sink, pause, LEG PUSH, feel the effect on the chest and the bar then DRIVE.
  2. The delay is just long enough (a split second, no more) to shift the bar. I mentally count 'one, 'two' without deliberate delay. If you delay too long the bar simply returns to the chest, higher than you want it. You can usefully train by practise of the leg thrust followed by only the first part of the press. Repeat.

Vertical drive comes mainly from the rotation of the upper arm at the shoulder which means raising the elbows forward and upward. This movement must be EXPLOSIVE and it is provided mainly by the pectorals and front deltoids working very fast and hard. NB. Having made the thrust, the legs must continue to push the body back to keep the chest arched high.

The forearms and hands which support and balance the weight must remain almost vertically above the elbows as they are pushed rapidly upwards. This is mainly the work of the triceps, like it was on the way down. In fact the elbows should be slightly in front of the bar. Any tendency of the hands to drift in front of the elbows will weaken the drive. Speed is of the essence to force the bar well beyond the sticking point before the triceps come fully into the picture. The sticking point occurs where the elbow (upper arm/forearm) angle moves through a right angle as it changes from acute to obtuse, on the way up. Attempting to straighten the arm during the explosive drive from the chest forces the hands and the bar forwards. Collapse of the press is the likely outcome!

2. LOCK OUT

Straightening the arms can begin once the elbow angle is past the right angle and into its obtuse phase. This is mainly fast triceps effort capitalising on the momentum already imparted to the bar, but chest and shoulder muscles should now relax. The pectorals minor can usefully shrug the shoulders upward in the final thrust to lock-out.

Nowadays I favour perpendicular travel for the bar. Some prefer to take the weight backwards to help the triceps, which it does, particularly if the bar has got a bit forward of the elbows. If you are using maximum wide grip it helps to think of pulling the elbows inward towards the centre instead of focusing on pushing the bar up.

Comment. Of course pushing the bar up from the chest to arms length is what a bench press is and what it looks like but as in all lifting it's not that simple. You have to think what has to happen to force the bar up and one could write a book about that. You cannot think about all that when you are lifting, but in training you need to focus on getting the bits right and getting them to flow together fast ..... a bit like pole vaulting, which looks like jumping high with the aid of a stick but is rather more than that.

The bench press is a wonderful athletic lift, done when you appear to be lying on a bench.