July 9, 2009

“Brutus”
    Run 400m
    7 Deadlifts
    50 Squats
    7 Deadlifts
    25 Thrusters
    7 Deadlifts
    25 Ball Slams
    7 Deadlifts

It’s homemade benchmark time. The prescribed DL weight for men is 225 and for women is 165.

What are benchmarks and why do you want to do them as prescribed? Glad you asked.

I have been keeping track of prescribed efforts and am in the process of making a benchmark scoreboard for display in the gym. There are a couple of issues that I need to overcome first though. The first is my own anal retentive qualities and the second is the need for more prescribed and judged efforts. I’ll handle the AR thing on my own, here is what you need to do on the 2nd part.

A benchmark workout can only get on the scoreboard if all the reps are “certified” by a judge. This means that someone watched you go through the proper range of motion for each movement. Here are a few of the most common moves and what will be required to be official.

Squats – Touch the ball or go below parallel and stand all the way up. Reps don’t count if you don’t go low enough or stand with the hip fully open.

Push-ups – This is a tough one but it’s what I do and what I will require. Chest touches the ground. Arms locked out at the top. Usually in a workout I will only gripe at you if your shoulder blades stay higher than your elbows. For you “lucky” ladies, smash ‘em on the ground and make it as fair as you can. 

Overhead – This encompasses the shoulder press, push press and jerk. The elbows need to be locked out and the arm needs to pass the ear. On the return to the rack position the bar needs to touch your chest/collar bones/shoulders. No half way down reps. Bench press would be similar with bar touching the chest.

Deadlifts – I want to see the hips come fully open. Think of not having any forward lean but don’t lean too far backward in an effort to exaggerate, that could hurt.

Pull-ups – Chin on top of the bar. That means over, not just at the same height. If you hit your chin really hard I’ll probably let it count.

Burpee – Chest to ground, jump off the floor and open the hips.

Thruster – Combine the squat and overhead requirements and you will be good.

This is just a few of the many. If you have questions let me know. If you want to go for an official benchmark let’s do it!