What’s also amazing is that his elbows can flare out like that at the top without that half-a-smart-car worth of weight turning him into Larry Wheel-chair. (And let’s be honest, that spotter wouldn’t have been much help.) According to Dr. Pat Davidson—an exercise physiologist and the Director of Methodology at Hype Gym in NYC—what enables a specimen like Williams to consistently put up that weight is his penchant for practice.
“It’s the same as signing your name. When you’re doing that, you had a sheet of paper in front of you that showed you exactly the right shape to make for the letters that are in your name and you practiced over and over, and now you’re able to standardize the way you do it,” Davidson said on a recent episode of The Muscle & Fitness Podcast Reps. “It’s the old Bruce Lee quote of ‘I do not fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.’”
In other words: Larry can bench that amount of weight with that form because it’s all he’s ever done. If he were to keep his elbows tucked in at 45 degrees the entire time or un-rack the bar slowly, well, he’d most likely be weaker (weaker, being relative, of course).
While we can almost guarantee that you’re a long way from a 675-pound press, this program should help you in your effort to up your bench press. In the meantime, we hope this video inspires you to crush your goals.
