Big chest, small arse?

I’ve always known that I was stronger at anything that involved pushing as opposed to pulling, you only have to look at the size of my chest to figure that out. I mean, I could do a push up WELL before I could cross pull-ups off the “to do” list, so last week when bench press was listed as the “strength” component for the day I thought, “cool – I haven’t benched in ages”.

We split into pairs and the aim was to do 4 sets of 8 till working up to your max. Our team got through 3 rounds each before Coach called time (we hummed and harred a bit too long trying to figure out what increments to go up in).

I benched 55 kgs for 8 with ease. I’m not sure I would have been able to bench 60 kgs for 8 but I’d say 57.5 would have been achievable. I thought to myself – not bad, I haven’t lost that much strength since my bodybuilding days (60kgs would have been my max back then, not bad considering I didn’t get to eat much) 😉

I carried on with the rest of the session and didn’t think much of it until I wrote in my little log book after we had finished up, it was then I had a horrifying realization..

I can bench more than I squat!

I knew that was bad, so I asked one of the coaches for some help ..

Me – I need some help
Coach – What’s up?
Me – I can bench more than I squat
Coach – BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Coach (stops for air) – How much can you bench?
Me – I did 55 for 8, I don’t think I could go up to 60 though
Coach – And what can you squat?
Me – 50s getting pretty heavy for me
Coach – So you actually meant you can bench more than you squat?
Coach – BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Coach – I remember those days ..

To be fair I had the exact same reaction from all the guys I have told including my physio (although he then asked why). I guess because my chest is stronger than my arse? ..

Anyway when coach finally managed to contain his fits of laughter he agreed to help me, so I’m renaming November – Squatember.

Bring it on!

Till next time