Planet Muscle

I pick up your mag whenever I see it. I was looking through the last couple of issues and I saw some great photos, likely from Mike Lambert of Powerlifting USA. One was of Jeff Magruder benching in a singlet and the other was the late Roger Estep benching in just cotton T-shirt and singlet. Ah the good 'ole days, but raw (no bench shirt) benching is not dead. Rare yes, but dead? No! You and Marty Gallagher mentioned Scot Mendelson and James Henderson. These 2 are the only two raw benchers over 700 lbs. You also noted some past greats, like the departed Pat Casey and Jim Williams. You did not mention some of the great raw lifters. Jeremy Hoornstra did a raw 600 bench at 239. He broke Mike MacDonald's 30-year old raw bench press of 603.5-lbs of Nov. 5, 1977. Jeremy did 605 at the New England Record Breakers. At the Olympia physique show, in the Kings of the Bench, Jeremy did 615, just missing 635 at 240-lbs. Another amazing bencher is Rock Lewis and he says he’s lifetime steroid free. He did a 600 bench in Oct. 2006, at 228-lbs. He tested clean and he lifted the weight off the rack himself too. You remember Mike MacDonald. Mike vows to get 50 reps with bodyweight (200-lbs) as he turns 60! Mike’s official raw bests in competition were 522 at 181, 562 at 198, 582 at 220 and 603 at 242. Mike may have been the best bencher ever (without a bench shirt at least). I know you are a big bench fan. I hope you are well.

I am, my shoulders are not. I started benching at 11 and still was at it heavy, at 50, with and after, so much cortisone in them that I could have provided enough for every Cushing’s Syndrome medical patient, in the world. I do not know how Mac still moves his joints? Mike developed that MacDonald bar that bent way down at the sides of your chest wall, so you could get more range and more prestretch. Well, I think I used it more than he did. Yes I got a big bench but “ouch.” I did 505-lbs. x 5 paused reps at my best. That was no shirt, no wraps, and I was kissing 600-lbs raw, at 6’3” and 275, just as the bar kissed my ass one day! (Many of you know that tear I got -- and somebody wrote to FLEX and said that I looked like something that should be flushed down the toilet. I agree wholeheartedly and frankly, I still do.

The thing that was different about Mike was he laid flat without an arch in his low back or by cheating and lifting the head and shoulders off, in a “reverse arch” (that is allowable today). Mike was all pecs! At the 1980 Senior Nationals, which I co-ran with Fred Dr. Squat, I fitted Mike with a medium T-shirt. Who ever heard of a guy who ‘bennies 600’ and wears a medium-T? His muscles were as dense as a neutron star.

Yes, I know there are a lot of great raw benchers. I’d like to see the bodybuilders take on the powerlifters. They could do maximum reps with 200-pounds over bodyweight. Maybe at the 2007 Kings of the Bench held at the Mr. Olympia 2007 event?