Big _____, Big Bench

It started out with a simple phrase ...

"Big Back, Big Bench"

I would say this over and over again as we performed any type of rowing movement - seated rows, chest supported rows, ring inverted rows, db bent over rows, and any other exercise that ended in "rows".

At the time, not many people knew or cared to know about the benefits of rowing. They wanted to bench, bench, and bench some more.

They then wanted to walk onto a football field and use that same motion 1000 times to dominate their opponents.

Rather than talk to them about muscular imbalances and overuse injuries, I simply told them that increased rowing equals increased benching.

And I did this by saying, "Big Back, Big Bench" over and over again each time we lifted.

The Second Generation

As time went on, I came to realize it wasn't only a big back that helped your bench.

I started to notice that the guys with the biggest bench also had some pretty big wrists, forearms, shoulders, and triceps.

(I also noticed that guys who lost weight also lost gains on their bench. 

Even if the weight was as little as 5lbs and even if that weight was all fat, their bench went down.)

As a result, I started saying things like "Big Shoulders, Big Bench" when we did overhead presses and "Big Triceps, Big Bench" when we executed dips.

The Final Generation

Within a couple of months, a few of the guys I trained started to question just how far I would go with this "Big (fill in the blank), Big Bench".

As the People's Coach, I obliged and started to say things like "Big Ankles, Big Bench" just to irritate them.

Not long after, one of the guys (Nick Fugallo) recommended that we got a shirt that said "Big _____, Big Bench."

Again, as the People's Coach, I obliged and created the shirt displayed below on CustomInk.

I have to admit that the combination of the saying, the logo on the back, and the dri-performance texture makes this shirt awesome. 

If anyone would like one, please email me at george@mahoneyadvancedtraining.com.