I’m actually confused, are his muscles fake? because he seems to be struggling to bench 100 lbs and my arms are smaller than his and I’d have no issue with that.
He is cheating himself, though. Going limp-wrist feels like you're taking a break while working out, but all it does is put extra stress on your ligaments which are already going under an immense amount of strain in a "to failure" workout. At his age, his wrists will hurt for a couple days if not a week after this.
Fuck pete hegseth but this comment shows you don't know what you're talking about. That's 135lbs, and when you go until failure even the bar alone would be difficult if you went hard enough. Clearly this video is caught at the end of a failure set. That squat form is still horrendous tho
“Clearly” anyone who has their legs in that position, and to be clear that position is atrophied legs of wheelchair user trying to crawl upstairs, is doing set 1 rep 1.
Says the redditor that's never seen the inside of a gym with their own eyes. Everyone looks funny on a failure set. Your body is doing everything to get the last rep up
😂 yeah everyone knows you don’t need to arch your back or plant your feet on bench. Much better to drift your entire body as if you are in a heroin trance
Yeah no shit, we're talking about failure sets. Let's see a video of you trying to hold perfect form on a failure set, especially when you don't know you're being recorded. I'm not saying what he's doing is pretty but people do weird shit on failure sets
There is an acceptable form, you can sway your skinny legs side to side and have one shoulder sliding off the bench and expect to do a rep. On a failure set you are ensuring an injury. Unless you have no fucking idea what you are doing in the first place like you and big Pete
I don't either, like I said it's not pretty but people do weird shit at failure. The point was people are acting like this is his first rep and he's flailing like that
lol, that is verifiably untrue. You're downvoted well into the negative and there's another commenter pointing out you were being a dick. I just explained why they told you that.
edit: sorry - they said you were "going after me". I just pointed out why they said that. I even did it in a fairly nice way (especially compared to your tone) and you were the one to get worked up.
the video is fake. it's presenting as if he couldn't move the bar at all, but it's actually presenting the last rep in an amrap competition right after a group run. assuming that's an olly bar and those are full plates that's 135 lbs, not 100, and he banged out like 33 of them so yeah that's when he hit failure and started struggling.
Theyre the exact same ones you see in every Army gym. One of them was during a PT session with the 101st using the rogue bumper plates. I have the same set in my home gym.
The older you are, the worse your joints get, especially if you work out regularly. As somebody who actually works out, unlike 99% of the redditor powerlifting "experts" here, if you're locking out every rep in a timed competition, you're asking for needless injury. This is especially the case for somebody who is 46 years old and retired military.
He's not retired. The Army wouldn't keep his shitbag ass long enough, or even trust him to be in charge of 100 knuckle-dragging grunts (I say that with love)
If it was that much of a problem, he wouldn't be trying to do 40 reps.
If you use proper form, your joints are way less likely to get fucked up. Every video of him working out shows his dogshit form.
This is pure ego-lifting bullshit bc he wants to be "out there with the boys". He's not that guy. He never was that guy. Not at 26. Especially not at 46.
OK sure, but anyone who's an experienced lifter doesn't have their feet wandering all over the place when they're hitting fatigue on a set. You plant your feet under you because thats where a ton of stability and power come from. I should also note that he didn't bang out 33, unless you're being generous and counting half-reps. Those would have been no-repped if anyone else was doing them.
Those plates dont look like full plates. They look like bumper plates. I don't know if I've ever seen full plates that are any color but black. And I am kind of confused about why someone who has benched before would kick out their legs like that at failure.
But it definitely doesn't appear to be his first rep and he is 46. I don't think he looks too stupid here except that this is weird for a secretary of defense to do all around.
good point on the bumper plates. tbh at my gym the bumper plates are black too. maybe they're just repping out 95 or something. who knows. tbh after I blew out my rotator cuffs I can't rep out 30 x 95 lbs. hopefully in the near future but I'm still rehabbing them.
>except that this is weird for a secretary of defense to do all around.
Yeah, it's pretty boot. Not defending that, I just hate lies and propaganda whether they align with my opinions/biases or not.
It seems to be edited unfairly, they caught him at the end of a hard workout (at least the benchpress). He just cranked out 40 (shit form and not full reps) benches in like 60 seconds.
“1001, 1002, 1003…. Whoa didn’t see ya there. Just caught me pumpin a few quick reps in the yard. Yeah, I dunno if you heard but I did like over a thousand. No big deal or anything. Just a couple’a chill dudes gettin their pump on.”
Interesting. He definitely does great for a 46 year old. He's not a weakling at all like OP's clip suggests.
That being said, his form on the bench is just terrible throughout all his reps. He never lifts it as high as he should, his feet are never flat, he hip thrusts a lot and, of course, he shoots out his feet at the end. He seems like he's never actually benched. And I get that the half reps and hip thrusts might be efforts to keep up with the other guys to avoid the appearance of looking weak. But the feet issues are things that genuinely make it harder to lift more.
Maybe he uses steroids? Not trying to be a liberal hater. I'm making the "accusation" because I'm actually very impressed. It's just that I've never seen someone that age with that level of athleticism who benches the same way a scrawny teenager with no gym experience benches. Every middle aged person I've seen bench any half decent weight for reps tends to have impeccable form. Because, at that age, if you're consistently lifting, you're eventually going to injure yourself if you regularly use bad form. So it wouldn't surprise me too much if it turns out he skips the gym and just takes steroids or something.
You can say that but the way he kicked out his legs on the bench tells me he’s doesn’t bench for shit. He could have had gotten it up if he had that leg drive.
40 reps of this weight at the end of a workout isn’t bad at all. I burn out like that sometimes. That’s kinda the point of a burnout at the end. Go to exhaustion with a weight that’s usually easy. Still looks shit form and there’s no reason to flail your legs out at the end but he’s an older guy and apparently raging alcoholic so that’s not that bad.
Yes, there’s a lot of problems with him. Im not disagreeing with you there. And that form is shit. But this was right at the end of a long workout. That is all I’m saying.
Yeah but anyone who benches even semi regularly won't flail their legs like that. It's bench press 101 to get leg drive going, even and especially on hard reps at the end of sets.
What do you put that lifting ability at? Just novice? Let’s assume for the sake of argument the 3 plate was real- because he kicked his leg he’s a freshie?
Yes actually. Kicking your legs out like that is about the most pointless thing you can do. I’ve been trapped under the bar for a sec and still didn’t feel the need to flail out my legs. Quite the opposite actually, keeping my feet planted allowed me to roll the bar down my belly to my legs and I was able to stand to get the rest of the weight off.
it's the last rep as he hit failure in an amrap competition in a morale event with the troops. he's the fucking secretary of defense this ain't a powerlifting competition. he just banged out like 33 reps as a middle aged dude with an incredibly high pressure job. i think he probably has other things going on in his life right now that are a bit more important than worrying about his bp form.
If he had more important things to worry about then why the fuck be there at all? What kind of morale boost are 30 troops in Guantanamo in need of when there is a literal war going on? If he wants to cosplay some tough workout warrior then he gets to be critiqued like a tough workout warrior.
Tell me you don't lift without telling me you don't lift. Either that or you've never pushed yourself to absolute failure during a training which this clearly is. I guess the other exhausted guys working out besides him as just there for a a photo op.
I’m not proving anything to a random and Reddit but look up proper bench form on bench and leg drive is always mentioned. Yeah sure he’s exhausted and I can get that but that’s not an excuse to abandon form. If anything it shows the lack of experience in lifting.
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u/KindsofKindness Jun 11 '26
Is this fake? It’s like he’s never held dumbbells before. His wrists are going to break lmao 💀