The Start

Well here we are, in the beginning. This is going to be my power lifting/ bench press blog. Here I hope to track my progress into the 600 lbs bench press and beyond into the 700 and 800 and more!.

My name is Shawn Rainey and I started power lifting as a soft-more in high school. I did well, set a few records but being a 3 sport athlete took its toll on my body. Suffering from some back injury's slowed me a bit. I did put in 1 full year in the WABDL (World Association of Bench-pressers and Dead Lifters) but again was riddled with injuries.

After 10 years without touching a weight, I was just getting out of shape so I went back to the gym with the intentions of just getting healthy again. Of course the competitive spirit reared its head up and I seemed to be getting stronger than I had ever got in the past. Quickly after just 4 months of training I was benching near 500 lbs. So I decided to do a meet again. That meet would be near my home town of Vancouver, WA at Portland OR. The national WABDL championships were being held there. I ended up doing a 518 lbs bench at 256 lbs body weight in the 259 lbs weight class. Setting a new WA State class 1 mens record for that class. Not bad after 10 years!

This year I have my eyes on setting a new WABDL WA state record in the 275 weight class Open men. This so happens to be held by the great Ryan Kennelly with a lift of 655 lbs. For thous of you who don't know he currently holds the all time bench record of 1075 lbs. You can Google him, hes pretty insane.

So I plan in writing here a few times a week about my work outs, supplements, sponsors ect. Currently I'm in week 4 of my cycle, and have had a lot of positive workouts and displays of strength. Just 2 days ago myself, buddy A.J. and my Girl Friend all attended a benefit meet to help a family locally. There I did a Bench Press Demo, since this meet was more for beginner and new lifters. I was able to do a 2 board of 500 lbs for 5 reps, 1 board 585lbs for 1 rep and 635lbs for 1 rep. Felt decently strong that day but was having a few form problems. I'm very happy I have a team of great spotters and lifting partners.

So I will post videos and talk about how my training is going ect. see ya'll on the next blog!