Road Trip

I took a road trip to Montreal on Saturday. It was a last minute plan that came together after I got a message from a buddy who was heading down to work in his bench shirt at the Montreal Chapter of the Metal Militia Powerlifting Club. I also had heard from another friend on Friday morning that he had moved all his strongman equipment to the Metal Militia gym.

Sweet. I could go do some benching and throw in a few events.

The Montreal Barbell is owned by Ross Saldan. Saturday was my first time meeting Ross but we were treated like old family members the second we walked in the gym. They just moved into a new building and are set up with some rediculously good powerlifting equipment.
They have 2 monolifts, 3 competition benches, DB's up to 180lbs, a reverse Hyper, lots of good bars, and 74-45lbs plates. (Thats 3330lbs of 45's) Sweet!

The MM is affiliated with the CPO. The CPO is a powerlifting federation with ties to the now extinct WPO. This is the fed where you can use open back bench shirts, squat in a mono lift. The rules on the powerlifting gear are not totally clear to me, but it's basically like the stuff you see on elite.

I benched using my old Titan Fury but was introduced to a new style of benching with my feet tucked way underneath and a huge arch in my back. I hit a shirted PR of 455lbs and just missed a 475 attempt. (I will be hunting down the videos of both very soon)

All in all it was a fun day. I made some new friends and good contacts. It was well worth the drive.