First meet report plus bench question

[Brenden]

Yesterday I competed in my first powerlifting competition, the Fife Holiday Classic in Fife, WA. I went 8/9, missing my third bench attempt, and got a 160kg squat, a 75kg bench, and a 175kg deadlift. The squats and deadlifts were both more than 20lb PRs, and I felt like I could have done 10-20 pounds more on each. The last squat was so easy at the top that I almost lost my balance since it went up faster than I expected.

The bench, however, sucked. I've done 1x170lbs in the gym, and got 165 in the meet. Jumping up to 187lbs was probably a mistake. But I feel like my bench is seriously weak compared to my squat and deadlift, and my 105lb press for five reps is nothing to write home about either. I'm at 230lbs, 6'1". I have monkey-long arms, which helps on the deadlift, but I think makes pressing movements harder.

Anyway, I was wondering if I should start doing some sort of assistance movement for my upper body, or should I just be patient? I'm still progressing linearly, with 2.5lb jumps on bench and press. I don't see that become too hard for a while, either, unlike the squat, which is at 310 for reps, and I will probably have to move to intermediate programming in a month or two. I'm alternating my DL/PC with chins, although I can only do 2 reps.

Squat videos from the meet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxWqqTtHW_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUu6m9GLPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdHRw-iDZ88

[Mark Rippetoe]

As long as you are making progress on the lift, you are doing fine. You want the adaptation to occur faster, and I understand. Add some tricep work and see what happens. If you start missing bench press work sets, you'll know it was a bad idea. My recommendation is that as long as you are making progress without assistance work, don't add it.

[Brenden]

After thinking about if for a few days, I'm thinking of benching on Mondays and Fridays, and pressing on Wednesdays. I was able to do that successfully for the month prior to the meet. Maybe I'll do that for December, and if I don't start missing work sets, add some triceps extensions in January.

Thanks for writing all your books, and answering questions on this website. Getting up on that platform was a serious adrenaline rush, and I can't wait to do it again in March. Now I understand why you recommend everyone compete at least once. Knowing it was coming up definitely made me train significantly harder.