Veteran powerlifter Jennifer Thompson has been crushing her training recently as we quickly approach the 2018 Arnold Classic. Heading into her seventh year competing at the Arnold Classic, Thompson is looking ready as ever. This year, Thompson will be competing in the 63kg weight class in both the Arnold Powerlifting Grand Prix (hosted by SBD) and the SSP Nutrition Raw Bench Championships.
In a recent video, Thompson shared a 315 lb bench single, which may be the fastest three plate press we’ve ever seen her do. She filmed this lift a few days ago with Jujimufu and Tom Boyden when they all trained together at Thompson’s home gym.
Check out the full video below from Jujimufu’s YouTube channel.
Every year Thompson has competed at the Arnold Classic she tends to make a splash. Last year, she competed in the 2017 SSP Nutrition Pro Raw Bench Championships and ended up setting a new world record.
[Throwback to January 2017 when Thompson benched 325 lbs raw in front of the Liberty University football team!]
At the Championships, she weighed in at 60.8kg and finished with a 142.5kg (313.5 lb) bench press, which was more than enough to earn her a new IPF -63kg World Record. Her video above tops this weight, and she made it look easy. Check out the epic 2017 bench world record video below for comparison.
Now we have to wonder, can Thompson best her previous year’s performance? If you follow Thompson on social media, then you’re probably already well-aware that she’s looking even stronger for this year’s Arnold Classic.
She’s posted some crazy heavy overload videos in the last few weeks to help train her concentric bench press strength, which feature Slingshot bench block presses with over 370 lbs for sets of 5, and static holds with 505 lbs.
In an article we wrote back in January, Thompson told us that she loves heavy holds for improving concentric strength, along with strengthening stabilizer muscles. To perform them, she recommends using 150% of your 1-RM, then having a spotter lift the weight out to you and holding it over your chest for roughly 15-seconds.
If you asked us, we’d guess that Thompson is going to have another electric Arnold Classic performance and take a run at the current bench world record. Will she break it? Time will tell.
Feature image screenshot from @jenthompson132 Instagram page.