Wanna Bench Press More?

Hanley

** Extract From Today's Email re: How I've Pushed My Bench Up Over The Last Few Months - will hopefully help some people **

I used to look around the gym at all the dudes bench pressing big weights and get really pissed off. They weren't following any of the special training programs I was following. They weren't addressing their weak points. They weren't working on technique. And I damn sure didn't think they DESERVED to be stronger than me since I was doing everything the internet said I should be doing.

It was really annoying to have my bench press stalled for YEARS in the 120-130 range. Even up to about 18 months ago I used to consider 120kg x5 as "strong" and a sign my bench was moving in the right direction.

Tis funny to look back and realise how up my ass I was. I wasn't benching big weights because I didn't DESERVE to be benching big weights. I was trying to cheat the system by being smarter, instead of working harder.

Sure, there's an element of being smart in your training, but there's also an element of working your ****ing face off. If you can combine the two, great things will happen for you. Just like they did for me.

Before I tell you what I've done to improve my bench press to easy sets of 5 with 140kg, each rep paused on my chest, I want to just clarify and say I still don't consider it "strong". It's better than it was, but there's still a lot more work to be done.

At least that work will be both smart and hard now.

Here's a clip of a recent bench workout - it's a set of 140kg x5 with a pause, and my feet, shoulders and head constantly in contact with the bench (that's important - air humping the bar up is a cowards move)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDIguikLg2M

Here's how I did it...

Have 1 Day Where You Focus On Lots Of Hard And Heavy Bench Movements

The best way to get stronger at bench pressing is to bench press hard and heavy. Here's what I want you to do:

For 4 weeks, do 4x8 (75%), rest for a week.

For 4 weeks, do 5x5 (80%), rest for a week.

For 4 weeks, d0 5x3 (85%), rest for a week.

Make sure you hit 90+% of all your reps each week, and only increase the weight when you can do that. I've put some guideline %s before the sets / reps above to serve as a starting point for you.

Then for the rest of the workout, pick 3 movements you know hit your weakpoints and hit em for high-medium reps. For me, the workout looks like this:

A) Bench Press
Pin Press 4x8
C) Feet Up Bench 4x8
D) Barbell Skull Crusher x15-12-10-8-6
E) Pull Ups 3-5x5-8

Normally that workout gets done on a Saturday.

Have 1 Day Where You Focus On Movements That SMASH The Muscles Involved In Benching That Aren't A Standard Bench Press

You need to know what you suck at - I hate dips, I hate close grip benching, and I hate skull crushers. And I suck at all of them. And since my chest is getting hammer on 3 other days, it makes a lot of sense to focus on killing the OTHER big contributer to bench press - triceps.

On this day, I like to do 3-5 straight sets of 5-10 reps for each movement. A workout might look like this:

A) DIps: 5x5
Fat Bar Close Grip Bench: 6x6
C) DB Skull Crushers: 5x10
D) Pull Ups: 3-8x3-5

Normally I get that workout done on a Thursday, which can leave me fatigued for my main bench day on Saturday, but since I'm TRAINING at the moment and not testing every day, some light fatiuge isn't the biggest deal in the world. A few weeks out from a competition, that would need to change to ensure PRs on the day.

But for training purposes, hitting workouts under fatigue is sometimes good - because it gives you the confidence to know that once you're rested and fresh, the old hard workouts will be easy.

Have 2 Days Where You Do 5 Sets Of Bench Accessory Work After Your Main Workout

For me - that was 2 days where I did 15-12-10-8-6 on movements I knew would hammer the week point of my bench press. For 5-6 weeks I did Spoto Press and Incline Bench.

And currently I'm doing Feet Up Bench Press and Double Pause Bench.

The reason why it's so important, and that 15-12-10-8-6 works so well is because you're getting more bench frequency and volume, without being yourself to ****. You get to build SPECIFIC muscle that will help with where you're struggling, and since it's only 5 sets, not taken to failure, on constantly varying movements, its relatively low stress on your body.

Normally I'll get those workouts done on Monday and Wednesday.