If you have been stuck benching 250 lbs. and really want to get to 300 lbs. then reading this article will be the biggest step you take this year. Get ready to bench 250, 300, 400, or more!

Quick Tips & Questions 

 Tips To Keep In Mind Keep your elbows tucked in to your side and use your strong triceps to help the lift. The Bench Press Strength! manual contains the appropriate volume and intensity of triceps work to prepare your arms. Use your whole body in the lift. Push against the floor with your feet. Keep your upper back muscles tensed and keep the upper back on the bench for stability. Push the bar straight up to reduce the movement distance. Practice your technique! Heavy lifting is a combination of skill and muscular work, so you learn how to perform the movement most efficiently. Identify your weaknesses so that you can train appropriately.

 Questions To Ask Yourself What are your weaknesses in the bench press? Liftoff? Lockout? What are your strengths in your lifts? What are your specific goals for the bench press? What is your training schedule? - Detail each workout day. Have you had any injuries? What training program has given you the best results in the past?

Bench Press Tips From The Experts 

The first step to improving your bench (even before designing your program) is figuring out what the heck is stopping you from benching more weight.

 What Is Your Weak Area In The Exercise?
 

If You Fail At The Bottom: If you just can't get the weight off your chest (but would have no problem with the lockout), you need to become more explosive in the start of the movement. Dave Tate recommends you incorporate explosive pressing. This is described later in this article as "Dynamic Effort" training.

If You Can't Complete The Lockout: If so, then your triceps strength (or lack of it) may limit your success. Use a combination of heavy close-grip presses and triceps extensions to build the necessary triceps strength.

Pick the weak spot in your bench and make it a priority in training.

 Other Factors...
 According to Sarah Clarke, gold medalist at the 2002 Canadian National Powerlifting Championships in the 75 kg weight class, "You can't let your legs dance around or tap your feet when things get tough. This reduces your power generation in the bench press. Instead, you must set a strong foundation with your legs.

Press your upper back into the bench and use this to aid in pressing the bar. Stability is a key in a heavy bench press, so putting your feet on the bench isn't going to help you out one bit. Tension throughout the entire body is mandatory in the bench press."

Review each rep afterward and use this feedback to improve each future rep. According to Tate, you should "stay tight, keep the elbows tucked, drive your heels into the floor and shove your body away from the bar as you press".

Practice your technique. Treat strength development like any skill development. Perfect practice makes perfect presses.

You have to do it over and over again to find your best method of benching.

 Strengthen Your Upper Back.
 

Bench Press Strength Techniques 

 Maximal Effort Training 
This type of training refers to the sessions where you lift as much weight as you possibly can for a specific number of repetitions.

For example, a 5 RM maximal effort session would require you to work up the best weight that you can lift for 5 repetitions with good form.

 Dynamic Effort Training 
Dave Tate recommends devoting one day per week to "dynamic effort" training. Dynamic effort training is designed to increase explosiveness. The foundation of a dynamic effort workout is opposite to a traditional workout.

Because the focus of a dynamic exercise is to move the weight as fast as possible, you will use much less weight. In addition, rather than performing a small number of sets and many repetitions, you will perform a larger number of sets with a smaller number of repetitions (i.e. 8 sets of 3 repetitions for the bench press).

It is extremely important to push the bar with maximal force on each rep. Don't take it easy just because it is a lighter weight. Adding chains and bands (see below) helps increase the resistance at the top of the movement. You must press with maximal force to overcome the added resistance at the top of the movement. Tate describes dynamic effort training as, "compensatory acceleration" and that "it can help you break through sticking points".

The key to getting through a sticking point as Tate describes it is to, "train to accelerate through the sticking point". If you explode the bar up, you can break through your sticking point. When training with the dynamic effort, focus on bar speed. If the bar slows down from rep to rep, it means the weight is too heavy. Use a resistance that is ~50% of your estimated 1 RM bench for 8 sets of 3.

 The Use Of Bands & Chains in Bench Press Training 
Adding a chain or band increases the resistance at the top of the movement. For example, if you have 225 lbs. on the bar plus a 10 lb. chain on each side, you will bench press 225 lbs. off your chest but you will lockout 245 lbs. The chains must be attached to "unload" onto the floor when the bar is lowered.

The same principle applies to the bands. The bands are looped around both a secure object at ground level and the ends of the barbell. The bands then provide less resistance at the bottom of the movement.

Bench Press Exercise Descriptions 

Remember to always have a spotter for heavy bench pressing and for the lift-off. Your spotter will help you get the bar off the rack and out to the start position. You will also need them to make sure that you complete every repetition in your set.

 Bench Press 
Keep your feet flat on the floor, legs bent, and upper back flat against the bench. Grip the bar using a medium-width grip. Have your spotter help you take the bar from the rack. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower the bar straight down to the bottom of your chest. Pause briefly and then press the bar back up above the chest in a straight line.

 Dynamic Bench Press 
Attach the chains or bands to the ends of the bar as required. Make sure to anchor the bands under the rack or with very heavy dumbbells. Keep your feet flat on the floor, legs bent, and upper back flat against the bench. For the first 3 sets, grip the bar using a medium-width grip. Use a slightly wider grip for the next 3 sets, and a slightly narrower grip for the final 3 sets. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower the bar straight down to the bottom of your chest. Accelerate the bar up as quickly as possible. Perform all 3 reps as fast as you can.

 DB Floor Press 
Lie on the floor and hold the dumbbells above your chest with your palms turned toward your feet. Lower the dumbbells until your upper arms contact the floor. Pause briefly and then press the dumbbells straight up above the chest.

A floor press strengthens the mid-point of your bench and demands a strong grip. It also removes the leg drive from the exercise and makes you work harder while forcing you to keep your body tight.

Do 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps. Start with no more than 75 percent of what you use in a normal flat bench dumbbell press.

 

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Tags: Bench, Improve, Press

If I had to place a bet I’d confidently say that there are at least an equal amount of people who ruin their athleticism through their strength training efforts, as there are people who improve it. The majority of guys who have been training for more than a decade have worse athletic ability than they did ten years earlier. It’s sad but true.

Most typical training protocols will slowly but surely ruin your athleticism. The overemphasis on maximal strength, the shortened ranges of motion, the imbalances created, the injuries accumulated…

It all adds up and one day before you know it you tear a hamstring playing a leisurely game of beach volleyball or blow out your back helping your mom move a thirty pound loveseat.

When people see you move on the dance floor at your sisters wedding they laugh and count their blessings that they never started weight training so they would never have to move like you, ya big doofus.

OH! Look atcha now. Popped an Achilles trying to do the running man during Bust a Move while the alcoholic stock brokers and sixty year old ladies next to you get down all night without a care in the world.

Everyone wonders what all that training is good for as you’re rushed off the floor on a stretcher.

Thanks for putting another black eye on the game, pal.

“Train like an athlete.” It’s a popular, buzzword-ish concept these days. But what does it mean exactly?

If you play a sport it’s pretty obvious that one of your main goals during each offseason should be to improve your athleticism. In my opinion it’s as equally important for everyone who doesn’t play a sport to do the same.

It’s commonly known that when you age you lose your ability to perform explosively and move freely into athletic positions without pain or restriction.

I’d argue and say it’s more of a case of allowing yourself to lose those qualities that enhances the aging process and leads to your first rocking chair purchase.

Some people believe that training like an athlete means you squat instead of leg press. While I agree that those seeking enhanced athleticism should steer clear of machine training there is nothing exceptionally athletic about performing a squat. It’s the first major movement pattern you mastered as an infant. Since then you have probably screwed it up a bit and may not be able to do it as well but there is nothing exceptionally “athletic” about taking two steps back and squatting down. It’s commonly performed millions of times per day in crappers worldwide.

I’m not knocking the squat, of course; it’s a great exercise that will do more for you and will incorporate far more muscle groups, and requires more hip and ankle mobility, along with core strength and stability than any machine.

Just don’t think that just because you put a bar on your back instead of lying down on the hack squat machine that you are magically going to become Jerry Rice.

Exercises like the handstand pushup, overhead squat one arm row all enhance your ability to perform athletically (provided you don’t do anything stupid or injure yourself). However, these are all exercises where you remain in a stationary position.

To really improve or maintain your athleticism you have to move. It’s as simple as that. No matter how “functional” an exercise may be deemed, if you remain stationary when performing it there is still a huge component missing.

Below are 5 ways to maintain or improve your athleticism.

Every training program should include some type of jumping. Low level jumps like bounding, hopping and skipping rope can be performed quite frequently. I’d recommend jumping rope at least three times per week, if only as part of your warm up. ??Intermediate level jumps should also be performed fairly regularly, but unlike the lowest level of jumps you should be concerned with counting ground contacts. I typically prescribe 5-6 sets of 3 reps, two or three times per week. That seems to do the trick. ??Advanced level jumps like depth jumps and landings should be performed less frequently and in blocks of 2-3 weeks before deloading and switching to another lower level jump.

This doesn’t really require much of a description I hope. At least one or two days per week you should be getting out and opening it up on a field, beach or hill. Sled work is great and I consider it irreplaceable in my training programs, but sprinting is far more athletic and needs to be included.

If you simply sprint in a straight line your athleticism will slowly decrease over the years because breaking and cutting will have been ignored. You need to incorporate change of direction drills. These don’t have to be fancy. Just grab a bunch of cones, set them up and sprint to them in random patterns. The most basic is four cones in a square. Sprint to the first one, side shuffle left to the next one, back pedal to cone four and side shuffle right back to cone one. If you use your imagination you can come up with some more without me listing them all here. These drills should last no more than ten seconds per set and can be performed once or twice a week.

Now before people get up in arms and accuse me of being some “functional” dude let me explain. I actually believe that the agility ladder is more useful than non-athletes in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s than it is for those who are regularly competing. The reason for that goes back to what I discussed earlier- most people don’t move quickly anymore once they stop playing a sport and that contributes to accelerated aging. The agility ladder is a perfect warm up for any workout just because it gets you moving your feet quickly again. It’s not going to do much for Cam Newton but I have seen it help the 45 year old office worker who’s been sitting on his ass the last 15 years.

These are an essential part of any training program and not many activities can qualify as more functional than picking up something heavy and carrying it. You can use any implement you can think of such as barrels, sandbags, kettlebells, steel briefcases, water filled stability balls, a yoke, whatever. And you can carry them in a zercher position, two hands overhead, one hand overhead, with two hands at your side, one hand at your side, one hand overhead and one at your side, unevenly loaded, in the racked position, on your back, etc. etc. Pick one and do 3-5 sets of 20-40 yards once or twice a week.

One thing to note here is that I would also consider a walking lunge a form of weighted carries, and I believe in doing them in a non-traditional way such as with a log or sandbag over one shoulder. To crank it up a notch you could even hold a kettlebell in the opposite hand of that which you are holding the sandbag over your shoulder with. (Just please don’t do these until your knee stability is up to par). People often argue that single leg training is more functional but how much athleticism is required to do a stationary split squat or step up?

Does your training program include all of those components? If not I can almost guarantee you that you are not doing the most to maximize your athleticism and many of you are probably losing it.

Don’t go into battle unprepared.

And don’t get carted off the dance floor at your sisters wedding.

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Tags: Athleticism, Improve, Maintain