Bench Press Training

I love bench press training. Anytime people know that you lift weights the first question they always ask is how much you bench. Never mind the fact that the deadlift or squat is a much truer representation of overall strength (compare how much in life you go from a sitting position to standing or have to bend over and pick something up) they only correlate strength with a big bench press.

It is ironic that the bench press is a relative new comer to the lifting scene compared to some of the other lifts. A 100 years ago things like the one arm bent press would of been much more common. Now a days who the fuck does a one arm bent press? I can answer that in that very few people do that and for good reason it is goofy as hell and requires great technique to not rip yourself in two.

I have never been a great bench presser compared to say a Deadlifter (hence the name of my blog). I am tall and have long arms. While in boxing this would be a good thing, when it comes to bench pressing it makes the lift harder. You want to know what a good bench presser looks like, those are the short stocky guys with T-rex style arms. On the other hand usually those built for bench pressing have shitty deadlifts. Those short arms mean you have to pull the weight up higher than someone with longer arms. This is a rather simplistic way at looking at things but you get the general idea.

Me in the middle of Squat training on Monday.

I am not about to let excuses though get in the way of progress. Since I started powerlifting my deadlift quickly shot up but my bench press crawled inch by inch. This just meant that I had to train that much harder in the bench press.

Tonight I started my bench press training by performing 6 warm up sets of the bench press ramping the weight up (meaning I started with a light weight and high reps and worked up to heavier weights with low reps).

After the 6 warm up sets I performed 2 works sets of 3 reps. That means I chose a weight I feel I can do for 2 sets of 3 reps. Though when I perform the second set I try to get as many reps as I can. Tonight this meant that I actually did 1 working set of 3 reps then did 1 set of 5 reps. 2 weeks ago I did the same thing but with a weight 14 pounds less which means I have definitely improved over the two week period. This is how you track progress. Any asshole can rattle off a number they can lift. I don't care what you can lift, I care how much more you can lift than you did a month ago. Far too many trainees talk about what they used to do. Barring serious injury I have always been stronger than I was before. I don't have time for what you used to do, or what to do, all that matters is what you are doing.

I followed up my standard bench press work with close grip bench pressing. This places less emphasis on the chest and more on the triceps. This helps to build your power on the lockout of a standard bench press because on a standard bench press at the bottom of the lift the stress is primarily on your chest and shoulders but transfers to your triceps as you lift the bar up. I performed these lifts with a pause meaning I lowered the weight to my chest did a 3 second pause and lifted the weight up. During a bench press in a powerlifting competition  you must pause the weight on your chest until you get the press command from the judge. This will affect the amount of weight you can lift in a competition so it is good to practice a lift after a pause sometimes though not on your main lift training.

For this lift I did 2 sets of 3 reps. Since the lift is very similar to a standard bench press I did not require any warm up sets. I performed this with 10 more pounds than I did last week.

I next performed Incline Bench Presses with a competition grip. This places less stress on the triceps and more on the upper pec and shoulders. This helps with moving the weight off your chest during a regular bench press. I performed the same 2 sets of 3 reps, again with 10 more pounds than last week. The last rep of the last set was a bit rough but I got it all the same.

Those lifts are all based around improving the total amount I can bench press not so much for development of the chest. Since I am slowly crossing over from simply training for strength to training for aesthetic purposes also, I started adding in more of what I would consider traditional bodybuilding movements.

For this end I performed Dumbell bench presses. I performed 4 sets of 20 reps which is good for getting a lot of blood into the muscle and getting "the pump". At this point my chest and triceps were pretty hammered so I called it a day.

After the training I did the old post workout rub out and started working on my blog.