Posts Tagged ‘bench press’

Editors note: Remember Press ups will ultimately build your endurance and conditioning along with hypertrophy. Those things can support maximum strength training but are not quite the same thing. However read the addendum at the end 😉

Training Frequency:

• Weekly Routine: Perform this program 3-4 times per week. Each session will include variations of push-ups, dips, pull-ups, and occlusion training. Rest at least one day between sessions to allow for recovery.

Phase 1: Base Building (4-6 Weeks)

Objective: Build foundational strength, endurance, and stability while beginning occlusion training.

• Standard Push-Ups: 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps. Focus on form, engaging the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets.
• Incline Push-Ups: 3 sets of 15-20 reps. Use a bench or step to place hands higher than feet. Rest 60 seconds between sets.
• Ring Push-Ups: 3 sets of 8-12 reps. Introduce ring push-ups to engage stabilizers. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Dips: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Use parallel bars or rings. Focus on controlled movement to protect shoulders. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 6-8 reps. Perform overhand grip pull-ups, focusing on full range of motion. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Occlusion Training: Apply occlusion straps during the last 1-2 sets of each exercise (push-ups, dips, pull-ups). Use light to moderate pressure. Perform 12-15 reps per set when using occlusion.

Phase 2: Progressive Overload (6-8 Weeks)

Objective: Introduce added resistance to increase strength and muscle mass.

• Weighted Push-Ups: 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. Use a weight vest or backpack. Increase weight as you progress. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Decline Push-Ups: 3 sets of 10-12 reps. Elevate feet on a bench to shift focus to the upper chest. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Resistance Band Push-Ups: 3 sets of 10-15 reps. Use a resistance band around your back. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Ring Dips: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Adding rings adds instability, challenging stabilizers. Use a weight belt if bodyweight becomes too easy. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Use different grips (overhand, underhand, neutral) for variety. Consider adding weight once bodyweight is manageable. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Occlusion Training: Continue using occlusion straps for the last 1-2 sets of each exercise. Adjust pressure for comfort and safety, focusing on the increased pump and muscle fatigue. Perform 10-12 reps per occlusion set.

Phase 3: Plyometric and Power Development (4-6 Weeks)

Objective: Develop explosive power and enhance fast-twitch muscle fiber activation.

• Plyometric Push-Ups: 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps. Push explosively off the ground, maximizing airtime. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Clap Push-Ups: 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps. Add a clap mid-air to ensure maximum explosiveness. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Speed Push-Ups: 3-4 sets of as many reps as possible in 10-15 seconds. Focus on speed and explosiveness. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Ring Muscle-Ups (Optional, Advanced): 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps. Combines pulling and pushing movements for a full upper body challenge. Rest 120 seconds between sets.
• Dips: 3 sets of 6-8 reps. Continue with standard or weighted dips. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 6-8 reps. Include explosive pull-ups or weighted variations. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Occlusion Training: Use occlusion straps during speed push-ups, dips, and pull-ups for the last 1-2 sets. Perform 8-10 reps per occlusion set, ensuring proper safety and monitoring.

Phase 4: Occlusion Training and Strength Integration (4-6 Weeks)

Objective: Maximize hypertrophy, transition gains into bench press strength, and continue occlusion training.

• BFR Push-Ups (Rings or Standard): 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. Apply occlusion straps to enhance muscle activation and metabolic stress. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• BFR Dips and Pull-Ups: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Continue using occlusion straps to increase muscle activation. Rest 90-120 seconds between sets.
• Weighted Push-Ups or Decline Push-Ups: 3 sets of 8-12 reps, using heavier weights than earlier phases. Rest 90 seconds between sets.
• Bench Press Integration: 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps, starting with manageable weight and progressing. Focus on re-acclimating to the bench press movement. Rest 120 seconds between sets.
• Ring Muscle-Ups (Optional): 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps, focusing on strength and coordination. Rest 120 seconds between sets.

Measuring Progress and Adjustments

• Regular Testing: Test your bench press max every 4-6 weeks to track progress. Use these benchmarks to adjust intensity and volume.
• Flexibility and Mobility: Include dynamic warm-ups before training and static stretching post-workout. Focus on the shoulders, chest, and thoracic spine.
• Nutrition and Recovery: Prioritize a diet rich in protein for muscle repair and growth. Consider using creatine and other performance-enhancing supplements. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night and stay hydrated.

Realistic Expectations

This program should help increase your bench press strength by up to 100 pounds by focusing on muscle memory, hypertrophy, power development, and stability. The timeline for achieving these gains could range from 6 months to a year, depending on your response to training and recovery.

Conclusion

This integrated program combines push-ups, ring training, dips, pull-ups, and occlusion to create a comprehensive strength and hypertrophy regimen. It’s designed to leverage your background as a former advanced lifter, utilizing progressive overload, instability, and occlusion training to maximize strength gains. By maintaining consistency and allowing for adequate recovery, this program will help you rebuild and exceed your previous bench press capabilities.

Addendum: Strength Correlation Between Push-Ups and Bench Press

Push-ups and bench press share a strong correlation, as both exercises engage the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Standard push-ups lift about 64% of body weight, while high-velocity push-ups with elevated legs can lift 70-75%. When performing one-arm push-ups, the effective load increases significantly, often lifting 75-80% or more of body weight with one arm.

This demonstrates elite strength levels, comparable to a 100kg athlete lifting approximately 160 kg (352 lbs) in a bench press, highlighting the effectiveness of advanced push-up variations for building upper body strength.

On a recent post I mentioned my lifeline power pushup that I intend to use to build up to equal a 400lb bench – which I used to perform at the gym on a machine.

Well now there is some scientific research to backup resistance pushups.
According to sports scientists at the University of Valencia in Spain you can work on your chest muscles without doing bench presses. If you use an elastic band, push-ups are just as effective as bench presses.

Weighted push-ups
The Spanish experimented with students, all of whom had experience with strength training. The researchers got 10 of them to do bench presses twice a week for five weeks, while 10 others did push-ups.

Of course you can train harder by doing bench presses than push-ups. The researchers got round this by making the push-ups heavier for the students by using a resistance band. This meant that the subjects in the push-up group did just as heavy sets, and the same number of reps, as the students in the bench-press group.

Increase in strength
Before and after the training period the researchers measured the amount of weight with which the students could just manage 1 and 6 reps – their 1RM and 6RM. The strength parameters increased in both training groups. The training effect in both groups was also statistically significant.

Conclusion
“The push-up exercise with added elastic resistance provide a feasible and cost-effective option that may be performed anywhere and may be used as an alternative to traditional bench press exercise in order to provide a high intensity stimulus in the prime movers involved in the action and produce maximal strength adaptations”, the researchers write.

“Physical therapists and strength and conditioning specialists may use this information to select or include one of the both exercises performed during a resistance training program.”

Source:
J Strength Cond Res. 2014 Jun 30. [Epub ahead of print].

Finally after many months I am seeing a huge pay off in my Bench Press from grip training. I normally do my Bench work on a machine as I don’t have a training partner.

I like to train alone so thats the way it must be. So the stack on my bench machine has 96 KG max. I stack 20 KG plates onto the machine to add weight.

So several months ago I thought I was doing good benching 300 lbs. Yesterday I did 4 reps with 387 lbs. My goal is 400 lbs by the end of the year which should be easy given its only July. My 387 was after 5 sets ranging up from 300 lbs. The odd thing is I don’t feel any stronger than I did months back and honestly apart from my hands and forearms I don’t think I am.

The other trick I know for bench is to squeeze the traps all through the range of motion both up and down. Also you want to do serious stretching with a stick and with swinging arms between each set.

Hey folks I’m putting together a new manual specifically on bench press.

It will be pretty factual and straight to the point covering the following so far:

Bench Press Anatomy

Bench Press Bio Mechanics

Bench Press Form

Bench Press Routines

FAQ

Its fully illustrated and so far I am up to about 20 pages. I hope to get it to between 30 and 50 pages.

This WILL NOT be a freebie but will be super cheap like about $7 – $27 maybe. I have all the bench press manuals and books so am extracting the best information and putting it all into my manual.

Join my optin list and download the anatomy manual to be informed when the bench manual is available. www.FreeFitnessGuru.com/FreePassword.html

The bench press is an exercise in which the lifter lies on his/her back on a weight bench, lowering the bar directly above the chest. It is intended for the development of the chest, or pectoral muscles , frontal shoulders, serratus, but a variation exists for the triceps.

The bench press is an exercise in which the lifter lies on his/her back on a weight bench, lowering the bar directly above the chest. It is intended for the development of the chest, or pectoral muscles , frontal shoulders, serratus, but a variation exists for the triceps. In weight lifting , however, where the focus is to achieve a single very heavy repetition, the force for a bench exercise is exerted by both the pectoral and tricep muscles.

The world Bench Press Record for the heaviest benchraising at 1005 lb (456.8 kg) was set by Gene Rychlak under International Powerlifting Association rules in November 2004. It must be noted that the different lifts federations and gyms have subtly different rules on technique, the equipment that is allowed and whether performance enhancing drugs are tested for.

The heaviest “raw” Bench Press Record (without equipment such as denim shirts) is 713 lbs (324kg) by Scott Mendelson. Many people regard this as a greater achievement than Rychlak?s 1005 lb press. Classic bench presses may not be suitable for every athlete, if you experience a lack of development, switch to other exercises, i.e. dips, butterfly or other exercises involving dumbells.

Perform your bench presses carefully and slowly. Do not use the momentum of the downward movement of the barbell to let it bounce off your chest and push it explosively back upwards. At least, you bereave yourself of the negative and power building phase of the exercise. This exercise should always be performed with a spotter to catch the bar in case it is dropped on the chest.

Varying width grips can be used to shift stress between pectorals and triceps, and between the inner and outer pectorals. It can also be performed with dumbbells to incorporate greater use of the stabilizer muscles. Each variation is intended to work different subgroups of muscles, or work the same muscles in slightly different ways.

Scott Mendelson 1015lb Bench Press

Is that Freaking or what !!!

The dude is 314 lbs and has abs. Not bad since most powerlifters tend to have a belly.

His are Tips as follows:

1) Put your back into it:

Big chests do not make big bench presses. Proper technique makes the primary movers the back (latissimus dorsi), triceps, and rear deltoids. On a standard 15-17″ bench, pull your shoulder blades together so the shoulders rest on, and not off, the bench’s surface. This shortens the distance from the chest to full extension and eliminates your arms’ weakest range

2) Lift with your legs:

Put your body into a near-full arch when performing a maximal-lift bench press: support your body on the toes or balls of your feet by putting your feet underneath your body and arching your back. Squeeze the bench between your thighs to stabilize your body and use leg drive to initiate the lift from the bottom.

3) Train for triples:

Dedicate one work-out per week to the bench press, performing 5-8 sets of 3 reps with 5-7 minutes between sets. Use 60% of your 1-repetition maximum (1RM), adding 5-10% per workout.

4) Emphasize tricep, rear deltoid, and brachialis development:

Following the above 5-8 sets of bench press, perform one exercise for rear deltoids, one exercise for triceps, and one exercise for the brachialis. Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions with 2-4 minutes between sets.

Rear deltoids-
Using a seated pec deck machine (used for crossing the arms in front of the body), reverse the motion by facing the opposite direction and moving your arms backwards.

Triceps-
Choose either A) tricep extensions or B) board presses (place a 4×4 board on the chest and perform bench presses within this partial range of movement).

Brachialis-
The brachialis is a muscle on the outside of the bicep that supports arm movement at the elbow. Perform hammer curls (bicep curls where the thumb is kept pointing to the ceiling and the palm is not turned upward) to address this bodypart.

5) For safety, do not use a “false-grip”, where the thumb is placed under, rather than around, the bar:

“Once I was bench pressing with a false-grip and I got 584 lbs. to lock-out. The spotters thought I had it, so they took their hands away. The bar slipped, and 584 lbs. bounced off of my chest twice. I couldn’t breathe properly for 2 months, but I had no broken bones-not even a bruise.” Moral of the story: Hold the bar at shoulder-width with your thumb wrapped around the bar-safety is a precursor to efficacy?and results.

Train systematically, train intelligently, and follow the guidelines of the world’s #1 bench presser to actualize your true genetic strength potential.

Hey welcome to my new website and this is the blog of course.

I guess Ill keep a training diary of sorts here, give news updates, post video’s and contests and also communicate with you folks through comments.

If you pump iron and love working out then you will find plenty of value in the coming months.

For now i have a benchpress video i just stuck up on youtube.

Hope you find it usefull. Most folks would be lifting alot more if they isolate properly. Next post I’ll share my Bench Press warmup technique.