A new personal best in the bench press in six weeks

1 - Press over your face

Press exercises respond very well to higher volume and frequency. At this point, let's first look at the basic form of the exercise execution.

To generate a solid base for the bench press movement, you should pull your shoulders down and back. Imagine that you want to press your shoulders into the pad and tuck the tops of your shoulder blades into your back pockets. Your feet should be flat on the floor and your gluteus should be tensed.

The grip width will vary depending on how tall you are, but as a rule of thumb, the grip should be somewhere between your hands on the knurling and your little fingers on the rings. Now you are ready to push the bar out of the rack.

Once you have lifted the bar out of the rack, let it rest in the position that feels most comfortable. Adjust your elbows to the side as you begin to lower the bar. This is the ideal position to distribute the weight evenly across your pecs, shoulders and triceps, allowing you to use the greatest amount of muscle to push the most weight.

Do not perform bench presses with your elbows out. This puts too much strain on your shoulders and will almost inevitably lead to problems in the long run. On the downward movement, the bar should touch your chest at about nipple level or even slightly lower.

When you push the bar up, don't try to push it straight up, but push it up and over your face back to the starting position. This position is much more beneficial at the highest point of the movement. If you have trouble pushing the weight further up in the middle of the movement, tell yourself "over my face, over my face" and the weight will start to move again.

For more experienced exercisers, using bands and chains on the bench press is a great variation to help train the upper portion of the movement.

2 - Pin Presses

Exercisers have long used pin presses to improve their bench press performance. In this variation of the bench press, you start the movement not at the lowest point of the movement but from a point in the lower to middle range of motion by using a bench with a safety rack and setting it to the appropriate height.

However, instead of starting the movement from the safety rack as usual with pin presses, lift the bar from the rack at the highest point of the movement, lower it to the safety rack where you pause briefly and then press it up again.

Also try to use two different heights of the safety rack: one in the lower section of the range of motion and one in the middle section. The variation with the safety rest in the lower range will help you to increase your strength in the lower range, while the variation with the safety rest in the middle range will help you to increase your strength in the upper range of motion. Do not use these two variations within the same training session. However, you can use them during the same training week.

3 - Floor Presses

Floor presses - bench presses lying flat on the floor - take all pressure from the legs out of the movement, which means you have to rely solely on your pressing muscles. Using a tighter grip will help you to increase recruitment of the triceps and strong triceps are vital for using heavy weights on the bench press. The use of chains is a very useful variation in this exercise to increase strength at the top of the movement.

4 - Paused bench press

Use a full 3 second pause with the bar on your chest. This will make you feel like a weakling, but it will lead to strong improvements in the lower range of the bench press. The pause will also take the stretch reflex out of the equation.

This pause will require you to move the weight up using only the strength of your muscles, as the stretch reflex will not help you through the bottom half of the upward movement. Paused bench presses also help you to improve your technique and control the bar better.

5 - Barbell press overhead

Strong shoulders play a huge part in your band press performance and there are two versions of the barbell shoulder press that are really effective. The best is a strict standing barbell shoulder press with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.

Another excellent variation is seated shoulder presses without a back pad or other back support. This variation requires you to keep the torso more vertical and it also emphasizes the triceps more. For even more variation, you can use chains to put even more stress on the triceps.

Repetitions, sets and autoregulation

Bench presses respond very well to a wide range of repetition ranges - anything from 1 to 10 repetitions is suitable. If hypertrophy is your goal, then stick more to the upper end of this range. If strength is your goal, then stick more to the lower end of the range.

Use autoregulation to determine the weight to use and the number of sets to perform during a training session. Autoregulation allows you to train to the level of performance you are capable of on a given training day.

If you have a good day, you will be able to use more weight and perform more sets. If you have a bad day, your body will tell you to use less weight and do fewer sets. This will allow you to get the stimulus you need that day - not too little and not too much - which will help you make greater progress over time.

But how do you autoregulate your training session? First, work your way up to a heavy set. Then perform descending sets with a given percentage of the heaviest set until you reach the desired level of exhaustion. Try to perform the heaviest set about one repetition before reaching muscle failure so that you have one repetition left in the tank and also perform the descending sets to the point where you have one repetition left in reserve.

Here is an example:

Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heavy set and perform sets of 5 reps. The whole thing might look like this for an exerciser who can bench press 300 pounds:

• Empty bar only x 20
• 95 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 185 x 3
• 205 x 5 (more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (still more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 245 x 5 (about 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (reduce the weight to roughly 92% of the heaviest set and keep one repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (roughly 1 repetition in the tank, the training session is finished)

Achieve a new personal best in 6 weeks

In this program you will bench press 4 days per week and use autoregulation style sets. You will use a variation of the bench press 3 days per week and a variation of the overhead press one day per week. You will also use different variations to focus on the bottom and top end of the bench press movement, which will help you improve your bench press performance faster.

During the first week, you will probably feel sore muscles, but soreness should not stop you from training. You will adapt to this.

Remember to leave about one repetition in the tank on your heaviest set and then start doing descending sets. You should have a few reps left in the tank after each descending set, but when you reach a set where you only have one repetition left in the tank, end the training session.

Week 1

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin Presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 2

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict shoulder press standing or seated: work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: Pin Presses with pins in the lower range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Floor presses with close grip: Work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank. This is a great time to use chains if you have access to them.

Week 3

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 94-96% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 4

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict shoulder press standing or seated: work your way up to a heavy set of 6 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 6 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: Pin Presses with pins in the lower area: Work your way up to a heavy set of 2 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 2 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Floor presses with close grip: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank. Use chains if possible.

Week 5

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 2 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 2 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin Presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 6 repetitions, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 6 repetitions until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 6

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy single repetition with last week's weight.
• Tuesday: No training
• Thursday Bench Press: - Work your way up to a single repetition with 90% of Monday's weight.
• Saturday Bench Press: Set a new personal best.

Can't train 5 days a week?

If you feel that you can't bench press 4 days a week, combine the Monday and Tuesday workouts with the Thursday and Saturday workouts. For the first training session of the week, always perform the bench press first, followed by the shoulder press variation.

For the second training session of the week, perform the exercise that improves your weakest point first. If your weak point is in the lower range of motion, perform the lower range exercise first. If your weak point is in the upper part of the movement, do the exercise for the upper part first.

You will continue to build strength with two days of pressing per week with the same volume, but not as much as with four days of pressing exercises per week.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/bench-like-a-beast

By Derek Binford