Corey’s 3 Tips to Bench More
There’s an early 2000’s quasi-super hero movie called “Unbreakable” starring Bruce Willis. In the movie, Bruce figures out that he’s actually a super hero and can’t be hurt. At one point he goes into his basement to lift weights and benches all of the weight he can find, plus some paint cans. It’s incredible. He lifts 350 pounds.
Last month I benched 405.
All that to say, I KNOW how to bench press and can help you press more weight. There have been a few changes to my bench workouts over the last 2 years that I think have allowed me to make a lot of progress. 2 years ago I was trying REALLY hard and I was stuck at about 335. Over the last 2 years I’ve added 70+ pounds to my bench (I include that “+” because my 405 looked better than my 335) and I think I’ve figured out 3 things that make a big difference.
Now to be clear, this is not a “how to build a bigger chest for the summer” or “how to add to your bench press so that you’re a better athlete”. These are explicitly tips designed to help you bench more weight. Nothing more than that. Those other things would probably occur, but that’s not the primary goal.
Figure out which bench grip works for you. I often see people just grip where they did in high school. They put their thumb on the edge of the knurling (the grippy part of the bar) and that’s where they bench. Don’t do that. Experiment around with where you feel strongest and start lifting from that position. For MOST people that I’ve worked with that’s going much wider. I put my index fingers on the ring. This is both a strong position for me and also reduces the range of motion on the lift making it easier to lift heavy weights. If you go wide and it doesn’t feel any easier than your normal grip but it doesn’t feel worse, then go wider. Why? You’ve practiced your grip a bunch of times. If going wider doesn’t feel worse, then long term it’s going to be better. The only people that I see using a narrow grip on their bench at a high level are people with massive arms. Look down, do you have massive arms? That was a trick question. If you had 20 inch arms they would be visible in your periphery at all times.
Identify the weak point in your bench so you can attack it. I classify people as being either weak off of their chest, weak in the middle, or weak at lockout. Once we identify this, we are going to select exercises that target that area to bring up your bench. If one of those areas is lagging (which it likely is), then you are going to be limited. Let’s say at lockout you’re capable of 405, and off your chest you’re capable of 405, but in the middle you’re only capable of 375, you’re going to bench about 375. Maybe a little more because you have so much momentum off of your chest, but not much more. You’re going to be limited by your weakest point so you need to select exercises that improve them. You’ll use a lighter weight, but that’s GOOD because you’re going to be doing a lot of pressing so some of it being artificially lighter is a good thing. That’ll be less stress on your body which is important. How do you identify your weak point? it’s the part where the bar slows down. Make sure you’re diagnosing this correctly. If it’s slow at the lockout, it might be because your lockout is weak, but it MIGHT be because it was slow in the middle, so just be careful as you make these decisions and don’t be afraid to second guess yourself if after hammering your “weak point” you don’t see improvement. MAYBE you misdiagnosed yourself and need to change your perceived sticking point. If you don’t know, just assume your weak point is off your chest. That area will have the best carryover to the rest of the lift because you’ll have more speed to get through everything else. If you’re weak off of your chest, a great move is a Pause Bench Press. If you’re weak in the middle, I like the Spoto Press. If you’re weak at lockout, I like the Board Press.
Quit doing Dumbbell work as a main accessory. Your bench is bad. You need specific work that’s heavy. You bench 300 pounds and you use the 100 pound DB’s. That’s 200 total pounds. That’s not enough weight. You need more weight. You’re also practicing a vastly different pattern. Cue Julia Roberts voice “BIG MISTAKE”. Replace that junk volume with more barbell work. This extra work will be attacking your weak points, so it’ll naturally be lighter than what you’d normally lift, but that’s good. The upside to DB work is that it is lighter and less stressful, so the BIG CATCH to this is you HAVE to stay on top of recovery so you can make sure your joints stay healthy. I stretch my shoulders. I do boring shoulder prep before every pressing workout. I do SMR with the Forge. I get a massage from Reese once or twice a month when I feel beat up. I do hundreds of reps of rear delt work on a weekly basis. If you’re going to apply more stress to grow your bench, you BETTER be on top of recovering from that stress.
So that’s my secret. I bench wide. I know my weak point is off my chest so I HAMMER pause variations. I don’t do DB work and make sure that I stay on top of my recovery to balance that out.
Interested in me writing your bench program so you can be a super hero? Email me at corey@coreblendtraining.com and get started.