Best Bench Press Ever!! (print this out)
Published: Sat, 05/25/13
Got one from the mail bag for ya today...
Q. Ah yeah. Hi Mike. When I walk into the gym weighing
170 pounds at 6'5" nobody takes me serious. Fact of the
matter is I get really mad when gym members ask me,
"So how much can you bench press, stickboy?"
I try to save face and just tell them I've never had a good
bench because my arms are too long and so it's only 205 pounds.
All the bodybuilders within ear shout start laughing their heads
off at such a measly lift. Having a crummy bench press is a
total embarrassment to me and I want a better one. I've read
lots of stuff about you so I know that you know a lot about training
so any help you could give me to up my bench would be ever so cool.
e-mail from: Elmo Trask
Q. Ah yeah. Hi Mike. When I walk into the gym weighing
170 pounds at 6'5" nobody takes me serious. Fact of the
matter is I get really mad when gym members ask me,
"So how much can you bench press, stickboy?"
I try to save face and just tell them I've never had a good
bench because my arms are too long and so it's only 205 pounds.
All the bodybuilders within ear shout start laughing their heads
off at such a measly lift. Having a crummy bench press is a
total embarrassment to me and I want a better one. I've read
lots of stuff about you so I know that you know a lot about training
so any help you could give me to up my bench would be ever so cool.
e-mail from: Elmo Trask
======
Westy's Answer. Hi Elmo. I can certainly relate to your experiences
what with people asking about your maximum single effort in the Barbell
bench press. I have been asked the question about my bench press a
1000 times - maybe a couple thousand times - and I have never dodged
answering it.
Like you, early in my bodybuilding career, I used to make up excuses
about my rather pathetic bench press accomplishments by mumbling
to no one in particular "I have bad genetics for doing the lift."
Finally one day it dawned on me to STOP MAKING EXCUSES
AND START MAKING PROGRESS!!!
I was tired of being a negative, uneducated, unsuccessful bench presser.
I started attending seminars and watched video's that were bench press
specific in nature. As well I got advice from the 'pros' in bench pressing
and being an analytical person I intensely absorbed everything possible
about the physic's of the lift.
As an investigative writer in the iron game for over 20+ years I have been
privy to some of the best bench press programs in existence and out of all
of them one that stand out is the one a bodybuilder named John Robbins
used years ago. It is called the:
Six-Week Power Bench Program and it begins now!
Westy's Answer. Hi Elmo. I can certainly relate to your experiences
what with people asking about your maximum single effort in the Barbell
bench press. I have been asked the question about my bench press a
1000 times - maybe a couple thousand times - and I have never dodged
answering it.
Like you, early in my bodybuilding career, I used to make up excuses
about my rather pathetic bench press accomplishments by mumbling
to no one in particular "I have bad genetics for doing the lift."
Finally one day it dawned on me to STOP MAKING EXCUSES
AND START MAKING PROGRESS!!!
I was tired of being a negative, uneducated, unsuccessful bench presser.
I started attending seminars and watched video's that were bench press
specific in nature. As well I got advice from the 'pros' in bench pressing
and being an analytical person I intensely absorbed everything possible
about the physic's of the lift.
As an investigative writer in the iron game for over 20+ years I have been
privy to some of the best bench press programs in existence and out of all
of them one that stand out is the one a bodybuilder named John Robbins
used years ago. It is called the:
Six-Week Power Bench Program and it begins now!
A bodybuilder named John Robbins used to blast his bench pressing
strength and those of others to new levels with a two-day, 3-sequence
(A, B, C) training method. Here's how....
The intensity threshold of the Robbins Six-Week Power Bench Press
Program requires only two workouts per week, usually on Mondays
and Thursdays to avoid the overtraining syndrome.
The first training day consists of workout "A" in which your stress
loads for your "barometer" one rep sets consists of working with 95%
of your current maximum single effort (MSE).
Assuming that you are a natural non-anabolic steroid-free bodybuilder
who has a 300-pound max bench press your workout will appear
as follows: 135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/5 reps, 225 (75%) /3 reps,
255 (85%) /2 reps, and 285 (95%) /4 non-consecutive single reps.
The second training day of week number one consists of workout "B"
where you will use 85% of maximum (300 pounds) for three triple rep
"barometer" strength building sets.
Workout B thus appears as follows: 135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/5 reps,
225 (75%)/3 reps, and 255 (85%) for 3 sets of 3 reps.
Workout "C" is the third training sequence and requires you to use
75% of your critical threshold 300-pound maximum for two to three five-rep sets.
135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/reps and 225 (75%) for 3 sets of 5 reps.
A brief overview of this program would show that on the first week you are
doing workout A on Monday, workout B on Thursday, and workout C on
Monday at the beginning of the second week.
Workout A is on Thursday and workout B on the following Monday of
week number three and C on Thursday. Workout A begins on a Monday
again in week number four, cycling through as explained above where you
end with workout C on Friday of the sixth and final week of this program.
To maintain a systematic strength progression in this 3-program training
approach it is necessary that you strive to add five pounds over your
previous training "barometer" one rep (workout A), or multiple rep strength
building sets (workouts B and C) each and every workout if possible.
At the conclusion of the six week cycle you will accomplish approximately
a 6-8% strength gain in the "barometer" sets of programs A, B, and C.
From here you can test for a new maximum single effort (MSE) and
after taking a one-week layoff of active rest, begin a new 6-week cycle
or perhaps you might wish to test for an MSE in a totally different exercise,
say the 30-40 degree Low Incline Dumbbell Press and go from there.
"What a person thinks about most is what they become. Because Elmo,
the mind molds the body, it's potential, and it's every feeling and urge...
especially for success in life and sport and in your case the bench press."
So...keep your eyes on the prize on 'The Best Bench Press Ever!!!"
believe you can accomplish it, train as I have shown you, with the guts
and fortitude. And that prize which is the acquisition of a monumental
Bench Press will be yours.
strength and those of others to new levels with a two-day, 3-sequence
(A, B, C) training method. Here's how....
The intensity threshold of the Robbins Six-Week Power Bench Press
Program requires only two workouts per week, usually on Mondays
and Thursdays to avoid the overtraining syndrome.
The first training day consists of workout "A" in which your stress
loads for your "barometer" one rep sets consists of working with 95%
of your current maximum single effort (MSE).
Assuming that you are a natural non-anabolic steroid-free bodybuilder
who has a 300-pound max bench press your workout will appear
as follows: 135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/5 reps, 225 (75%) /3 reps,
255 (85%) /2 reps, and 285 (95%) /4 non-consecutive single reps.
The second training day of week number one consists of workout "B"
where you will use 85% of maximum (300 pounds) for three triple rep
"barometer" strength building sets.
Workout B thus appears as follows: 135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/5 reps,
225 (75%)/3 reps, and 255 (85%) for 3 sets of 3 reps.
Workout "C" is the third training sequence and requires you to use
75% of your critical threshold 300-pound maximum for two to three five-rep sets.
135 (45%)/10 reps, 185 (62%)/reps and 225 (75%) for 3 sets of 5 reps.
A brief overview of this program would show that on the first week you are
doing workout A on Monday, workout B on Thursday, and workout C on
Monday at the beginning of the second week.
Workout A is on Thursday and workout B on the following Monday of
week number three and C on Thursday. Workout A begins on a Monday
again in week number four, cycling through as explained above where you
end with workout C on Friday of the sixth and final week of this program.
To maintain a systematic strength progression in this 3-program training
approach it is necessary that you strive to add five pounds over your
previous training "barometer" one rep (workout A), or multiple rep strength
building sets (workouts B and C) each and every workout if possible.
At the conclusion of the six week cycle you will accomplish approximately
a 6-8% strength gain in the "barometer" sets of programs A, B, and C.
From here you can test for a new maximum single effort (MSE) and
after taking a one-week layoff of active rest, begin a new 6-week cycle
or perhaps you might wish to test for an MSE in a totally different exercise,
say the 30-40 degree Low Incline Dumbbell Press and go from there.
"What a person thinks about most is what they become. Because Elmo,
the mind molds the body, it's potential, and it's every feeling and urge...
especially for success in life and sport and in your case the bench press."
So...keep your eyes on the prize on 'The Best Bench Press Ever!!!"
believe you can accomplish it, train as I have shown you, with the guts
and fortitude. And that prize which is the acquisition of a monumental
Bench Press will be yours.
Keep training hard,
Mike Westerdal
CriticalBench.com