So my bench has improved about 40 pounds in the last 13 months without increasing bodyweight. There are a few things that I think largely contributed to improving my raw bench, and I thought it would be worth capturing them for potential benefit later on.
1. Technique. I keep my back and arch tighter. I am able to use leg drive more productively by trying to drive myself along the bench (Jennifer Thompson tip in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34XRmd3a8_0). The eccentric is now quicker and tighter so I am wasting less energy then I did before with an excessively slow lowering phase.
2. Paused Incline Barbell Bench Press. I am awful at these, and have avoided them at times for that reason. Working on improving my strength on 5's and 3's on this exercise has made a big difference in my bench.
3. Getting better at straining. Doing "heavy" sets of 3's, 4's, 5's, and even higher reps on the most recent linear periodization program I did has made a big difference. Being able to finish a hard rep when fatigued seems to carry over to maxing better than doing a lot of singles in the 90-95% range.
4. Doing a slight off-load every few weeks, not a deload. On the linear periodization program on week 4, and week 8 I took an easier week. Instead of doing 3 or 4 work sets on each of my main exercises, I would only do 1 work set. So I was off-loading my dropping intensity a little, but reducing volume a lot. As an example, in week 3 on bench I did 3x10x195. I then did 8x175 in week 4. Reasonably easy but it kept things firing.
5. Improving Shoulder Health. I have been really focusing on doing "wall" slides on the floor, and it has been making my shoulder feel a lot better.
6. Hammering the Upper Back. Weighted pull-ups and scapular exercises have helped a lot.
7. Pausing Everything.
8. Approaching the Bench Aggressively. Knowing that I have to get dramatically stronger on the bench if I am going to reach my powerlifting goals.
9. I am now setting the J-hooks at the proper height so I can barely clear the hooks and be at full tricep extension. I used to set them too damn low.
10. In my first year of lifting I would max out all the damn time and it is little wonder why I had gotten stuck on the bench. But in the last two years since I injured my shoulder 9/9/09 while maxing out without a spotter, I have maxed 3 times, hitting 275 in October 2010, 285 in April 2011, and 305 September 2011. Patience has made a world of difference.
11. Regression to the Mean.
Some things I think will be important to getting to 335+.
1. Improve shoulder health and function (especially the left shoulder).
2. Improving my strength with a wider than POR grip. Maybe doing max legal wide grip bench or even illegal wides as an accessory exercise for 5-8 reps.
3. Increasing my arch by practicing arching over things during my bench warm-up.
4. Continuing to hammer the incline barbell bench press.
5. Doing work in the 5-8 rep range, followed by work in the 2-3 rep range. Don't need a lot of singles.
6. Spreading out my pressing over several days allows me to get in good quality work without recovering a lot of recovery time. Frequency is better.
7. Exercises that probably will have limited utility: CG Bench, Reverse Band Bench, Board Presses. It's not that my triceps are fantastic, I just don't think these exercises are the answer for me.
I am wondering why incline seems to be the answer for you. With your high arch how is hammering your upper chest better then board press or declines.
ReplyDeleteMarcum,
ReplyDeleteThat is a good question and an answer doesn't immediately come to mind. But my best guess would be that strengthening a glaring weakness will tend to make one stronger even if there are some exercises that have greater specifity. Especially when the person is stronger at those exercises which have greater specifity. When it comes to bench though I think doing good supplementary movements will always be more important than for the squat which comes much more naturally.