Increase Your Bench Press

"How To Increase Bench Press"

“How to Add 20, 30, Or Even 40 Pounds To Your Bench Press - The Real Secret To Building A Big Bench Press”

Yes, you can add some serious poundage to your bench press, provided you do it right. It is very important one for those of you who want to really improve your bench press or incline press. In the gym, it is very rare that you see someone do the bench press in a manner that is conducive to growth. Its mean, really, it takes time to develop a solid bench press and patience is the key, as well as the knowledge it takes to really blast your bench press. However, when you go to the gym, you see impatient young trainers wanting to bench press 500 pounds over night. Its incorrect form, bad technique, wrong positioning, and most of all, poor exercise choices. It is the choice of exercises that ultimately leads to a poor bench press.

Now, when someone who really understands the movement of the bench press, they are usually pressing some very impressive weight. Usually, their form and technique is down to a science with nice, fluid movements. However, it’s not only the persons form and technique that is impressive; it is their choice of exercises.
You see, a big bencher’s weight lifting program is very structured. It may seem very simple but the truth is, they always have a system in place with very specific exercises. These exercises are the staple of a strong bencher and the real strength lies within those very exercises. Actually, it’s not really the bench press itself that generates the power of the bench; it is the supporting exercises that build overall, upper torso power.

Ok, before you toss this idea out the door and hit the back button. All big bench pressers’ will rely on core exercises that generate a tremendous amount of power. The bench press alone is not the actual exercise that generates the power; it is the strength exercises for the shoulders and triceps that build the core power. I mean, the pectoral muscles are the targeted muscles in the bench press, but not the only muscles involved.
Now, there are some core exercises that I’ve tried that have a direct tie to a big bench press. And it’s these exercises that will actually help generate a big bench press. These exercises are the real secret to building a big bench press. Yes, it is the core exercises that will generate a huge bench press.

The core exercises to help build a large bench press are the front shoulder press and close grip bench press. Yup, simple right? Well, it’s not that simple because most aspiring trainers do this all wrong. Here’s where they screw up. It’s the lack of understanding that these exercises must be done in a manner that allows for the maximum recovery between exercise sessions. This is the only way to get strong. And it’s this impatience that is directly responsible for a poor bench press. By bench pressing 2, or even 3 times per week, you are sabotaging your efforts and you won’t get anywhere. Alright, here’s what you want to do if you want to really gain on your bench press. You should be training each body part once per week, putting priority on the front shoulder press, close grip bench presses, and the bench press. All of your efforts are going to be aimed at getting stronger in each of these 3 exercises. Cut out all isolation exercise such as cable cross overs, bent over cable laterals, triceps kick backs or anything else that doesn’t involve two or more muscles. All you want to do is concentrate on three exercises

• Bench Press;

• Front Shoulder Press;

• Close Grip Bench Press.
The bench press should be done first and foremost in your weight lifting routine. Shoulder presses should be done about 3 to 4 days after training chest. I usually train triceps with chest. So, I do the bench press, followed by triceps and biceps. I take a days rest following chest and arms, train legs, than hit my shoulders and back. Here’s a sample routine:

Monday:Chest and arms;

Tuesday:Rest

Wednesday:Legs;

Thursday:Shoulders and back;

Friday:Rest;

Saturday:Rest

Sunday:Rest

Monday:Repeat

Remember, this is what you should do and you can play around with the weight lifting routine. Such as:
Monday:Chest and triceps;

Tuesday:Rest

Wednesday:Legs;

Thursday:Shoulders;

Friday:Back and biceps;

Saturday:Rest

Sunday:Rest

Monday:Repeat
The important thing to remember is the recovery times. You want to allow 3 to 4 days recovery between front shoulder presses and the bench press. This is the key. Exercise choice is vital to a big bench press.
For chest, you want to do the bench press first and foremost. Not do more than 3 exercises for chest.

• Bench press; followed by

• Incline bench press; followed by

• Flat bench fly of dips.
Your exercise progression for the bench press should be:
Warm up: 1 x 20 reps

Set one: 1 x 8 reps

Set two:1 x 8 reps

Set three: 1 x 6 reps

Set four: 1 x 6 reps
This is it. Do not do any more.
Warm up: 1 x 20 reps :

60 pounds or 30% of your max;

Set one: 1 x 8 reps: 95 pounds or 45% of your max;

Set two: 1 x 8 reps: 125 pounds or 60% of your max;

Set three: 1 x 6 reps: 145 pounds or 70% of your max;

Set four: 1 x 6 reps: 165 pounds or 80% of your max;
This is it. Now, when do you know it’s time to increase the weight? You should be increasing your weight when you can do the last set for 8 reps. So, in this case, if this person can do 165 pounds for 8 reps, they should increase the weight by 10%. Let’s say, this person does 8 reps with 165 pounds this week, next week, they will be using roughly 180 pounds for a target of 6 reps. Once they do 6 reps with 180 pounds, they will target 8 reps the following week, and so on.
As for the other exercises
Incline press:

Set one: 1 x 8 reps - 50% of your max

Set two: 1 x 8 reps - 60% of your max

Set three: 1 x 6 to 8 reps - 70% of your max

Set four: 1 x 6 reps - 80% of your max

As with the bench press, your weight progression will be similar.

Flat bench fly:

3 x 12 reps - moderate weight

Make sure that you don’t go super heavy on this exercise. Feel the stretch and really pump the muscle up.