8 Weeks to a Better Bench Press

Training Powerlifting
1

Here’s a little program I designed to increase your bench press possibly 50 lbs in 8 weeks (maxing out on 9th week). I designed it after researching Jay Schroeder, who is renowned for training Adam Archuleta. There are more sophisticated ways to use Schroeder’s ideas, but I believe for someone who has never trained like this, this 8 week setup can produce immense results. This program is designed for bench press, but the idea can be applied to just about any movement.

The isometrics work by restricting blood flow to the muscle, creating a hypoxic environment that fast-twitch muscle fibers thrive under. For this to work correctly you must avoid fidgeting and moving as much as possible. The reason this feels good for about half a second is because it allows blood (and oxygen) to get to the muscle so your slow-twitch muscle fibers can work, which decreases the lactic acid that is a byproduct of your fast-twitch muscle fibers creating energy (and which you want). The isometrics may be done several hours apart during the day, for instance the first set when you wake up, and the second set before you go to sleep.

The rebound bench press work by absorbing a large amount of force and rapidly accelerating it. For this to work you let go of the bar and quickly do the bench press motion, catching the bar on the way back up. The weight used is intentionally very low for both safety purposes, and the advantage of achieving high velocity. I reccomend putting a thick towel on your chest for these (just in case).

You will notice every third week is a “deload”, where you don’t perform the normal intense training, but rest up a little. The exercises I put in for that week are designed to keep your shoulders in good shape, and to avoid internal rotation. You will also max out during that week, so you can adjust your numbers for the following 2 weeks.

Besides this the program is pretty self-explanatory, although I will try to answer any and all questions regarding it. I’m throwing this out here because I would like to see some people try it, and give us feedback on their results.

http://www.4shared.com/file/40418864/e9d1fde1/betterbenchpress.html

Beau

2

Link won’t work for me.

3

How many people have tried it? Their results? Is the +50lb backed up or what you think “should” happen?

4

Sounds kind of like hoakum- especially all the isometric holds. Isometric holds do not make you strong- they make you good at isometric holds.

5

Sounds kind of like hoakum- especially all the isometric holds. Isometric holds do not make you strong- they make you good at isometric holds.

6

It will probably work for novice/intermediate lifters.

-heh first post.

7

[quote]Pinto wrote:
Sounds kind of like hoakum- especially all the isometric holds. Isometric holds do not make you strong- they make you good at isometric holds. [/quote]

Isometric holds build work capacity specific to fast-twitch muscle fibers:

[quote]From a different forum:
Okay, I’ve been doing a lot of digging and I’ve finally found scientific documentation that supports the use of long duration unloaded ISOs as used by Jay Schroeder.

JackM, the brilliant contributor over on the DB Boards, has said numerous times that failure in long duration ISOs is due to occlusion, and that loads light enough to be held for extended periods of time would cause fiber transformation towards type I fibers. However, I’ve discovered studies dealing with a new type of Japanese training known as “Kaatsu” that demonstrate the exact opposite.

Kaatsu training involves lifting loads of roughly 20% 1RM for 15-30 reps while one has a tourniquet fastened over the proximal part of the limb they’re working. The tourniquet limits oxygen transport to the muscles and deprives the type I fibers of the fuel they need to contract. Within this environment, type II fibers thrive and have been shown to increase in volume by 27.6% after only 2 weeks of training. Similarly, whole muscle cross sectional area has been shown to increase by upwards of 5% for highly trained college T&F athletes within the same time frame, while increasing strength by nearly 10%.

This is believed to happen because IGF-1 and GH levels skyrocket after performing Kaatsu training. Also, the body learns to produce more fast twitch fiber when confronted with a lack of oxygen.

Jay’s several minute long ISOs would work much the same as Kaatsu training, but instead of a tourniquet cutting off blood flow (and therefore oxygen) to the working muscles, the sustained contraction will do the job. Not only will the ISOs work to elongate the local fascia, but they will also provide functional type II fiber hypertrophy, and in large amounts too. In fact, James once claimed to have gained 16 lbs in one month from the use of light ISOs alone. This claim was scoffed at on the CF Forums, but it’s completely believable under the training conditions.

The only real downside to this type of training is that while absolute strength does increase, relative strength does not. It appears that Kaatsu, or any hypoxic training, does not affect the nervous system. This can be corrected by implementing normal training simultaneously though, or at least I believe it can.

Here are some links to relevant Kaatsu training articles:
http://www.kaatsu.jp/pdf/0101/02Abe.pdf

http://kaatsu.jp/pdf/0102/12Yasuda.pdf

http://kaatsu.jp/pdf/0101/04Abe.pdf

One can also get results by going to www.scholar.google.com and searching for Kaatsu.
[/quote]

8

[quote]Boffin wrote:
How many people have tried it? Their results? Is the +50lb backed up or what you think “should” happen?[/quote]

It’s a hypothesis based on a lot of research that I have done. I’m going to try it out and log results, and then if it gives desired results I’ll tweak it for a final version for other people to try. If anyone else would like to try it with me that would be awesome.

Beau

9

By the way, are you guys having a hard time downloading it, or did you figure it out?

10

definitely looks interesting, transformation to type II fibers sounds almost too good to be true

11

No, isometric holds are really good for building strength. Do them in the weakest part of the movement.

12

[quote]beau_zo_brehm wrote:
Boffin wrote:
How many people have tried it? Their results? Is the +50lb backed up or what you think “should” happen?

It’s a hypothesis based on a lot of research that I have done. I’m going to try it out and log results, and then if it gives desired results I’ll tweak it for a final version for other people to try. If anyone else would like to try it with me that would be awesome.

Beau
[/quote]

I’d be interested to see your results.
Points to remember: Newbs will gain by doing almost anything, so whats your training history / wt / height/ previous best?
Adding 50lb to your bench is (relatively) easy if you bench 200lb, much harder if you bench 400lb.
If it works for you (I hope it does- its great when you design a routine that works for you) see if it works again, though you might not see the same level of gains as the first time it would be interesting if you gained a good amount second time around.

Keep us posted dude!

13

My training history isn’t amazing, but I think I’m past getting newb gains. I’m only 16 years old but I’ve been lifting regularly for about 4 years, playing basketball, football, and track, and always on some kind of lifting program at school.

Age: 16
Height: 5’11"
Weight: 162 lbs.
Bench Press Max: 225 lbs.

I’ll be starting a detailed log on March 22nd for you guys to observe.

14

[quote]beau_zo_brehm wrote:
My training history isn’t amazing, but I think I’m past getting newb gains. I’m only 16 years old but I’ve been lifting regularly for about 4 years, playing basketball, football, and track, and always on some kind of lifting program at school.

Age: 16
Height: 5’11"
Weight: 162 lbs.
Bench Press Max: 225 lbs.

I’ll be starting a detailed log on March 22nd for you guys to observe.[/quote]

In all respect I think you should still stick with the basics here, based on your bench max. I don’t think isometrics and all that fancy stuff is for people under a 300 pound bench as your strength advances so should you training style: new movements, use of bands and isos and so on.

As Jim Wendler and Matt Rhodes have said train your body as though everything is weak, following this approach would definitely give any one results especially those still under a 300 pound bench. I just think you need to keep it simple for now.
Honestly, no disrespect to you at all, good luck on the program!

15

[quote]I’mCharming wrote:
beau_zo_brehm wrote:
My training history isn’t amazing, but I think I’m past getting newb gains. I’m only 16 years old but I’ve been lifting regularly for about 4 years, playing basketball, football, and track, and always on some kind of lifting program at school.

Age: 16
Height: 5’11"
Weight: 162 lbs.
Bench Press Max: 225 lbs.

I’ll be starting a detailed log on March 22nd for you guys to observe.

In all respect I think you should still stick with the basics here, based on your bench max. I don’t think isometrics and all that fancy stuff is for people under a 300 pound bench as your strength advances so should you training style: new movements, use of bands and isos and so on.

As Jim Wendler and Matt Rhodes have said train your body as though everything is weak, following this approach would definitely give any one results especially those still under a 300 pound bench. I just think you need to keep it simple for now.
Honestly, no disrespect to you at all, good luck on the program![/quote]

I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but my goal is really more to see if the method is successful rather than to increase my athletic performance, because my athletic experience has been pretty much ruined by a lower body injury. So my career choice is to get a degree in kinesiology and become a pro-maker. Thanks for the advice though.

16

Yeah not to rain on the parade but at 16 any program should work to get you 50lbs on your bench. Elite high level stuff is for later. You’ve got so much room to grow. When you get to be my age there’s really only thing that can put 50lbs on your bench in 8 weeks…:wink: