Smolov Jr works really well. The surovetsky program I ran peaked the shit out of my bench. Its just ridiculously hard.
[quote]kgildner wrote:
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to attain my bench press goal of 125 kg/275 lbs/1.5xBW this year, which is miniscule compared to many of you, but a big milestone for me. I’ve been stalled at 117.5-120 kg for a while now and am trying to remedy my weakness off the chest with paused bench and more volume.
One thing I notice, though, is that I’m good at performing highish reps but tend to lose composure under maximal weight. When I used to train during my sport’s offseason as a teenager (over ten years ago, but still…), our coach used to program in one or two weeks per year of working up to supramaximal weights for reps. I used to wonder about the benefits of that, but I’ve also seen a few programs advocate negatives.
Does anyone here train with negative reps for bench press? How do you program these? Would this be a sensible solution for increasing my confidence under the bar and training overall tightness towards the end of the eccentric?
Thanks in advance!
[/quote]
Train singles more often. Train the bench only. No assistance work. Train the lower portion of the lift (chest to mid-way up) and keep pressure on the lower half of the lift. Always pause and press the last rep of each set. Use a slingshot to overload the triceps. Train the bench more than 1-2x / week. Do high rep rotator work very light weight or use mini band.
Check out Vladimir Volkov: http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/sports-training/bench-and-nothing-but-the-bench/
My bench went up like crazy following this type of training. Give it a shot.
bump
[quote]osu122975 wrote:
[quote]kgildner wrote:
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to attain my bench press goal of 125 kg/275 lbs/1.5xBW this year, which is miniscule compared to many of you, but a big milestone for me. I’ve been stalled at 117.5-120 kg for a while now and am trying to remedy my weakness off the chest with paused bench and more volume.
One thing I notice, though, is that I’m good at performing highish reps but tend to lose composure under maximal weight. When I used to train during my sport’s offseason as a teenager (over ten years ago, but still…), our coach used to program in one or two weeks per year of working up to supramaximal weights for reps. I used to wonder about the benefits of that, but I’ve also seen a few programs advocate negatives.
Does anyone here train with negative reps for bench press? How do you program these? Would this be a sensible solution for increasing my confidence under the bar and training overall tightness towards the end of the eccentric?
Thanks in advance!
[/quote]
Train singles more often. Train the bench only. No assistance work. Train the lower portion of the lift (chest to mid-way up) and keep pressure on the lower half of the lift. Always pause and press the last rep of each set. Use a slingshot to overload the triceps. Train the bench more than 1-2x / week. Do high rep rotator work very light weight or use mini band.
Check out Vladimir Volkov: http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/sports-training/bench-and-nothing-but-the-bench/
My bench went up like crazy following this type of training. Give it a shot.
[/quote]
Great, thanks a lot for the tips! I’ll be doing this – doing some submaximal doubles and triples on OHP day and working up to my training max for at least a couple of singles/doubles each heavy workout. In the new year, I’ll likely run a high-frequency peaking program for 6-8 weeks.
I was stuck at a plateau of 305-315 for about a year. Then in July/August I tried a few weeks of heavy negs. Nothing, ziltch worthless time, even going to 375 with a slow lower. At the end of August I started Wendler 5/3/1 and am doing 315 for 3 reps. Big improvement in just a few months. BTW, I am 149 lbs, and only gained 1 lb of weight. Not wanting to get big, just strong.
Here’s a little 6 week template I’ve been having real good luck with, it’s written by Jim Steel, you don’t really have to be exact with your 1RM, 5-10lbs light actually works better, I put 25lbs on my incline -press in 6 weeks with this 275-300. Anyway there’s a million templates out there, this is just one I found works real well, and it works along side 531 for your other lifts I’ve found. Latter
Week 1 - 75% 5x6 - 60% 1x10-12
Week 2 - 75% 8x6 - 65% 1x8-10
week 3 - 80% 12x4 - 70%6x8
Week 4 - 85% 10x3 - 75% 6x8
Week 5 - 80% 1x2 - 85% 1x2 - 90% 7x1
Week 6 70%x1 - 75%x1 - 80%x1 - 85%x1 - 90%x1 - 95%x1 - 100%x1 - 105%x1 - keep going till fail
Awesome! Might try this peaking program at some point this spring. Thanks a lot!