What ME Bench lifts do ya’ll use? Can you give me some ideas. I’ve been looking around but it seems like most have chains or bands involved and I dont have access to either. I’ve been doing bench off pins and CG variations.
Also, I was looking up floor presses, and the video I found seemed to have the same range of motion as a regular bench. Is the video correct? Thanks all.
I do full presses, presses suspended in chains, and dumbell and barbell floor presses.
As for ROM on the floor press, that just depends on the thickeness of your body and the length of your arms. It will vary from person to person and probably as your physique changes.
Remember that bands and chains are a tool. Lifters have and made great gains without them. Do not let something as simple as accomodation trip you up. Also, depending on your level, you may not even need bands or chains.
As far as variations… Work boards. Work floor presses. Incline, Decline, close grip, wide grip. That should be enough to keep you busy for a while. Keep the rep maxes you are going for changing - sometimes shoot for 5 and 3 RM. Work your DE day too. Many people go through the motions on this, but it is just as important.
thanks for the input guys
[quote]windmill85 wrote:
What ME Bench lifts do ya’ll use? Can you give me some ideas. I’ve been looking around but it seems like most have chains or bands involved and I dont have access to either. I’ve been doing bench off pins and CG variations.
Also, I was looking up floor presses, and the video I found seemed to have the same range of motion as a regular bench. Is the video correct? Thanks all.
[/quote]
There are a ton of ME exercises out there but your first concern needs to be is find your weekness. If you are week in the lockout, for example, the one board press won’t help you much. Have someone watch you bench and look for your weekness. Find ME exercises that help strengthen them. I see many people doing ME exercises without any plan. It’s okay to throw some in for variation sometimes but for the most part, train your weeknesses.
you can go to www.elitefts.com, then go to the exercise area. there you will have more than enough info. on ME movements.
meat
Good advice from Meat as usual.
My favourites are…
1 Board
2 Board
Floor Press
4 Board
Inclines (usually to 5 cos I dont wanna risk fucking my shoulders)
Close grip benches
I bench raw and I only do regular Bench Presses and 2 Board Presses, I rotate percentages and rep/set structure.
for example:
1- Bench Press 85% 4 sets of 3
2- Bench Press 1RM
3- 2 Board Press 90% of 1RM for 3-4 singles
4- Deload- Illegal wides up to a 5-6RM
5- 2 Board Press 85% 4 sets of 3
6- 2 Board Press 1RM
7- Bench Press 90 of 1RM for 3-4 singles
8- Deload-Illegal wides up to a 5-6RM
REPEAT
On light day, I’ll do Mil.Press, something for the shoulders.
I really like decline.
I don’t have access to boards, but I’ve been doing full bench, decline, floor press, and pin presses.
What do you mean you don’t have access to them…? If there’s a hardware store around then go there and get some lengths of 2x6 cut up and tape them together to get the desired thickness.
Just shove em under your shirt or jumper when pressing so they don’t move around.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
What do you mean you don’t have access to them…? If there’s a hardware store around then go there and get some lengths of 2x6 cut up and tape them together to get the desired thickness.
Just shove em under your shirt or jumper when pressing so they don’t move around.[/quote]
Ok, I have so far been too busy/lazy to make them. It’s on the agenda though.
If I’m training for a meet (within 8-10 weeks, i.e most of the time), I’m in a shirt every week and I use 3 boards, 4 boards, and reverse bands. I usually go for a max triple or double, rarely for singles though. I seldom use 1 or 2 boards.
In the off-season or when I have no training partners, it’s raw, full range work with chains or bands- again, mostly to a max double or triple.
I don’t have boards, so I do flat presses and three different inclines; with and without chains.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
There are a ton of ME exercises out there but your first concern needs to be is find your weekness. If you are week in the lockout, for example, the one board press won’t help you much. Have someone watch you bench and look for your weekness. Find ME exercises that help strengthen them. I see many people doing ME exercises without any plan. It’s okay to throw some in for variation sometimes but for the most part, train your weeknesses.
meat
[/quote]
Meat,
I’m going to correct you on a few things. I’m telling you this in advance because it is not my intention to come off snooty, or to piss you off for doing so. That said…
It’s weak/weakness, not week. ‘Weekness’ is not a word.
Max Effort moves are designed to test strength and show you where you are weak. Based on the outcome, you then adjust your supplementary and accessory moves to target your individual weaknesses. If, for example, you are weak at the bottom of your bench, doing more low board work is not going to help. (Well, not any more than doing any other ME move.) Instead, when you realize that you are weak at the bottom you adjust your supplementary exercises. In this case, more lat work in the horizontal plane, high-rep dumbbell work, illegal wide grip pressing and doing low-board cambered bar presses for reps may help.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about the Westside style of training. Max Effort moves prime the system of strength gains, but you need to tailor your supplementary moves to your particular weaknesses.
Hope this helps.
Ike
[quote]Ike wrote:
maraudermeat wrote:
There are a ton of ME exercises out there but your first concern needs to be is find your weekness. If you are week in the lockout, for example, the one board press won’t help you much. Have someone watch you bench and look for your weekness. Find ME exercises that help strengthen them. I see many people doing ME exercises without any plan. It’s okay to throw some in for variation sometimes but for the most part, train your weeknesses.
meat
Meat,
I’m going to correct you on a few things. I’m telling you this in advance because it is not my intention to come off snooty, or to piss you off for doing so. That said…
It’s weak/weakness, not week. ‘Weekness’ is not a word.
Max Effort moves are designed to test strength and show you where you are weak. Based on the outcome, you then adjust your supplementary and accessory moves to target your individual weaknesses. If, for example, you are weak at the bottom of your bench, doing more low board work is not going to help. (Well, not any more than doing any other ME move.) Instead, when you realize that you are weak at the bottom you adjust your supplementary exercises. In this case, more lat work in the horizontal plane, high-rep dumbbell work, illegal wide grip pressing and doing low-board cambered bar presses for reps may help.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about the Westside style of training. Max Effort moves prime the system of strength gains, but you need to tailor your supplementary moves to your particular weaknesses.
Hope this helps.
Ike[/quote]
sorry for the errors with my writing. hopefully it won’t take away from my lifts. Maybe I’m a simpleton (I’m sure you will let me know if I spelled that wrong), but I know what works. And I give advice based on my experiences.
I have close to a 600lb raw paused bench, a mid 700 raw dead and mid 700 raw squat. I don’t tell you this to stroke my ego, but to show that I know how to get strong. It’s my opinion, that too many people look to far into the Westside principles instead of just lifting some fucking heavy weight.
not a sermon, just a thought…
meat
[quote]Ike wrote:
If, for example, you are weak at the bottom of your bench, doing more low board work is not going to help. (Well, not any more than doing any other ME move.)
Ike[/quote]
Sorry bro got to call BS on this.
Your saying if your weak on the bottm doing any ME is going to do you just as good as any other. BS!!! doing say a four board press ME aint going to do shit for your bottom end. Where as doing paused reps, using a cambered bar, low pin presses etc will raise the strength in the bottom end.
Then sure the acc. work you target it more your WEAK spots that is.
Phill
I always thought it was the competition lifts that showed you where you were weakest and what you needed to work on ME day.
I’m gonna stick with Meat and Phil and call BS.
So you’re saying that lifting fucking heavy weight is the most important thing to getting strong?
No argument here!
[quote]Phill wrote:
Ike wrote:
If, for example, you are weak at the bottom of your bench, doing more low board work is not going to help. (Well, not any more than doing any other ME move.)
Ike
Sorry bro got to call BS on this.
Your saying if your weak on the bottm doing any ME is going to do you just as good as any other. BS!!! doing say a four board press ME aint going to do shit for your bottom end. Where as doing paused reps, using a cambered bar, low pin presses etc will raise the strength in the bottom end.
Then sure the acc. work you target it more your WEAK spots that is.
Phill
[/quote]
Sorry, I just read a lot about this type of training from a guy who seems to know a lot about getting strong. I think his name is Louie Simmons.
Have you heard of him?
I’m saying this: Max Effort work is a switch. If you do it, you turn on the switch to strength gain. If you aren’t lifting heavy shit in some kind of movement, forget about it.
Now, assuming the switch is ‘on’, targeting the weak area (or muscles in question) with appropriate supplementary moves will bring up your strength in that range better than anything else.
Two scenarious:
Scenario A:
The lifter is weak in the low range, so he focuses on doing lots of low range Max Effort moves (low boards, concentric only, cambered bar, etc.)… BUT, he doesn’t do anything focuses on this low end in his supplementary moves.
Scenario B:
The lifter is weak in the low range. He does a variety of Max Effor moves, not really focusing on staying on the low end exclusively. (but he has some low end moves in his progression) For his supplementary moves, he hammers exercises like horizontal rows (for his lats, to hold the bottom position), high rep DB presses and cambered bar board presses.
Comparing these two situations, I’m saying the lifter in ‘B’ will bring up his low end faster than ‘A’. Both of them have their “heavy ass training” switch on, but B is hitting more appropriate supplementary moves to bring up his specific weakpoints.
Do you disagree with that?
[quote]Ike wrote:
I’m saying this: Max Effort work is a switch. If you do it, you turn on the switch to strength gain. If you aren’t lifting heavy shit in some kind of movement, forget about it.
Now, assuming the switch is ‘on’, targeting the weak area (or muscles in question) with appropriate supplementary moves will bring up your strength in that range better than anything else.
Two scenarious:
Scenario A:
The lifter is weak in the low range, so he focuses on doing lots of low range Max Effort moves (low boards, concentric only, cambered bar, etc.)… BUT, he doesn’t do anything focuses on this low end in his supplementary moves.
Scenario B:
The lifter is weak in the low range. He does a variety of Max Effor moves, not really focusing on staying on the low end exclusively. (but he has some low end moves in his progression) For his supplementary moves, he hammers exercises like horizontal rows (for his lats, to hold the bottom position), high rep DB presses and cambered bar board presses.
Comparing these two situations, I’m saying the lifter in ‘B’ will bring up his low end faster than ‘A’. Both of them have their “heavy ass training” switch on, but B is hitting more appropriate supplementary moves to bring up his specific weakpoints.
Do you disagree with that?[/quote]
No I dont disagree with those two limited choices.
I do however feel lifter C if you will the one that uses varied ME lifts that also target his weak points most of the time and hits the acc. work like one should is going to progress even better than lifter A or B.
Sure you need to mix it up. sure if your weak on the bottom you cant go hard and heavy every damn week on say a full ROM press or cambered bar etc, It’ll tear you up but the majority of your ME work IMO should focus on youre weak point, as well as the acc. work of course.
Oh and the lifting hard, turning the switch on. Thats a giving IMO on ME work. If your not doing that giving your damn all well you have greater probs. Sure from day to day that all will vary but every giving day you should give the ME work every damn thing you can or your a lost cause.
Cheers,
Phill