if you know who i am, i have NO bench. both my shoulders are fucked. there are days i cant even do a pushup. BUT, i have trained with a lot of big benchers, and been around the strenght game for 25 plus years.
every now and then, a young guy will come up to me at whatever commercial fitness center i am training at and ask for some advice on how to improve his bench.
why? good question, not because anyone has seen me bench a ton of weight in the gym, most of thiesse guys can bench a LOT more me(that is not saying much, when my bench is, um, ZERO, LOL). maybe it is because i am a big guy and they have seen me handle 500-600lbs for reps in the squat and eadlift from time to time. i dunno.
most guys are not receptive to a full blown westside routine, too much info too fast. but the following few tips have led to DRAMATIC improvements in various peoples bench in just a few weeks to a few months. the most recent coulple of guys are the typical frat boy types, who pound their upper body with 50 sets of high reps stuff and do the treadmill and bike for their legfs. one guy, benches 315 raw, and in just 4 weeks he is just hit 365 for a strong single. the other guy when i started him did a double with 325, now he recently hit 405 for a single in the flat bench. i have many more such stories, but the last two are the most recent.
here is the “plan”
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train upper body ONLY 2 times a week. no extra arm day, shoulder day or back day. two days a week only
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NO shoulder pressing. no military press, dumbell press bhn press NONE. just
3.ROW, ROW, and then ROW some more. the vast majority of your back trainng volume should be heavy rowing movements.
- work heavy mid range and top end movents. that is 2- 3 board press, rack press for various pin positions, and floor pressing. this is to be done HEAVY, 1-3 rep maxes.
thats it.
im done.