Load up the Wheels and Get Your Benchpress Rolling!
By Ryan “Bench Monster” Kennelly and Seanzilla Katterle
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The BenchMonster opening up with an 805 at the 2004 APA Northwest Championships! |
The hours
of building have again come to a crest. You’re standing in the gym
staring at the loaded barbell before you on the bench. You avert your
eyes, but you’ve already tallied the steel and you know that the
bar is loaded with a barrier you’ve yet to break. How many months
have you trained? How many times have you lain on this bench and done
battle with gravity? All the supplements, sleeping and pounds of protein
have led you to this moment. Your allies’ hollers break into your
consciousness and you sense that your friends are all around you in support,
though your gaze is clouded beyond the weights before you.
Dropping on to the bench, you clench the bar with chalked fists and take
it out of the rack. You feel the spotter’s hands release the iron
and the burden now fully rests on your shoulders. You elbows break and,
all too fast the load comes careening down to your chest, settling deep
into your ribs. As you press, you feel your elbows flare out and the bar
quickly slows as it rises from your body. Lights flash in your eyes and
all you can hear is your crew’s yelling over the ringing in your
ears. Your triceps burn, your shoulders numb and every fiber in your chest
pushes against the wall above you. But the weight doesn’t move.
It just hovers halfway off of your chest and then begins to sink. “Take
it!” someone yells and it’s over. The same opponent that stopped
you in your tracks weeks ago has stopped you again. Hours of sweat and
toil and days of rest and recovery have all added up to nothing but lack
of progress. You aren’t any stronger and you gaze around the gym
at the elite lifters wondering what paths they took to get to a mountain
higher than yours.
Months later, the morning bell tolls and you rise from your slumber ready
for conquest. A smile crosses your face as you think of all the times
you used to be plagued with doubt. Not on this day. For weeks you’ve
followed a new treasure map and your training lifts are now stronger than
ever. What was once your most powerful single is now a weight that you
rep! Today is the day that you join the fabled 400 bench club and you
set out for the gym with total confidence in your victory to come. You
now march with the legions of the hardcore and you’ll never look
back on the failures of your past again – today is the curtain call
for failure. Welcome to powerlifting.
In the 1st installment of this training series, we discussed basic benchpress
training for a lifter who was trying to build a 225 pound press into a
315 pound press. (Interviewer’s Note: To read the first two articles
in this series, log on to www.eclipsecec.com, click on “Training
Articles” and then click on “Ryan’s Articles”.)
To recap: Start with 45% of your 1RM (one rep max bench) and perform 8
sets of triples on week one. Week 2 perform 8 sets of triples with 50%.
Week three – 8 sets of triples with 55%. Week four is 8 sets of
triples with 60%. Week five is 8 sets of triples with 65% and week six
is 8 sets of triples with 70%.
Then, when you reach week seven (in the twelve week cycle), your work
load will be at such an intensity as to warrant lowering the volume of
your training. So, by week seven, you’ll be working with 75% of
your 1RM and you’ll drop down to only performing 4 sets of triples.
On week eight, you’ll press 4 sets of triples with 80% of your 1RM.
By week nine, you’ll be very close to training with your previous
max rep, so you’ll lower the work volume again and press 2 sets
of triples with 85% of your 1RM. On week ten, you’ll work 2 sets
of triples with 90% and then 2 sets of triples with 95% on week eleven.
Finally, on week number 12 you’ll harvest the fruits of your labor.
You’ll work up to a triple with 100% of your previous one rep max.
What was your most powerful push will now be a weight that you can rep
with for a triple!
Now, there’s more to the program than just working these sets of
triples on the flat bench. Before you get to your working weight (what
you’re going to be tripling) you’ll need to properly warm
up. So, for example, if you were going to be working with 200 pounds,
you’d warm up with the bar for 20 reps, 85 for 6 reps, 135 for 6
reps, 185 for 3 reps and then you’d start your working sets with
200 pounds. As a general rule, don’t ever increase the weight on
the bar more than 50 pounds between sets as, regardless of how strong
you are, your muscles and joints need to adapt to the work load that you’re
placing on them. Months from now, when you’re working with heavier
weights, just do less reps per warm up set as you work your way up the
poundage ladder (so you don’t fatigue during the warm ups.)
With this basic training program, your assistance work will be rack lockouts,
skull crushers, and close grip incline presses. With all of your assistance
work sets, perform sets of five reps, increasing the weight each set up
to a heavy set of 5 reps (where you can barely get the fifth rep) and
then quit. Always finish your benchpress workout with high rep triceps
pushdowns for added muscle fatigue. Some optional shoulder work can also
be done on this day, such as front plate raises (or front dumbbell raises)
for the front deltoids and side dumbbell laterals for your side deltoids.
High reps should be employed when performing these shoulder exercises.
A lifter’s max bench is usually 110% of what they can triple. So,
with you now tripling 225, your new 1RM is 250! Now, in your quest to
bench with three wheels on each side of the bar (315 pounds) you’ll
start the 12 week training cycle all over again with 8 sets of triples
at 45% of 250, ect. This is how your program will map out over time. Cycle
One = 225 max bench. Cycle Two (week 12) = 250 max bench. Cycle Three
(week 24) = 275 max bench. Cycle Four (week 36) = 305 max bench. Cycle
Five (week 48) = 335 max bench! In just 12 months you will be benching
over three plates on each side of the bar! If a year sounds like an eternity,
just look around you at the gym. How many guys in your club can’t
press 315? Two man lifting (one guy pressing while the spotter pulls on
the bar helping him) doesn’t count! Many of those guys have been
logging in hours at the gym for years and have never broken that barrier!
(I know, they all pressed 400 back in college or high school. Yeah, right.)
In the second installment of this training series, we took you from a
315 pound bench to a 405. Save for competitive powerlifters, heavyweight
bodybuilders and football linemen, hardly anyone in the gym can bench
405 pounds (don’t go off what you hear or read, look around and
take note when you go in to train) and by following this detailed blue
print you’ll be joining their prestigious ranks! (Again, you can
read about this training program in detail by logging on to www.eclipsecec.com,
clicking on “Articles” and then going to “Ryan’s
Articles.”)
To summarize; for the second phase of this 225-405 training program, you’ll
incorporate a speed day into your training cycle. Your calendar will run
in the order of speed bench day, three days off, heavy bench day, three
days off, repeat. On your speed day, you will use 60% of your one rep
max (without a benchpress shirt). So, if 315 pounds is your one rep max,
you will perform 8 sets of 3 reps with 190 pounds. Give yourself a one
minute rest period between sets (on your heavy training day, you can rest
up to ten minutes between sets depending on your level of fatigue). For
these sets, you will use a close grip for the first 3 sets, then move
your grip out to a medium close grip for the next 3 sets and then finish
up the last two sets with your competition grip. You must perform these
reps fast, but with control. Have someone time you with a stop watch and
make sure that you get your three reps in or under 3 seconds. If you can’t
bench the weight 3 times in 3 seconds, then the weight is too heavy and
should be lowered.
This style of training will develop your fast twitch muscle fibers and
explosive power in the benchpress. Which exercises you choose for your
assistance work, after your speed benching, is up to you. Just limit yourself
to two triceps exercises and keep the reps in the 10-15 per set range.
After 12 weeks of this training, you will need to see what your new unassisted
(no bench shirt) max is and then adjust your percentages for your speed
work. For example, after 12 weeks you will probably have a new raw max
of around 345, so your speed benching weight would then be 210 pounds.
For your heavy benchpress day, you’ll rotate the following four
different training days (training each heavy day version two weeks in
a row). Day 1: Close Grip Benchpress 4x8, Dumbbell Floor Extensions 10x6,
Front Barbell Shoulder Raises 3x10, Dumbbell Hammer Curls 5x5 Day 2: Board
Presses with 2, 3, or 4 Boards 8x3, Decline EZ Curl Skull Crushers 6x10,
Front Dumbbell Raises 3x10, Side Dumbbell Raises 3x10, Dumbbell Hammer
Curls 5x5 Day 3: Decline Benchpress 4x8, Behind-The-Neck Dumbbell Triceps
Extensions 5x5, Front Shoulder Raises w/a 24, 35, or 45 Pound Plate (keep
the movement slow and controlled) 3x10, Dumbbell Hammer Curls 5x5 Day
4: Incline Benchpress 3x10, Floor Presses 5x5, Upright Rows 3x10, Dumbbell
Hammer Curls 5x5 Again, in regards to the bench sets that you put in on
your heavy days, you shouldn’t miss any reps, but the weight should
be heavy enough that the last rep of each set is tough to get. If the
last rep of a set is still somewhat easy, then increase the weight for
the next set. Also, don’t forget to warm-up before you start your
working sets.