Want To Boost Your Bench? Try a LITTLE Rest on the Chest.

I came across a training protocol just recently that has been working wonders on our bench pressers and our athletes. Now I’m gonna warn you that this can be quite painful especially if you are only bench pressing your bodyweight for at least a few reps. You are gonna need a training partner for this one as well.
Here it goes, after a good warm up (light bar work, push ups, etc.) load the bar to 50% of your bodyweight on the bar. Then take the weight, lower the bar to the high point on your chest / 1st rib and hold it BARELY (very little daylight if any) off your chest for FIVE MINUTES!
Now, position is everything.
1. Head back on the pad
2. Feet tucked underneath you to induce leg drive
3. Shoulder blades adducted together
4. Elbow at 45 degrees to the body and forearms perpendicular to the floor
5. Keep the breathing steady and try not to hold your breath (especially for 5 minutes)
6. Try to actively “pull the bar apart” to keep the triceps activated and give the Front Deltoid capsule a break.
7. Maintain the natural arch in your back and try not to “flatten” out.

You will know if you are in correct position, because your will feel most of the tension around the elbow area. If you are trying to “muscle” the weight with the incorrect muscles, your front delts will be on fire and you will start failing prematurely. Have you partner let you know that you have 30 seconds left on your 5 minutes of torture and the actively pull the par into your chest for the whole 30 seconds with all the force you can muster. Then when you partner says “TIME”, press the bar with all the might you’ll have left. You will be surprised how fast it fires off you chest even after 5 minutes.

BUT WAIT!!! YOU’RE NOT DONE!!

Then you get 3.5 minutes rest and then you get a second (and last) set of 100% of your bodyweight to be hold on your chest for 3 minutes! Same positional protocols still apply.

I’ve seen as much as 10% increase on one’s bench in a week!

Give it a try….if you dare!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Tags: alabama, back squat, barbell, bench, birmingham, bodybuilding, boot camp, boot camps, bootcamp, bootcamps, Cahaba heights, chuck sipes, Diet, diet pills, exercises, fat loss, fitness, front squat, Homewood, joint stability, Mountain Brook, mr america, muscle, muscle building, nutrition, paleo diet, personal trainer, power clean, powerlifting, running, sprint, squat, squats, strength, strongman, strongman training, supplement, supplements, tendon strength, training, Vestavia, vitamin, vitamins, weight, weight lifting, weight loss, weightlifting, workout, workouts

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Max Effort. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.