Building A Big Bench

Over the years I've worked with some extremely strong bench pressers, and looking back over the programming we went through this past week some things were consistent throughout each program I wrote for them. So here's what could be considered 5 constants within big bench programming, and things you should maybe consider if a big bench press is high on your list of goals. 1) Bench Twice Per Week The first constant was frequency, with it being set at 2 sessions per week. It gives you a great base to hit good sessions often, with decent rest and recovery in between (which for a non-professional powerlifter or gym goer is extremely important). We would usually bench press Tuesday/Friday, allowing 2 days recovery from heavy to volume days, and 3 days recovery from volume to heavy. Sure, some Russians will bench with a higher frequency, but for everyone likely to ready this, twice per week is going to be a real sweet spot. 2) 1x Heavy / 1x Accessory Within those two sessions, we alternated between heavy sessions on Tuesday's and "accessory" sessions on Friday. This means that on Tuesday we would be lifting loads of 80-85%+ for somewhere between 1 and 6 reps. The focus will always be to lift progressively heavier loads either week to week or phase to phase. The Friday session would be an accessory session, either work on volume (lower weight, higher reps/sets or both), speed (light loads with an acceleration focus), or a specific weakness in the lifters performance. With 3 days rest between accessory and heavy, the Tuesday session heavy session should always be done from a base of full recovery. 3) Technique -> Volume -> Speed In those accessory sessions, when choosing which focus to take, we would follow the progression of Technique -> Volume -> Speed in that order. This is because:

• Technical issues from previous phases should be addressed aggressively early in a program, furthest away from testing/competition.

• Increased volume will yield great gain, but bring with it great fatigue, so should be stopped prior to testing/competition and should be preceded with technique work to help grove improved movement patterns.

• Speed has a pre-requisite of strength which will be highest at the end of a program, and lower loads allow for greater recovery in peaking phases.

So generally something like the following would generally yield good gains:

• 4-6 weeks technique focus

• 6-8 weeks volume focus

• 4-6 weeks speed focus

4) Working Weaknesses When working on weaknesses there would be 3 general routes to follow with a general protocol to address each issue. First, if it's a technical issue (bath path, set-up, leg drive etc) we would generally reduce load to increase focus on technique, and introduce tempos to allow time to correct movements. Something like a 3-1-1-1 tempo could work great to help someone maintain tension onto the chest ready to drive the bar more effectively on the concentric. If it's a weakness on the chest (i.e. the lifter misses with the bar on or near their chest at the bottom of the lift), we would heavily drill pauses and full ROM dumbbell work. If it's a weakness at lockout (i.e. the lifter misses towards the end of the rep), we would heavily drill tricep work, specifically narrow bench presses, block work, and slingshot work and more generally french presses, skull crushers and tricep extensions. 5) Practice Performance Finally, throughout a program, but especially towards testing/competition, it's really important to program practice of the performance you want. This means practicing singles. Un-racking the bar over and over. Lifting out over and over. If it's for a powerlifting competition, hitting paused singles over and over and waiting for a command. If it's not programmed, it doesn't get done. So as a coach, it is your responsibility to allot time for it, and coach these very specific but high return skills. Thanks, Ian.