Bench Press Blastoff (Part 2)

10) Do singles - but don't overdo them

One of the biggest benching blunders you can make is to max out at every chest workout. Seeing how much you can bench at every chest workout is building your ego, not your strength. On the other hand, avoiding singles completely is also a mistake. Maximum singles definitely have their place, but they must be used wisely.

The reason max singles help you bench more is because they develop neuromuscular efficiency and prepare your body psychologically for the "feel" of heavy weights. Here’s what coach Poliquin says about them:

"The nervous system is the forgotten component of bodybuilding, and training with maximal weights targets this area by improving the link between the central nervous system and the muscular system. By using this method, the trainee will learn to access a greater percentage of motor units in a given cross-section of muscle tissue."

Our suggestion is to do maximum singles on the bench press once a month. On assistance exercises you can use maximal weights more often, as long as you rotate the exercises regularly. Never max out on the same exercise week after week or you're asking for an injury.

11) Use lockouts to get your body used to heavy loads, to strengthen connective tissue and to smash through sticking points.

Lockouts are performed for the same reason as singles: to train your muscles, brain, and central nervous system to handle super heavy weights. Lockouts also help to develop tendon and ligament strength. A lockout is simply a bench press performed with extremely heavy weights in the top third or quarter of the range of motion. Lockouts will help build confidence with heavy weights and will help you become stronger through the final quarter of the movement, where many people get stuck. For safety, make sure you have a very strong and competent spotter or do your lockouts is in a power rack.

Lockouts can be done with near maximal, maximal or even greater than maximal weights. Because you are using a partial range of motion, you 'll be able to handle weights greater than your max. For example, if your max is 315, you could add 5% and do lockouts with 330 lbs.

The best way to incorporate lockouts into your routine is to add one or two sets of 3-5 reps at the end of your regular bench workout. Like singles, lockouts should be used sparingly. Doing them too frequently can quickly lead to overtraining and injury.

12) Train your chest once every five to seven days and train no more than two days in a row.

Overtraining can rear its ugly head in many ways. One way we already discussed is too many sets. An equally insidious form of overtraining is training too often. Opinions on training frequency abound, and there is no single best method because frequency is a highly individual matter. One thing is for certain; if you don't allow enough recovery time between workouts, you simply won't get stronger.

Complete recovery has two components; specific and systemic recuperation. Specific recuperation is the amount of time you allow each muscle group to rest between workouts. For optimal bench press gains, we suggest using a split routine working your chest once every five to seven days. Some strength athletes train chest more often - up to twice a week. This can also be effective, but with this frequency, every workout should not be heavy; one session is heavy and the other is lighter, with a minimum of 72 hours between sessions.

Systemic recuperation means allowing your entire body and nervous system to recuperate by not training too many days in a row. Individual muscle groups need to rest between training sessions, but so does your entire body. If you train too often, it puts excessive demands on your central nervous system. To ensure complete recovery, two days in a row is the most you should train without taking a day off.

13) Apply the law of progressive resistance

You'll amaze yourself at how strong you get when you systematically apply the law of progressive resistance, but few people have the patience or discipline to do it consistently. The law of progressive resistance says that a muscle will only grow and increase in strength in response to the ever-increasing demands made upon it.

There are many factors involved in building strength, but in the long run, the only thing that really matters is that you progressively overload your muscles. Progressive resistance is the number one key to gaining strength and muscle mass. There are many ways to overload a muscle, such as decreasing rest intervals, increasing volume, slowing rep speed, increasing time under tension, doing more repetitions, and using stricter form, but the granddaddy of them all is simply adding weight on the bar. The more weight you can lift in strict form, the bigger and stronger the muscle will get, period.

To track your progress, a training journal is an absolute must. Keeping a training journal allows you to pre plan every workout in advance and to go to the gym with a goal for every session.

14) Practice your technique with light to moderate weights until it is perfect.

Did you ever notice yourself starting to squirm, twist, or lift your butt off the bench when you hit a sticking point? This might help you get up that last rep, but it won’t help you get stronger. Using sloppy form or momentum to lift a weight takes the stress OFF the areas you’re supposed to be targeting. It also increases your chances of getting hurt. Sloppy form and cheating will get you nowhere.

Stay with light to moderate weights until you have mastered all these techniques. It’s more productive to use moderate weights with perfect form than heavy weights with sloppy form. If you have to, unload the bar and start all over again from scratch with the proper form. Then gradually build your poundage back up again with your newly acquired perfect form.

15) Harness the powers of your mind.

Sometimes it's your mindset you need to change, not your benching technique. Benching is a mental feat as much as a physical one. Visualization, the practice of mentally picturing the lift in your mind's eye first, is incredibly powerful. Your mental pictures always become your physical reality. Everything you ever achieved had to happen in your mind first before it happened in the real world. You always act on your mental pictures and you become the mental pictures you hold of yourself. If you can see yourself benching a particular weight in your mind first, your body will soon follow. If you can’t see yourself benching a certain weight mentally, you’ll never bench it in reality.

You’re probably familiar with the story of the three-minute mile: For thousands of years, it was believed that running a mile in less than four minutes was physiologically impossible. Roger Bannister didn't set any mental limits and he proved everyone wrong. But that's not the best part of the story. The best part is what happened afterwards: Within one year after Bannister broke the three-minute mile, 37 other runners did it too! How do you explain this? Nothing changed in the runner’s bodies; nothing changed in the laws of physics; there were no new breakthroughs in running techniques. It was simply the runner’s beliefs of what was possible that changed - the mental barrier was broken.

Be a no-limit person! Don’t succumb to the awful habit of setting mental barriers. There are certain thresholds such as 300, 315, 400, or 405 lbs. where it's all too easy to tell yourself, "This is HEAVY!" or "I don't know if I can do this." Have you ever been guilty of telling your spotter, "Watch me; I’m going to try for 5 reps?" Never "try" anything - DO IT! The things you say to yourself before and during your workouts have a tremendous impact on your performance. Change your negative self talk to positive self-talk. Instead of saying "This is heavy," say, "This weight is child’s play!" Repeat the affirmation; "Light weight, light weight, easy weight, easy weight!" "I’m gonna toss this weight around like it’s nothing!" "I’m gonna destroy this weight!" Then, after you conquer it say, "That was easy!"

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