Busting Bench Press Plateaus: 4 Power-Packed Methods
by: Josh Bryant
A big bench press is like Wild Bill’s Corn Liquor Operation behind the Waffle House—legendary! It’s the gold standard for upper body power.
If you were an inmate in San Quentin in the 1970s, your bench press strength determined your position in the prison weight pile or if you got to use the weight pile at all!
In high school, it’s all about that bench press – the unofficial manhood test. The NFL combine tests it, too! And let’s not forget, a beefed-up chest can earn you more right swipes on Tinder and some prolonged feminine stares at the redneck gas station. It’s a combo of strength and charm that’s hard to beat!
1. Train Bench Press-Specific Isometrics
Isometrics, a technique in which you push as hard as you can but the bar doesn’t move, strengthen the specific point in the range of motion in which you’re training, plus or minus about 10-15 degrees. So, if you do isometrics at your sticking point in the ROM, you can turn a weakness into a strength.
Isometric contractions allow you to produce 15 percent more force than you can concentrically and for a longer time. Think about it: In your weakest spot you’re producing more force for a longer period of time! No wonder this technique has a successful track history among benchers.
Do isometrics by pressing the bar upward against the pins or safety bars (set at your sticking point) in a power rack. Push as hard as possible for six seconds. Then rest for 2-3 minutes before benching 70 percent of your 1RM (a weight you can do for 12 reps) for just three reps as fast as possible. Wait another 2-3 minutes and repeat this sequence again for three total times.
Watch the Video: How to Do Isometrics on the Bench
2. Do More Sets But Fewer Reps
While bodybuilders employ muscle confusion for optimal development, when you’re training for strength you instead want to get into a groove that you practice over and over again. In fact, confusion is your enemy! Since ultimately you’re looking to increase your one-rep max, you need to train the skill of strength. This is done with more sets but fewer reps.
Consider when doing three sets of eight you get three first reps—that is, on each of the three sets there is just one initial rep—but with that same volume you could alternatively do eight sets of three, giving you eight first reps. Since you’re strongest on your first rep, practiced over many sets you get a better strength stimulus than the three-sets-of-eight protocol. Opting for eights sets of three is sport specific for building the groove, which is the skill of strength. That, in essence, is what you want to be doing. Strength is a skill that must be practiced.
3. Stop at the Bottom of Each Rep
A dead bench is done in a power rack with the weight resting on the pins set just above your chest. The weight starts at chest level—not in the arms-extended position—and is pressed upward as explosively as possible.
As you lower the bar it must settle on the safeties between each rep. Allowing the bar to touch down between reps eliminates what’s called the stretch-reflex or elastic energy that builds up on the negative portion of the lift. Without the aid of elastic energy, you’ll find initiating the lift from a dead stop much more difficult, forcing you to work harder out of the hole. You may even find you have to use less weight in the meantime. Don’t give up: over time you’ll develop tremendous starting strength at the bottom of each rep, which will be especially useful when you go back to normal lifting without the pause.
Do this technique only with single repetitions. To increase intensity on the dead bench shorten the rest intervals between singles, add more singles of the same weight, or simply add more weight to the bar.
Watch the Video: How to Do Dead Benches
4. Break Apart Your Set with Rest-Pause Training
The rest-pause method’s got more flavors than the moonshine options at a backwoods honky-tonk! The one you’ll use here breaks one set down into three mini-sets with a 20-30-second intra-set rest interval. Load 80-90 percent of your max on the barbell bench press (a weight you can do for 4-8 reps) and do as many reps as possible (but stopping one rep shy of failure). Rest for 20-30 seconds and unrack the bar again, repping again just short of failure. Repeat this process again for a total of three mini sets—that’s one set! You can do this one more time in a single training session, but I do recommend reducing the weight by 5-10 percent on the second set.
Ultimately, you may find you’re able to do about double the number of reps with a given weight, a nifty strength- and size-building stimulus.
Watch the Video: How to Do Rest-Pause Benches
Final Thoughts
If your bench press is feeling more “Biggie Smalls” than “Biggie Gains,” it’s time to switch it up!
Make those weights bump like a classic Biggie track with a fresh routine; give these strategies a shot. They have worked for Julius Maddox, Jeremy Hoornstra and the best of the best worldwide!
To a bigger bench press!
Bench Press more! Find out how HERE!
