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Wanna bench 4 plates aside.......

B

Brick

Well-known member
Some more old school shit, a 3 year plan for benching 4 plates aside broken 3 monthly blocks, 13th man to bench 400lbs not too long after the bench press actually became an event -

Bill Anton bench 400lbs in 3 years course

Here's the Bill Anton course -

From the course: All 3 times per week. 2 bananas and 2 quarts milk daily above what you are already eating. Warm up! He recommends benching 1st.

1. 1st yr 1st period. Take a wt you can handle 12 reps 10 sets. Each week add 5 lbs. When you can't. Stay @ that wt until you can do 10x12.

1st yr 2nd period 10 sets 8 reps.

1st yr 3rd period 12 sets 5 reps

1st yr 4th prd. 15 sets 3 reps
He says that at this point you should be benching in the neighborhood of 265

2. 2nd yr 1st prd. 12 sets 8 reps

2nd yr 2nd period 12 sets 6 reps

2nd yr 3rd period 13 sets 5 reps

2nd yr 4th prd 15 sets 3 reps.
He says you should be benching about 350. @ this point you may arch if you must.

3. In this 3rd yr every month try your record once or twice.
3rd yr 1st prd. 12 sets 5 reps.

3rd yr 2nd prd. 15 sets 3 reps

3rd yr 3rd prd. 15 sets 4 reps for the 1st 6 weeks.
10 sets 2 reps next 6 weeks.

3rd yr 4th prd. 1st month 10 sets 3 reps

2nd month 12 sets 2 reps

3rd month 13 sets 1 rep.

He says that after this 3 year period of specializing on the bench you should be benching 400 lbs. providing you never missed a workout.
 
Two things about biulding natural strenght

1. Start young

2. At 30ish, it won't take any heroic efforts for most to attain Or at least get close to that goal, probably about five hours a week in the gym and pay attention to your diet.

It will and should take time though.

That's probably the main reason it doesn't happen more often, most lose interest in the process.

You must set long term goals.
 
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One of the most important aspects IMO to achieving a big bench is to always have a spotter. Spotter's let you attempt that slightly heavier weight and once you start hitting in the vicinity of 3 plates you don't really want to be attempting that on your own. I don't ever try anything over 140 unless I've got a competent spotter.
 
I don't know about that, ink.

Sheiko is very effective at building a big bench. But it uses volume and frequency rather than intensity. Even on CMS bench, you don't exceed 90% of your 1RM, and it's never more than 2 reps. at 85% you never do more than 3 reps. At this intensity, you'll never need a spotter and never need a lift-out except when testing your 1RM. I have spotter bars in case there is a freak accident.

I gained more from this approach in 6 months training by myself than 1 year stuffing around with high intensity (3RMs for example), even though I had coaching and spotters.

I am mediocre, but plenty of others I know have built their bench to big numbers using these methods. More than 1 way to skin a cat.
 
I liked the smolov jnr bench program. I only used a spotter on my 1rep max (160kg for those that have either forgotten or havent seen the footage lol). That was spot on that program, will do it again in a year..
 
Pretty much the only thing that has ever worked for my bench is that Dave Bates sheiko

It was long pauses 9x3x80% on one day then 10x2x85% on another
And gaining weight

Going back to this type of training again for bench but one bench day one press day. The program above looks very good for gaining weight lol
 
ink81 said:
One of the most important aspects IMO to achieving a big bench is to always have a spotter. Spotter's let you attempt that slightly heavier weight and once you start hitting in the vicinity of 3 plates you don't really want to be attempting that on your own. I don't ever try anything over 140 unless I've got a competent spotter.
Click to expand...

This is definitely my issue, I train at weird hours due to family and there is never any competent spotters around. When there are I can easily add another 10kg onto my working sets and bang out a few reps.

Maybe I could get some of those slings that catch the weight if you happen to miss and loop them over the power rack, any thoughts ink?

Two of these bad boys:

http://www.ironedge.com.au/store/sling-single.html
 
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myst said:
This is definitely my issue, I train at weird hours due to family and there is never any competent spotters around. When there are I can easily add another 10kg onto my working sets and bang out a few reps.

Maybe I could get some of those slings that catch the weight if you happen to miss and loop them over the power rack, any thoughts ink?

Two of these bad boys:

Sling (single) - Iron Edge
Click to expand...

If ya benching in a power rack you could just use the sides for face savers.

I'm not saying all of those programs aren't effective, obviously they are, I've seen lots of people get great progress from them. But there is no way I would be unracking 90% of my 1rm solo, that's just me.
 
Re the spotter, I always add the most amount of weight i can do

You can feel if its going to work or not.....

Just in case, I always keep the collars of the bars so i can tilt the weight off and not get stuck under it :)
 
Brick said:
Some more old school shit, a 3 year plan for benching 4 plates aside broken 3 monthly blocks, 13th man to bench 400lbs not too long after the bench press actually became an event -

Bill Anton bench 400lbs in 3 years course

Here's the Bill Anton course -

From the course: All 3 times per week. 2 bananas and 2 quarts milk daily above what you are already eating. Warm up! He recommends benching 1st.

1. 1st yr 1st period. Take a wt you can handle 12 reps 10 sets. Each week add 5 lbs. When you can't. Stay @ that wt until you can do 10x12.

1st yr 2nd period 10 sets 8 reps.

1st yr 3rd period 12 sets 5 reps

1st yr 4th prd. 15 sets 3 reps
He says that at this point you should be benching in the neighborhood of 265

2. 2nd yr 1st prd. 12 sets 8 reps

2nd yr 2nd period 12 sets 6 reps

2nd yr 3rd period 13 sets 5 reps

2nd yr 4th prd 15 sets 3 reps.
He says you should be benching about 350. @ this point you may arch if you must.

3. In this 3rd yr every month try your record once or twice.
3rd yr 1st prd. 12 sets 5 reps.

3rd yr 2nd prd. 15 sets 3 reps

3rd yr 3rd prd. 15 sets 4 reps for the 1st 6 weeks.
10 sets 2 reps next 6 weeks.

3rd yr 4th prd. 1st month 10 sets 3 reps

2nd month 12 sets 2 reps

3rd month 13 sets 1 rep.

He says that after this 3 year period of specializing on the bench you should be benching 400 lbs. providing you never missed a workout.
Click to expand...

That's a shit tonne of benching. Seeing as my benching sucks ass I should start some sort of bench program after this cut, might give this a go.
may have to invest in some 1.25kg plates to meet the 5lb increases
 
Karak said:
Sheiko CMS bench.
Click to expand...

Oh ok so a green lifter can just start sheiko cms and continually run cycles till he hits 4 wheels aside?


Did anyone read the original post its a basic 3 year plan to a big bench.

Fuck shit can go off on a tangent, you got [MENTION=12532]myst[/MENTION]; who must have an acquired brain injury cause he can't setup a power rack.

Put up links to slings n shit.

How about some dialogue on why people can toil along forever chopping n changing programmes and never get anywhere?

How many here have benched more then 3 years and have sub 180 kg bench.

sorry [MENTION=4043]Karak[/MENTION]; my venting is not directed at you just forums generally.
 
Felixflex said:
That's a shit tonne of benching. Seeing as my benching sucks ass I should start some sort of bench program after this cut, might give this a go.
may have to invest in some 1.25kg plates to meet the 5lb increases
Click to expand...


Finally someone who read the post. Look I dunno how great that program is but the concept looks sound to me. High reps dropping to lower reps at high weight in 12 wk blocks. Seems pretty fucking good to me.

3 years is a long experiment though. You'd the volume alone would yield results.
 
as long I keep increasing the weight ill be happy, seeing how there is such I high volume benching how would I go about training shoulders given I follow the above chest routine for 3 years?
 
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Incredibly large training blocks. 3 months of 10's would get stale for me personally.

I like the same linear periodisation approach for the year condensed into three blocks. Going from 10's down to singles in 12 weeks instead of a year. And running it multiple times.
 
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