Beef Up Your Bench

SMASH THROUGH YOUR BENCH PRESS PLATEAUSFew exercises can top the staying power of the classic bench press. Ask any serious bodybuilder and odds are you’ll hear that the flat bench is, and always has been the meat-and-potatoes of his chest routine. Simply put, the flat bench delivers. But here’s the catch: Whenever you make a specific exercise a habit, you’re all but guaranteed to hit a plateau at some point.Your body adapts to the stress you subject it to, i.e. it grows, but only enough to handle that stress. You may be working your butt off when you do your regular benching sets for the 100th week in a row, but as far as your body is concerned, it’s old news. By doing the same exercise with roughly the same sets and reps week after week, month after month, you get into a ho-hum routine where not much happens. The reason is simple: your body knows the drill and has no particular reason to add more muscle mass. If this sounds familiar, it is time to jump-start your muscles and smash that plateau once and for all!RestSometimes it’s the most obvious problem that gets overlooked. Have you been hammering away at your muscles, non-stop, week after week or year after year without ever missing a workout? It could be that you’re simply overtrained. If that sounds like a possibility, your first step is to take a week or two entirely off! Get plenty of sleep, continue to eat healthy, protein-rich food and then come back for the rest of this re-ignition workout program. At that point you should be itching to get back in the gym, and that’s exactly the state you want to be in.Alternative exercisesYour next step is to ban your favorite exercises for a full month. That’s right; you have to put together your chest workouts with exercises you rarely use. It will feel awkward at first, but you’ll get over it. Also note that there is ONE exception. We will do a few sets of negative training with near-flat bench presses, but that is only for a specific purpose a handful of times during this 30-day period. That aside, here are some exercises that may be worth considering:1 Decline dumbbell pressesDumbbell presses add another dimension of stabilization that barbells lack. Furthermore, by putting dumbbell presses to use in a decline position you’re reaping double benefits by hitting the pecs from a relatively unusual angle.2 Iso-lateral machine incline pressesThere are a lot of manufacturers who make good iso-lateral machines these days. It doesn’t matter whether the machines use weight-stacks or are plate-loaded; the important thing is that they allow you to work your pecs individually. If you’re used to using one particular machine, choose another one and give it a try for a few weeks.3 Weighted dipsThis is an old-school classic that has fallen shamefully out of fashion lately. Too bad, since it is extremely effective in targeting the lower pecs along with the anterior delts and triceps. Just remember not to overstretch at the bottom and turn when your upper arms are parallel to the floor.4 Flat bench cable crossover flyesBy lying on your back on a bench and using the lower pulley handles, you get a very strict range of motion. This can help you target specific sections of your pecs by sliding the bench up or down on the floor between the pulleys (so that you get a slight upward -or downward- motion from where you lie on the bench.)5 Seated dumbbell military pressMost people do these with a Smith-machine or straight barbells at best. By using dumbbells you get the added benefit of stabilization, and since you’re seated you effectively eliminate any risk of cheating.6 Pec-deck flyesPec-deck flyes often get dismissed as a lazy man’s dumbbell flyes. This is unfortunate, since pec-deck flyes can be as effective – and safer – than dumbbell flyes. Granted, you don’t get the same benefit of independent, free-weight training that dumbbells provide, but you also don’t risk injury by potentially overextending the shoulder joints in a very hazardous position.7 Arnold pressThis is another old-school classic that mysteriously seems to have vanished from gyms over the past decade. The focus of Arnold presses is the anterior and medial delts, but you can make this an excellent exercise for the upper chest as well by leaning back against a bench set to an almost-but-not-quite upright angle.8 Flat bench close-grip barbell pressWhile primarily a way to boost strength for your max bench, a few sets of close-grip barbell presses can make for a nice change once in a while. You get more emphasis on the triceps than with regular bench presses, but it’s a good one to have on your list.9 Army-style pushupsBring out your competitive instinct and challenge your training partner with some Army-style pushups. You can do them flat on the floor, with elevated feet on a bench or medicine ball, or if you’re really into it, do them with a “clap”, where you push yourself up high enough off the ground to clap your hands together between each rep. Whoever collapses first buys protein drinks!Accelerated periodizationAnother key step to keeping your muscles guessing is to alternate weight/reps between workouts. As bodybuilders, we’re conditioned to aim for low-mid range reps (4-8 reps per set) to stimulate the fast-twitch muscle fibers and trigger growth. Higher reps and lower weight, we’ve learned, are more aimed at slow-twitch muscle fibers and give less bang for the buck.However, there are times when it is more beneficial to go low-weight/high-rep for the sake of variation. For example, if you’re always doing 6-8 reps with 300 lbs., it is time to throw in a couple of 20-rep sets with 200 lbs. to shake things up. Though you technically didn’t train “right”, you’ll probably find yourself sorer with the high-rep/low-weight workout because it’s something new and unexpected.Periodization, the principle of alternating low-rep/high-rep training, should be a permanent part of your overall bodybuilding strategy. Typically, you’d do 4-6 weeks of heavy, low-rep training (4-8 reps) followed by 4-6 weeks of lighter, high-rep training (10-15 reps) with a “transfer week” in-between. But when smashing a plateau you may need to crank it up another level. Instead of 6 weeks of high-rep training, you do only 1-2 workouts before switching to low-rep training. Furthermore, instead of settling for 10-15 reps you may want to go all the way to 20-25 reps. The same holds true for the low-rep phase: while you’d normally do 6 weeks, you now cut it down to 1-2 workouts. One note on safety: don’t drop below 4 reps per set as your risk of injury goes up dramatically. You want to bust the plateau, not tear a shoulder joint.The point is to make your muscles as confused as possible, but that is not an excuse to ease up on intensity. You may feel uncomfortable breaking all your old habits. Don’t let that interfere with your number one priority, which is to hammer your muscles as hard and brutally as you can physically muster. Use the high-rep training as a test of your discipline and dedication when the lactic acid kicks in and your muscles catch fire.For our 30-day schedule, you will do 2-4 low-rep chest workouts and 2-4 high-rep chest workouts, depending on your normal workout frequency.Negative trainingAnother, more advanced technique in your plateau-busting toolbox is negative training. You may have done some dabbling in negatives before, but now you’ll include it as a component of a specific strategy. As mentioned earlier, we will do these with near-flat bench presses (10-15 degree angle incline) for the simple reason that it is the exercise that lends itself best to this type of negative training. The slight angle of the bench puts your shoulders in a less vulnerable position.As you have probably noticed, you’re stronger in the negative phase (resisting the weight on the way down) than the positive phase (pushing the weight up). This is a basic safety mechanism of the body, since it means that you can give a controlled descent to anything you can hoist up above your head, thus preventing it from coming crashing down on you. If we had equal strength in both positive and negative phases, we would risk getting pinned and/or injured whenever we attempted to lift heavy stuff.Negative training taps into this difference, enabling you to handle more weight than you technically can under normal circumstances. Bear in mind, however, that you’re essentially bypassing a safety mechanism and that you’re walking a fine line between benefit and injury. Do NOT attempt negative training if you have joint problems or recent injuries in affected areas. Having a reliable training partner is a must.In terms of execution, the idea is to have your partner do a good part of the work for pushing the bar up, while you focus on slowly resisting the weight on its way down. The descent should take 3-4 seconds with no bouncing or sudden jerks. Since you’re about 40 stronger in the negative phase you can load on extra weight. Start easy and play it safe. Don’t expect superhuman strength. Doing say 350 lbs. instead of 300 lbs. is perfectly decent. This extra weight is enough to help you trigger growth and boost strength.The way to include negatives into our chest re-ignition effort is adding it to the high-rep workouts, as discussed in the previous section. This may seem counter-intuitive – shouldn’t it be done on low-rep days, when you’re using relatively heavy weights instead? Normally, that may make sense, but for these 30 days our priority is muscle confusion. To minimize the risk of injury you want to be fully warmed up but not exhausted to the point where you get sloppy. (See the sample workouts on the following page.)It may be tempting to make this kind of negative training an ongoing habit, since the results are usually pretty dramatic in terms of strength increase. Restrain yourself and only use it occasionally, as overdoing it is a certain ticket to overtraining and/or injury. Going forward, limit yourself to throw in negatives at ONE chest workout per month, at most.Additional tips1) It’s good to make the day before your chest workouts a rest-day when following this program. You will be more energized and better able to reap the benefits of a chest jump-start. Besides, you can always go back to your regular schedule later, once you’re off the plateau.2) Don’t skimp on carbs. Also, you want to focus on complex carbs since these digest slower and keep you energized longer. Carbs are the body’s preferred source of fuel and will keep you running through negatives and killer 25 rep sets alike.3) Drink plenty of water before your workout as well as during and after. Dehydration negatively impacts your performance. Drinking during the workout keeps things from getting worse, but if you start while dehydrated you’re off to a bad start.4) Stretch thoroughly. Odds are you’ll get pretty sore from all the changes, and stretching thoroughly before hitting the shower can cut the next-day soreness a great deal. It’s also a good idea to stretch between sets as it flushes out lactic acid and other crud while bringing in fresh nutrients.About the Author: Dane Fletcher is the world's foremost training authority. He writes exclusively for GetAnabolics.com, a leading online provider of Bodybuilding Supplements. For more information, please visit http://www.GetAnabolics.com.

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