Pectorals
If you think that's right, your not stupid, but not right
Pectorals, Triceps
Tuaght, but still not right
Entire upper body yes
Close, but...
Your entire body I think...
If you chose that, your'e correct.
To bench BIG you must use your whole body: arch your back, have correct hand position, breathe, and bring it down to your chest, when it's fully expanded, to give you the shortest possible place to go.
But hey, that can't all be right, maybe it will icnrease you by like, what, 5, but, what about a workout?
Well... Your whole body helps, but let's face it, if you've read this far, your commited to getting a bigger bench, so, I'll tell you. Then MAJOR muscles in the bench press are: Pectoral major, pectoral minor, triceps, front and other deltoids, brachioradialis (forearm), wristors and the flexors (forearm), lattisimus dorsi and trapezuis (back), obliques, and the oblique and lattisimus connecter. Sounds like alot, right? WRONG! All you have to know is- lats, traps, pectorals, triceps, and forearms. For forearms, however don't think of wrist curls. I'm talking about reverse curls, hammer curls, twist curls, reverse twist curl, your bicep forearms stuff. So... you might be wondering were the workout is. Here it is!
A puase lift is were you do a perctange of your one rep max, like whatever is says, like 80% or 90%. You then puase a few seconds like 8, or 10, or even 15, until you can lift it gaian. You do this for how many times it says, and in this case, 5, as oen set. You then, rest 3, 4, or 5 minutes, and rusume, reapeating it, for however many sets, in this case, 5.
The main muscles used in the bench press-
Triceps
Lattisimis Dorsi
Brachioradialis (forearm)
Wristors and flexors yes (Forearm and your fingers)
Deltoids (Shoulder, but, mainly your front deltoid in deltoids)
Pectoral Major
Pectoral Minor
Trapezuis
Main Ways to a Big Bench
Well, of course, to benching, there are several steps, and ways to get a big bench. Many of you lookers are problably tired of all of these big lists of "how to get a big bench" but for those of you that havn't seen it... well... here you go!
Step 1- Strong Triceps
In order for you, or for anyone, to get a HUGE bench, one that defies what most people can squat, you must have strong triceps! Strong pectorals, and lats, and shoulders are the foundation of your bench, but NOTHING, and I mean nothing compares to adding strength to your bench, the training the triceps. When making or designing a routine to increase your bench, triceps are essential. And don't use small, isolation lifts eitheir, use the big stuff- dips, close-grip bench press, skull-crushers and triceps. Now for me, close-grip bench press never really did anything. So I experimented, and found out the decline close-grip bench press is a good way to get a good heavy weight focused primarily on the triceps. How it works, is by using close-grip bench press, you target the inner pectorals. And be using decline, you target the lower. So when you use decline close-grip bench press, your using your lower, inner pecs. Which takes most of the weight, and palces it on your triceps- your lower inner pecs, are barely anything!
Step 2- Train
I know thsi sounds funny, but you've got to train! You can't just sit there, and go "I want to get stronger!" and go read stuff, and expect to get stronger. You've got to work! And you've got to work alot! You can't stay up late, wake up to early, or not eat enough or rigth foods. You must also eat water. You have to change your body to change your lifts. And this goes wit hnearly every lift, and excersise, and everything. You msut change your body. Now get to work!
Step 3- Form
In order to get a good bench, you have to use good form. Yo ucan't drop the weight on your chest, bounce it off your chest, go up at an angle, gold the bar wrong, or turn in your wrists. You also can't put your feet on the bench, have to wide of a grip, or not touch your chest or go up all the way. To get a good bench, you must grip the bar with a grip that your comfortable with- roughly your normal push-up stance. You must un-rack the weight, keep it positioned over your chest, and then go down, touch your chest, and puase or don't puase, and then come back up, lock-out, and then go back down. When you do this, you must have your wrists straight, feet on the ground, and body flat on the bench (unless your back is in an arch) and you must hodl the weight at an even angle. This may cut off, or add weight to your bench, but in the long run, this technique will make you avoid injury, aboid pain, and avoid losing weight on the bench.
Step 4- Lats
In order to get a good bench, you need to train the lats. Lats are used when you lower weight, when you lift the weight from the bottom (first few inches) and just a little when you push through in the middle. The lats also help in stabilizing, and strong lats have been known to make or break a great bencher. Also, Lats are in relation with the chest- meaning that when the chest relaxes, the lats contract, and when the lats relax, the chest contracts! So, when we take this into consideration, weak lats will cuase your bench to become unstable, and will make your shoulders hurt worse also. And when performing lifts for the lats, use lifts that stake on the same horozontal plaine- the barbell row! Why do lat pulldown when you bench on a flat plane? It just makes sense! So... works your lats for a bigger bench yes.
Step 5-Consistenancy
You must work. You must lift, lift often, and do well. At the max, you should be training every three days, and at the minimum, you should be training every 8 to 10 days. In order to get a good bench, anywhere from 4 to 6 days of rest is needed, and if you train your triceps in between, you must take an extra day or two into consideration.
Step 6- Nutrition, rest, and healing
In order to get strong, or good, at anything in life, you need to stay healthy. You must eat right, get 8 to 10 hours of sleep, and give a good enough rest in-between workouts. Without rest, the body cannot properly heal it-self, or possibly work correctly. When you body can't heal, your torn muscles from the workout stay torn, and no increase of strength occures- even decrease of strength occures! So it is important to get sleep, eat right, and rest, like all things in life.
Step 7- Strong Back
Just like everything else, a strong back will help you to bench more. If you can arch your back in a meet, than you have an extra 4 top 6 inches of advantage, and if your back can support the weight, than all you have to worry about is the lift itself! Good excersises for the back are crunches, hyper-extensions, and super-mans, and squatting and deadlifting is good too. A good back leads to a healthy life, and consequentley, a good bench!
Step 8- Shoulders
Your shoulders are smack dab in the middle of the bench press! Without strong shoulders, or shoulders for that matter, you couldn't support yoru arms, your pectorals, or any upper body muscle almost! Your shoulders are kind of like the bridge between your arms, and the rest of your upper-body, not to mention that they are also one of the strongest pound-for-pound muscles in your body- designed for strength! So work your shoulders, and your bench will shoot WAY up!
Step 9- Deadlift, Squat, and Legs
You may be thinking, "I don't need to work my legs for a strong bench!" but if you say that, than you are mistaken! Although strong legs NORMALLY don't help you in the bench press, squating, deadlifting, and working legs with compound movements, release TONS of growth hormone, making your WHOLE body stronger, and better. Not to mention they work the back superbley, and a HUGE weight on your back helps to strengthen the traps directley, as well as makes the chest and lats muscles used to a differant kind of weight! The muscles it doesn't work, very well, are the arms, and those are still involved!
Step 10- Mixing it up
The last step, is mixing it up! You must not just do bench press, but dumbell bench press, incline bench press, declline bench press, incline dumbell bench press, decline dumbell bench press, close-grip bench press, wide-grip bench press, hammer-grip dumbell bench press, one-armed bench press, bench press rack-out, board bench press, all kinds of things! You must not just stick to bench press, but do all kinds of things! You can also add variety to bench press, by adding chains, boards, puasing on your chest, and doing negatives- yo ucan do MANY Things to add vareity to the bench press!
Method 1
Benching Routine
This one focuses on almost pure benching, however, good results stop coming after a while...
Day 1
Bench press- 10,8,6,3,3,6,8,10
Flyes- 6,6,4,4,
Day 2
Squat- 10,8,6,3,3,6,8,10
Calf raises- 4 x 20
Day 3- nothing
Day 4
Barbell row- 10,8,6,3,3,6,8,10
Dumbell row- 6,6,4,4,
Day 5- nothing
Day 6
Day 2
Squat- 10,8,6,3,3,6,8,10
Calf raises- 4 x 20
Day 7
Bench press- 10,10,8,8,6,6,3,3,
Close-grip bench press- 4 x 6
Day 8
(rest two days, start over with legs, and then follow like day 2)
Method 2
All muscles worked yes
Cycle- 1
Day 1
Bench press- 6 x 8
Military press- 6 x 8
Day 2
Squat- 6 x 8 calf raises with weight until failure
deadlift- 4 x 5
Day 3-
Behind the head press- 3 x 6
French press- 3 x 6
Reverse curl- 3 x 6
Day 4- nothing
Day 5-
Barbell row- 8 x 8
Shoulder shrugs- 4 x 20
Hammer curl/ Wrist curl- 4 x 12
Dips- 4 x failure
Day 6
Squat- 6 x 8 calf raises with weight until failure
deadlift- 4 x 5
Day 7
Bench press- 6 x 8
Military press- 6 x 8
Day 8
nothing
Cycle 2
Day 1
Bench press- 8 x 6
Close-grip bench press- 6,6,6,6,4,4
Day 2
Squat- 6 x 8 calf raises with weight until failure
deadlift- 4 x 5
Day 3
nothing
Day 4
Barbell row/Over-head press- 6 x 4 6 x 6
T-bar row/Upright row- 6 x 4
Chin-up/ Dumbell over-head press- 6 x failure 6 x 6
Shoulder shrug- 100, 80, 20, 6
Day 5-
nothing
Day 6
nothing
Day 7
Squat- 6 x 8 calf raises with weight until failure
deadlift- 4 x 5
Day 8
Bench press- 8,6,6,3,3,3
Close-grip bench press/Dips- 8,8,6,3,3,3 failure, 20, 10, 6
Method 3
10 sets method
Day 1
Bench press/ Barbell row- 10 x 10
(use a down for 4 seconds, up go up for 2 seconds, and take only a 90 second break, almost EXACTLY, time it!)
Flyes/ Dumbell row- 4 x 6
(go down for 3 seconds, and up for 2, only taking minute break)
Day 2
nothing
Day 3
Squat- 10 x 8
(use a down for 4 seconds, up go up for 2 seconds, and take only a 90 second break, almost EXACTLY, time it!)
Day 4
Dips/Curl- 10 x 10
(use a down for 4 seconds, up go up for 2 seconds, and take only a 90 second break, almost EXACTLY, time it!)
Front raises/Side raises/Bent over side raise- 4 x 6
(go down for 3 seconds, and up for 2, only taking minute break)
Day 5
nothing
Day 6 nothing
Method 4
Benching Everyday
Try to increase by 5 pounds every 2 to 4 days, for the first 10 weeks, about 2.5 pounds every 2 days for the next 10 weeks, and then increase the weight by how much you feel from then on
Week 1 (5 days a week)
Bench press- 2 x 5
Barbell row- 2 x 5
Squat- 2 x 5
Week 2 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 2 x 5
Barbell row- 2 x 5
Squat- 2 x 5
Week 3(6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
Week 4 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
Week 6 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
Week 8 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
The 5nd day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 8 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 10 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 12-13
Rest, let your body heal from working out- even though you arn't damaging your muscles as much, they still might need some recuperation, not to mention that working out everyday is tough- it takes great mental strength.
Week 14 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 3 x 5
Barbell row- 3 x 5
Squat- 3 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 15 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 4 x 5
Barbell row- 4 x 5
Squat- 4 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 18 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 4 x 5
Barbell row- 4 x 5
Squat- 4 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
On the 2nd day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
Week 20 (6 days a week)
Bench press- 4 x 5
Barbell row- 4 x 5
Squat- 4 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
On the 2nd day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
On the sixth day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
Week 24 (Every day of the week yes)
Bench press- 4 x 5
Barbell row- 4 x 5
Squat- 4 x 5
The first day, workout in the morning, and workout in the night, roughly 10 to 12 hours apart, if possible
On the 2nd day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
On the sixth day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
Workout everyday of the week
Week 28 (Every day of the week yes)
Bench press- 4 x 5
Barbell row- 4 x 5
Squat- 4 x 5
The first day, do a morning workout, noon workout, and night workout, trying to increase your weight by the end of the day, so, up 5 by pounds in a day
On the 2nd day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
The 3rd day, do a morning, and an afternoon workout
The 4th day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
The 5th day, do morning workout, and an afternoon workout
On the sixth day, do a morning and an afternoon workout
Workout everyday of the week
You should know how to increase, add weight, and do better by now, so keep ading or stay the same, and keep benching!
