3 Advanced Moves For A Stronger Bench Press

Monday’s… International chest day, but what if you’re not able to put up big numbers on your bench press?  Follow these 3 advanced moves for a BIGGER bench

Walk into any gym locker room and you’ll commonly here guys ask, “How much do you bench press?”

While benching heavy is a great compound movement and necessary for overall physique development, to build thicker gladiator looking pecs you need to incorporate ALL 3 of these advanced moves for a stronger bench press.

If you know how to apply all 3,  you can completely DOUBLE your muscle gains, remodel ANY “weak” body-part, bust through any plateau, all while revealing your abs at the same time.

Advanced Move #1  Slow Negatives

How many times do you see “ego lifters” at your local gym slap on a stack of plates only to be banging out fast and sloppy reps with NO control?

You don’t have to answer, maybe you’re one of them.  That’s o.k. because when I first started I thought the heavier, faster I could bang out reps, the stronger I would be.

Truth be told, the only benefit I got to banging out sloppy reps was a stroke to my ego.

My point?

To get stronger on the bench press most people completely ignore the eccentric or negative portion of the movement.

Training any muscle group for that matter builds more muscle than the concentric (Squeezing) or shortening of the muscle.

Our muscles can handle about 30-40% more weight on the eccentric part of your lift.

The next time you bench press, on your last 2 sets add 30-40% more weight than you would normally do for 10 reps.

Get on the bench press with (30-40% more weight) and slowly lower the weight for about 5 seconds or more and let your training buddy lift the weight back up.

Advanced Move #2  Train It’s Antagonist

It has been widely know that Arnold Schwarzenegger trained agonist/antagonist (or opposing) muscle groups between sets.

One of Arnold’s main workouts was he would pair chest (Bench Press) with back (Chin Ups) between his sets.

This kind of training method is also known as the pressing/pulling method and builds super strength on the antagonist muscle.

Countless studies have proven that pressing strength increases by working the antagonist muscle between sets.

Many strength coaches train their athletes using this method to increase strength.

They other HUGE benefit to training this way is to maintain muscular balance and overall body composition.

There’s NO better way than for a bodybuilder to build muscle and burn fat at the same time which this style of training will do for you!

There’s been a NEW training program circulating on the web called, “180 Muscle” and is centered around Antagonist/Agonist Training.

180 Muscle also uses the 3 mechanisms to muscle growth which are:

1. Mechanical Tension (Eccentric/Negatives on BIG lifts)
2. Metabolic Stress (Working Antagonist/Agonist Super-sets)
3. Muscle Damage (Using DRTS “Dynamic Rep Triple Sets”)

Advanced Move #3  6 Week Progressive Overload Sets

When you walk into the gym and you get down on the bench press and lift the same weight week after week, you’ll never get bigger or stronger on your bench press.

Muscle grows by progressively overloading it.  Muscle needs to be challenged and when it’s not, there’s no reason for it to grow.

There are several ways to progressively overload the muscle:

• Increase the weight
• Increase the sets with the same weight
• Increase the reps with same weight
• Shorter rest periods
• Increase intensity

Example of Flat Bench Press Workout Using Progressive Overload Over a 6 Week Period

(Week 1 – 80-90% of your 1 rep max)

Sets  8

Reps 4-6

Rest 3 minutes

(Week 2 – 10-20% more weight)

Sets  8

Reps 4-6

Rest 3 minutes

(Week 3 – 10-20% more weight)

Sets  8

Reps 3-5

Rest 3 minutes

(Week 4 – 10-20% more weight)

Sets  8

Reps 3-5

Rest 3 minutes

(Week 5 – 10-20% more weight)

Sets  8

Reps 2-4

Rest 3 minutes

(Week 6 – 10-20% more weight)

Sets  8

Reps 2-4

Rest 3 minutes

What’s Next?

Who Is Tim Ernst?