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6 Heavy Bench Press Lessons by Christian Thibaudeau 02/03/14 Tags: Benchpress Here's what you need to know... When trying to bring up the bench press, don't focus on bench press variations at the expense of overhead work. For your bench to go up, you should make overhead work a priority, not an afterthought. Unlike the squat and deadlift, bench press performance correlates strongly with bodyweight. Band work between sets is a great way to keep the shoulders and upper back healthy. If you have wonky shoulders, consider using the thumbless "suicide" grip instead of a full grip. Never miss a rep. If you're not at least 80% sure that you'll make the lift, don't even attempt it.

Christian Thibaudeau - 6 Heavy Bench Press Lessons

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6 Heavy Bench Press Lessons

by Christian Thibaudeau   02/03/14

Tags:Benchpress

Here's what you need to know...

•  When trying to bring up the bench press, don't focus on bench press variations at the expense of overhead work. Foryour bench to go up, you should make overhead work a priority, not an afterthought.

•  Unlike the squat and deadlift, bench press performance correlates strongly with bodyweight.

•  Band work between sets is a great way to keep the shoulders and upper back healthy.

•  If you have wonky shoulders, consider using the thumbless "suicide" grip instead of a full grip.

•  Never miss a rep. If you're not at least 80% sure that you'll make the lift, don't even attempt it.

I've been training for most of my life. I've clocked literally thousands of hours coaching clients, reading and writing books andarticles, and fighting under the bar. If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in weight training, let's just say I became an"expert" years ago.

The cool thing about reaching a level of mastery in any endeavor is that it teaches you very significant lessons along the way.At the time these lessons may appear as setbacks or plateaus, even injuries. However, if you persevere, you come outbetter, stronger, and a lot wiser. Here's what the bench press has taught me.

1. Raw bench press strength is highly correlated with shoulder size and strength.

I learned years ago that whenever my overhead strength increased (either push pressing or military pressing more), my benchwent up significantly. Not only did I lift more weight, it felt easier and smoother. The fact is, my biggest bench press came atthe end of a shoulder specialization program, not a bench press program.

While I understood how getting stronger shoulders helped with the bench press, for some reason it took me longer to realizehow losing shoulder size and strength decreased bench press performance. It happened when I decided to drop overheadwork in favor of more bench pressing. I figured that by increasing the volume of chest work that I'd progress faster on thebench press. My triceps certainly grew stronger, as did my chest. I also noticed that both body parts gained a significantamount of mass.

However, my bench press strength stalled and eventually went down. Soon, everything felt heavier, and my shoulders lostfullness. Only when I went back to overhead work did I noticed how much weaker my delts had become. It got me thinking:Every time I lost deltoid size my bench press suffered. Sometimes I was able to keep lifting similar weights, but they felt muchheavier and more stressful on my body.

The moral of the story is that to bench press big weights you need very strong and large deltoids. (This obviously applies toraw bench pressing, not using a bench shirt.)

Real life application: When trying to bring up the bench press we tend to focus on bench press variations at the expense ofoverhead work. That's a mistake. For your bench to go up, you should make overhead work a priority, not an afterthought.

One way is to start every bench press session with an overhead lift (push press, military press, dumbbell press) performedfor 5 sets of 5 reps. At first your bench press poundages will go down as you'll be more fatigued, but after a few sessions itshould go right back up. Eventually you'll be much stronger training that way.

2. The bench press is the lift most affected by weight loss.

It would seem logical that the squat and deadlift should be more affected by weight loss than bench pressing. After all, theformer are a lot more demanding on the body and make use of leverage more than the bench press.

Even losing water weight affects bench press performance. For example, a few years ago while I was benching twice aweek, I hit a 425-pound bench press on Monday. On Friday my wife and I enjoyed a long hot tub session. The next day Iwas 6 pounds lighter (from dehydration) and while I still felt really good going into the workout, I failed to hit even 365pounds! Certainly I didn't lose any muscle in 24 hours, but the fact that I lost some water weight killed my bench press.

Furthermore, I've found that my bench pressing performance is highly correlated with my bodyweight. If I'm 195 pounds Ican bench press 325. When I'm 205 I can bench press 365, and when I go up to 215 I can bench 385. At 225 I can do405, and if I reach 230-235 I can bench press 425. This applies even if my muscle mass is about the same at eachbodyweight; a phenomenon that even holds true for all bench press assistance exercises.

Also, if either my clients or I do a bench press session after a big cheat day, we can bench press a lot more because of water

retention and increased glycogen stores. On the other hand, performance during a hard squat workout after a cheat day stays

about the same, and for a deadlift session performance can actually go down.

Still, the bench press is the lift most affected by weight loss, the strict military press is second, the squat third, and the deadliftis the least affected, so it seems that any lift involving the shoulder joint is significantly sensitive to weight loss.

Also of note is that when I lose weight (water, fat, or muscle), the first thing that seems to get smaller is my shoulders, whichis interesting considering point number one.

Real life application: When trying to lose fat you should do everything possible to at least maintain your strength. This is thebest way to avoid losing muscle mass. However, be aware that the bench press is easily affected.

I recommend trying to maintain your strength but using slightly higher reps. Performance for sets of 5-7 reps doesn't seem tobe affected as much as sets of 1-3 reps. That rep range should still allow you to maintain your strength while dieting down.

For those lifting mostly for strength, make sure you're not dehydrated when attempting a heavy bench workout. Plazma™has been specifically designed to increase muscle cell volumization.

3. Use the reverse-band bench press when you have sore shoulders.

It's easy to start experiencing tender shoulders when you bench press big weights. This can indicate bad form or a muscleimbalance that needs to be addressed. Most of the time when this happens people stop bench pressing altogether until theirshoulders get healthier.

I've never had success with this approach. Upon returning to bench pressing my shoulders often started hurting again rightaway. I noticed the same thing with many clients – when you stop working a problematic area, it usually leads to even worseproblems when you get back into it.

On the other hand, you don't want to do a movement that causes pain. Powering through, biting the bullet, and continuing theexercise usually leads to a far greater problem.

A solution that works is to keep bench pressing, but with reverse bands – bands attached to the top of the power rack,hanging the bar from the bands. The reverse bands drastically decrease the amount of weight in the bottom position, which isthe most vulnerable point of the bench press for the shoulders.

This technique allows you to keep the joint active while still practicing your bench press technique (or correcting it if that's thecause of your problem) and overloading the pattern. That way when you can go back to standard bench pressing you'll bephysically and neurologically ready to go.

As a side note, I find the reverse band bench press to be superior to the regular bench press for chest and triceps contractionand stimulation, so you'll likely build up some more mass while getting back to peak shape.

Real life application: When your shoulders are slightly painful, switch to reverse band bench pressing before the shoulderissue gets worse. Continue doing so until you've identified and fixed the root of the problem, which might be bad benchpressing technique.

This should allow you to keep practicing the movement while still overloading the muscles involved in the regular bench pressmovement pattern. Obviously if your shoulder still hurts while doing the reverse bands, don't do it – seek out a good ARTpractitioner or soft tissue specialist.

4. Band work between sets works.

My most successful bench-pressing phase was characterized by doing band work in between sets. Biotest founder TimPatterson and I had been experimenting with various types of band-only exercises for the back – slow pull-aparts and holdsin various positions – with the goal of finding weak or sore spots and spending time contracting against the bands in thosespots.

As such, I started to incorporate this band work in-between sets. There's a small track in the Biotest gym, so after each setof bench press I'd perform various band holds while walking the length of the track and back, which gave me about a minuteunder tension. I'd then take 15-20 seconds and set up for my next bench press set. During that time I made very rapidprogress on my bench press but more importantly, my shoulders felt their absolute best.

I recently began using this approach with a client who had shoulder issues. He went from doing 225-pound bench presseswith shoulder pain to doing 275 pounds for 5 reps without any pain. It certainly works!

Real life application: Perform band pull-aparts and holds for 30-60 seconds per set between sets of bench pressing tomaximize progress on the bench press.

5. Consider using a suicide grip when bench pressing to eliminate shoulder or triceps pain.

Using a "suicide" or thumbless grip when bench pressing is controversial. Many lifters are afraid they'll drop the barbell whenbench pressing, which is a very bad thing for your skeletal integrity. Others argue that since you can't squeeze the bar ashard, you'll get a sub-optimal performance because you're not taking advantage of the irradiation effect (contracting a musclehard leads to a better contraction of the surrounding muscles). However, through experience I've found that the thumblessgrip offers many advantages, one of which is less shoulder strain.

I noticed years ago that bench pressing with a thick bar was less stressful on my shoulders. It took me a while to understandwhy. I asked many experts about it and never received a satisfactory answer. Today I can say that the reason is likely thatthe thick bar forced me to use a thumbless grip.

When you take a regular grip, your hands turn in slightly. This automatically forces you into an internal shoulder rotationposition, meaning that the "natural" path you take when lowering the bar will have your elbows pointed outward/flared out.

This puts stress on the shoulder joint and if you try to tuck the elbows in – despite the natural inclination for the elbows to beout – you create a lot of torque at the elbow joint. So you either increase the stress on the shoulders or the elbows, neither ofwhich is good.

By using a thumbless grip you can easily keep a more neutral hand position, which makes it much more natural to lower thebar while staying tucked. This reduces shoulder stress without increasing torque at the elbows, resulting in a less stressfulbench press.

Regarding the safety issue, I've used the technique for years for several workouts a week and I have fairly small hands. I useit with thick bars (2-inch), very thick bars (3-inch), and regular bars and have never once came close to losing control. Thesame is true of all the clients and athletes I've trained.

I'm not saying that it can't happen, but honestly, anybody who isn't a total motor moron can become very comfortable withthis grip. Any potential accident would likely happen due to bad form caused by using weights that you have no businesstrying in the first place.

Real life application: Try to get comfortable with the thumbless grip if you're prone to shoulder or elbow injuries. Start fairlylight for 2-3 workouts to become comfortable with the grip and give it an honest 3 weeks to see how your body feels usingit. My experience tells me that most of you won't go back to a regular grip.

6. Never miss a rep.

In his book, The Cube Method, Brandon Lilly says that you should never miss a rep in training. It got me thinking, and I cansay with almost 100% certainty that I have not missed a single rep of the bench press in at least 5 years, probably more.

It's not that I don't train hard or that I use light weights. I've bench pressed as much as 435 pounds and did 425 for a doubleseveral times, but I never miss a rep. Although I want to challenge myself and always strive to lift bigger weights, I neverattempt a weight that I'm not at least 80% sure of getting solidly. That way, the worst that happens is that I have to grind alittle and make the rep with less than perfect form.

Never missing a rep builds confidence, develops the habit of succeeding, reduces the risk of injuries, and prevents the use ofcheating/bad form, which can easily become a habit itself. This has allowed me to successfully use a very high frequency ofbench pressing (at times as often as 5 days a week) without suffering setbacks due to injuries.

Real life application: Train hard, train to improve, and train to get better than you were last time you were in the gym. Do notattempt a set or a rep if you're not 80% sure of being able to do it with good form. The fewer reps you miss in training while

going as hard as you can, the stronger, healthier, and bigger you'll end up in the long run.

On to the Next Big Lift!

You don't pick things up and put them down as long as I have without learning a thing or two along the way. Next time I'lldiscuss the heavy lessons another big lift has taught me.