During last week's Q&A this question came up a handful of times- what can I do for my shitty bench?
Instead of getting into the nitty gritty, I thought I'd lay out some guidelines for a bench training cycle and you can compare to your own to see if you're checking off all, or some, of these boxes.
The most simple cycle that I've come up with, and one that most people are able to execute in even a commercial gym, looks like this:
Main movement:
Flat/competition bench, floor press, and barbell incline
-You can wave this every week, or stick with the same movement for three weeks
-Rep range: 1-5 depending on goals
-Occasional 2-4 drop sets of close grip work, or pause work in the 6-12 rep range
-Easy to add in accommodating resistance
Primary Assistance Movement:
- Dumbbell work in the 15-20 rep range (about 50 total reps across 2-4 sets)
- Can be incline, flat, floor press, or a neutral grip version of those three
-Goal is to push the numbers each week - add a rep or add 5lbs
-Start light the first week and move on to another variation after you're unable to make progress.
Assistance work:
(Lower) Triceps:
-Extensions, Extensions, Extensions
-both heavy (6-8 reps) and light (12-20 reps)
-1/4 dips, lying barbell ext, lying db ext, JM press, etc...
-Find variations that don't bother your elbows. And if you can't, fix your elbows, otherwise your bench will always suck.
(Upper) Back:
-Upper back work until you can't wipe your ass. I've always found light weight and extremely high volume is best here.
-face pulls, pull aparts, shrugs, high rows, (target the mid trap as well)
- 15-30 reps in a set, at minimum 100 reps a week, up to about 300 if you're underdeveloped here