How to Increase Your Bench with an El Gordo Fat Bar

There is a funny maxim floating around in academia and data science that goes something like this: "There are two types of people in the world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data…"

That plateau breakthrough or extrapolation came from a research study I came across dealing with bench press for a paper I wrote during my coursework.

What grabbed my attention was the conclusion: "Higher electromyographic activity with THIN suggests greater neuromuscular activation with a standard Olympic bar as opposed to a larger diameter "fat" bar" (Fioranelli & Lee, 2008).

Fat Bar Theory

I equated this difference in neuromuscular activation as a metaphor for running in the sand but with bench pressing. There would be less neuromuscular activation with a fat bar, so if I could increase pressing with a fat bar, moving to a thin bar should feel better, be faster, be lighter, and also increase bench press in parallel.

Second, my thought was to combine this with the Larsen press for two reasons:

1. My bench was stalling right off the chest.
2. Larsen press generally activates pectoral muscles more than a foot-supported bench press (Muyor et al., 2019). 

But why this leap in thought specifically, as compared to various other methods, and programs available? What about conjugate, Westside, 5x5, 5/3/1, or some other app or some other training outfit? I have the Westside Bench Book. My pressing did not go up using the Westside methods. I trained with the very respected Kabuki Labs. My pressing did not go up with them either (my deadlift sure did, though).

My training in the past has utilized chaos or unstable benching; it used the Olympic bar, Larsen presses, accommodating resistances with chains and bands, close grip presses, dumbbells, undulating reps, Spoto presses, tempo presses, paused presses, dead presses from pins, lightened presses, slingshot presses, and just about every variation you could name. I have used various combinations and rep schemes over the past eight years and could not break my 391-pound bench barrier in competition until I utilized the fat bar. Even after adjusting for weight fluctuations (I was arguably heavier when I benched 424 pounds), my bench press weight did not increase from 220 pounds to 242 or even initially to 272 pounds. I last hit 391.3 at 220 pounds in 2016.

Client Successes

After finishing my master’s degree, I jumped back into coaching and had the opportunity to work with clients using this new methodology, and unsurprisingly, the gains happened just as predictably for the others.

30-year-old female: Last competition one rep max was 137.8 pounds, her recent competition one rep max was 192.9 pounds.

38-year-old male and vegetarian: Last competition one rep max was 225.9 pounds. His recent one rep max was 270 pounds after nine weeks of training.

After just seven weeks, a 47-year-old female whose last competition bench was 115 pounds is now tripling to 135 pounds.

With these early successes, I wanted to share this with the broader community to spark some conversation and hopefully help some of you break through long-running plateaus and hit those goals you have been chasing. Poverty bench ends now.

But Really, Why the El Gordo Fat Bar?

I chose the 75-pound fat bar over the more common 25-pound bars. What I found with the El Gordo Fat Bar, sold by elitefts, was that the weight difference, in particular, made lifting with a normal bar feel extremely light. A 45-pound bar feels like a feather after handling the 75-pound bar. 

Second, when you reach a milestone on a fat bar, you are 30 pounds heavier than your mind comprehends. 185 pounds becomes 215 pounds, 225 pounds becomes 255 pounds, 275 pounds becomes 305 pounds, and so on. From a visual perspective, it is a weight you are familiar with, two plates register as 225 pounds, but are actually 255 pounds. In practice, using the bar seems to register like an unknown load a buddy puts on a bar at the last minute. 

Third, with the 25-pound fat bar, I had concerns with benching 300 plus and it simply did not have the same contrast that moving from a 75-pound bar to a 45-pound bar had.

This sort of "woo woo" idea comes from other studies that show the potential of unknown loads to elicit not only greater force output but one rep max capability as well (García-López et al., 2020; Snarr et al., 2021).

The Program

I generally start programs or program change-ups with a two-week transition period to acclimate the individual to the movements in preparation for increased intensity. The following is the general makeup of the nine weeks I worked with Ryan, the vegetarian lifter, verbatim. There is a day dedicated to back, and what I have found, not only with myself but with other lifters, is that the close grip, fat bar, and competition bench will all rapidly converge to within 10-15 pounds of each other, and the lats and the ability to control the descent of the bar become a limiting factor at peak bench.

Since this is a bench topic, I have not included deadlift and squat days. I would be happy to add context for folks who may want some coaching or are interested in the specifics.

Weeks 1-2

Closegrip video

Fatbar Video

Competition Bench Video

Weeks 3-5

Week 6

Week 7: Get your best triples to set openers at competition

Week 8

Week 9: Get the best doubles for your second attempt at competition

References

1. Fioranelli, D., & Lee, C. M. (2008). The influence of bar diameter on neuromuscular strength and activation: Inferences from an isometric unilateral bench press. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(3), 661–666. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31816a5775
2. García-López, D., Maroto-Izquierdo, S., Zarzuela, R., Martín-Santana, E., Antón, S., & Sedano, S. (2020). The effects of unknown additional eccentric loading on bench-press kinematics and muscle activation in professional handball and rugby players. European Journal of Sport Science, 20(8), 1042–1050. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2019.1694587
3. Muyor, J. M., Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Antequera-Vique, J. A. (2019). Evaluation and comparison of electromyographic activity in bench press with feet on the ground and active hip flexion. PLoS ONE, 14(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218209
4. Snarr, R. L., Adams, K., & Cook, J. (2021). Effect of Bench Press Load Knowledge on One Repetition Maximum Strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(8), 2121–2126. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000003096

Dave Murphy is a freelance strength and conditioning coach with a focus on powerlifting and hypertrophy. He lives near Sacramento, California. After eight years of coaching, he went to earn his master's in kinesiology in 2022, from William Jessup University. Dave is the owner and resident mentor at House of the Blessed Iron (houseoftheblessediron.org). He provides coaching and mentoring for people of all ages. The organization's philanthropic work assists athletes and individuals who embody the idea of movement or athleticism, along with special causes such as donations for struggling gyms. Coach Murphy has helped lifters achieve over 110 state, national, and world records within the IPL and is branching out to the IPF. Dave himself has held multiple records in the IPL across the 220, 242, and 272 pound weight classes, including four world records.