After a disappointing bench performance at my last meet (55 off my PR), I looked back to see where I went wrong with my training. In retrospect, I didn't put half the thought into my bench training that I did with my squat. Throughout the meet cycle, I often decided what to do based on how I felt that day. This time around, I not only need to be as strong as possible come meet day, I also need this training cycle to learn my new Ace Bench Shirt.
IMPORTANT: This is NOT a proven program. It's something that I wrote up based on what has (and hasn't) worked for me in the past. If anyone decides to give it a try along with me, I'd really like to hear your feedback.
The cycle will be broken up into four week waves.
The first week of each wave will be shirt with straight weight. The first two cycles will be triples to help me learn the groove of the shirt. This is something I learned from Bill Crawford years ago. The triples cause more fatigue, forcing you to build endurance for harder attempts. The next three cycles will be singles, a first attempt in week 9, a low second attempt in week 13 and a high second/low third attempt in week 17.
The second week will be a special exercise without the shirt. It could be a board press, floor press, or close grip bench press, with or without accommodating resistance. The special exercise day is to keep my raw strength up while giving myself a break from the shirt.
The third week will be a shirt workout with reverse bands. I know a lot of great benchers who use shirted boards to build their top end. Personally, I've never gotten a carryover form boards. I know that a lot of great benchers use the boards, but they've always done more harm than good for me. They just seem to screw up my groove. In the place of boards, I'm going to try benching full range with reverse bands. This way I can overload my top end without cutting my groove short. I'll alternate between triples and singles.
The fourth week will be a speed workout. I'll use 8 sets of 5 reps rather than three to increase my volume and build more muscle.
Other notes: For the first half of the cycle, I will speed bench once per month. I think it's important to keep speed in my training, but I can't do it every week for months on end and stay healthy. For the second half, I'll bump it up to every week (in a second workout) and switch to a deload on weeks 9, 13 and 16.
In the past, I've gotten my best results by putting the shirt on every other week. This seems to give me the best balance between getting enough practice and preventing burn-out.
Week 1 - Shirt bench for triples. The goal here will be 450, either to my chest, or a half-board
Week 2 - Special Exercise to a heavy single.
Week 3 - Reverse average band with shirt to a heavy triple.
Week 4 - Speed bench, 8 sets of 5 at 45% with chains
Week 5 - Shirt bench for triples up to 475
Week 6 - Special exercise to a heavy single
Week 7 – Reverse average band with shirt to a heavy single
Week 8
- Day 1 – Deload
- Day 2 – Speed 50% with chain
Week 9
- Day 1 – Shirt bench up to 1st attempt (515 - 520)
- Day 2 – Speed 40% with minibands
Week 10
- Day 1 – Special exercise
- Day 2 – Speed 45% with minibands
Week 11
- Day 1 – Reverse strong band with shirt to a heavy triple.
- Day 2 – Speed 50% with minibands
Week 12
- Day 1 – Deload
- Day 2 – Speed 45% with chains
Week 13
- Day 1 – Shirt bench to low second attempt (535 - 540)
- Day 2 – Speed 50% with chains
Week 14
- Day 1 – Reverse strong band with shirt to a heavy single.
- Day 2 – Speed 55% with chains
Week 15
- Day 1 – Deload
- Day 2 – Speed 45% with minibands
Week 16
- Day 1 – Special Exercise
- Day 2 – Speed 50% with minibands
Week 17
- Day 1 – Shirt bench to high 2nd attempt (545 – 560)
- Day 2 – Speed 55% with minibands
Week 18
- Day 1 – Speed, straight weight.
- Day 2 – Deload
Week 19 – Meet!
As I mentioned above, this will be my first time using this program, you can follow along and see how it works in my training log. Please feel free to direct any questions to me in my training log.
Thanks for reading!