If your bench has stalled, I guarantee there’s a tip in here that will start to move the barbell.
Cluster training methods, like many
of the less “traditional” methods, don’t get utilized enough in people’s training programs. Try them now!
Learn about proven tricep exercises to boost your bench press and improve performance, even if you’re dealing with elbow pain. Program included!
The 4-Day Outlaw Program is a combination of conjugate and bodybuilding style training, setup for the multiply lifter yet modified for raw lifters.
In this final part of these series, let’s create a full-body training program. Rule 1…
Peaking for your meet day should happen around six weeks out. Here’s a thorough plan to make sure you get the most out of your lifts when the time comes to step on the platform.
Most people train like the athletes and Olympians they admire, but that’s poor practice. Train for YOU, and watch your progress skyrocket.
Your biological age is different than your training age. If you’ve racked up years of training in the gym, you should learn the difference between the two.
AJ Roberts takes a seat in this 137th podcast episode of Dave Tate’s Table Talk.
In this 117th episode of Dave Tate’s Table Talk Podcast, Joey Szatmary (@Szatstrength ) takes a seat. Joey is the gym owner of The Lions Den in Colmar, Pennsylvania. He attended Albright College and played collegiate lacrosse. Joey’s most notable athletic feat as a poly-athlete is earning the 2019 United States Strongman (USS) Heavyweight National Champion title.
Jim Wendler’s seminar Strength Training High School Football Players is compiled for you to implement as a coach or an athlete.
As long as you are meeting your caloric needs and are getting enough sleep every night, training is by far the most important thing you have to get stronger.
We figured out the movement tiers for the squat and deadlift, so let’s use the movement tiers to combat weakness in the bench press.
Sam talks about what it was like going from “Training HIS Ass Off” to “Training YOUR Ass Off” and going from a participant to an assistant.
How much you bench is reliant on a good warm-up. Here’s an upper body warm-up to help answer this question while reducing the risk of injury.
Dave Tate and Sam Brown discuss how injuries can make you better, perceived maxes, and Squid Game? What’s going on?
If you’re looking for alternative ways to keep pressing for extra recovery or to safeguard wear and tear in elbows and shoulders, it’s here.
If your movement is constrained, how will this directly affect your bench stroke? A LOT. Try these four stretches.
Lifting, and the bench press for that matter, is not rocket science, but you do need to use your brain. Use these twelve tips to fix your damn technique and showcase all of your strength.
There’s no way to put up impressive numbers if you can’t get the bar off your chest or you’re stalling halfway. Let’s get back to some bench press basics.
Pick one or two of these hacks, run them for about two months, and see where it takes your bench. Hack #4 was a tremendous help getting my raw bench to the best it’s ever felt.
For July, we move from the weight room to the kitchen. Fun fact: In totality, considering all of the content we produce, nutrition is the one topic that doesn’t get as much airtime. Why? No one knows. It’s provocative.
I increased my competition bench with more than 40 pounds in one month when I did it the first time. I can’t promise you will make the same progress, but I think you will get close!
I never missed 315. I went for it when it was time and when my training had prepared me for it. I attempted the weight when it was the next logical step in the progression of my coach’s orders. It wasn’t a YOLO, it was what came next.
Following these phases, there seems to be, on average, around a five to seven percent increase in 1RM bench by the end of phase two, with a further increase after phase three.
These ideas are all things that have helped me as my lifting age has advanced and nagging injuries have come creeping in. Don’t settle for tweaks and breaks. Instead, make these changes today to avoid being banged up.
Watch this 4-part video series to learn everything from the technique of the movement to more advanced methods like overload training.
Jimmy hit his first 600-pound bench press at the age of 18. Whether you train geared or raw, he has the info you need to harness to improve your bench press.
When I started my powerlifting journey, Louie Simmons tried to teach me to bench press like Fred Bolt. It was clear that I was not Fred Bolt, but more importantly, I did not have the musculature at that time to bench with my feet out. Here are some tips for all you long-armed lifters to create a great bench.
For this month’s content pillar, our writers shift to the press. Whatever falls under this category is fair game: pec size, bench press technique, overhead press exercises, board pressing… Join the conversation to drop knowledge for all. Plus, check out the best of May—the best articles, coaching blogs, videos, and posts!
If you think having one bar means you can’t do max effort variations, you’re wrong. It’s time to think outside of the box. If you can’t, no worries! I already have, and I came up with 230 variations you can use with a straight bar. No specialty bars required!
All training means have value; this is just one more means to add to your arsenal, and after reading, you’ll have some information as to why and how it may be effective.
As told to Dave Tate, some 18 years ago, these tips stand up to the gauntlet of common sense and I’m sure that at least a few will be of use to you. Load the bar!
Listen to JM Blakley talk about the reasons behind his supplemental exercise choices when aiming to increase his already massive numbers. Apply these to any of your lifts and you might find what you’re missing in your current program!
There are universal traits that unite what elevates a powerlifter to the top regardless of what era you competed in. Rather than try to pick apart the differences of each we should focus on the things that the best still do today.
You won’t be able to properly improve your bench press without the proper form. JM Blakley recruits Yessica Martinez and Lily Starobin to share with us his secrets to a solid bench press form.
Elbow pain is a common ailment of powerlifters, particularly when it comes to the bench press. However, an unlikely move can help treat and prevent bench press related elbow pain.
You really don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. But man, when you’re able to bench again… there’s nothing like it.
OK, maybe I shouldn’t have gone so hardcore with jiu-jitsu, but you know what? I made the best of my injury and learned from it.
It seems that lifters do not understand the importance of the upper back or how to use it in the three main lifts. The lifters I judged at a recent meet and just about all of my clients prove that to me, so let’s fix that.
“Our human potential is much higher than we recognize.” elitefts coach and columnist JM Blakley might be the namesake of the JM Press, but he hopes his impact in the strength sports world will go far beyond that and the weights he’s lifted.
I have compiled a list of what I have noticed in the 35 years I have spent in gyms that I feel are the five biggest obstacles to growing a great set of titties. Also, ease up on the bench press.
Want to smoke your old PRs? Try applying daily undulating periodization, or DUP, to your programming. Rather than changing sets, reps, and intensity every 6 to 12 weeks, DUP changes those variables on a daily basis.
There are so many movements you can do when it comes to strengthening the back for the bench press — so which ones SHOULD you do?
The debate between raw versus gear has died down, more or less, but the debate of how to train one versus the other is still on-going. This might be controversial, but for the most part, I don’t think you need to train differently raw or geared with a few exceptions.
This 12-week cycle is very effective when followed to a T. If picked apart, it won’t work as well, so listen closely.
How many of these things do you think about when you’re training? What could you be doing to make yourself and your training partners better?
Ed Coan and Dave Tate explain their rationales and favorite accessory movements and variation lifts for training weak points.
You’ve probably heard Newton’s third law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Turns out Newton DIDN’T tell you that he specifically wrote this law in anticipation of gym bros only training the muscles they see in the mirror. Let me explain.