Excuse me, did you just kick sand on me?

February 1, 2008 8:19 AM

How do I increase my bench press, possibly working out alone?

I want to bench 300 lbs. I currently max out at about 175 lbs. Please share routines, techniques, schedules, etc. needed to do this.

The gym I use is in my apartment complex and there is never anyone there that I could ask to spot. Is this possible (or safe) to do alone?

posted by chugg to health & fitness (21 comments total)

You don't need to max out to improve your bench press. You don't even really need to bench all that often, in my opinion.

Most everybody who wants to have a strong bench pays enough attention to their chest and triceps. However, there are a lot of "secondary" muscles that are really the key to having a big bench, such as your lats, upper back muscles, forearms, and shoulders. Make sure you train those as hard as or harder than you train your bench specifically.

Also, try to pinpoint where you are weak. If you miss your bench towards the top of your lift, you problably need stronger triceps. If you miss at the bottom, like most people, you probably need a stronger chest, back, and shoulders.
posted by PFL at 8:32 AM on February 1, 2008

And also make sure you train your lower body as well. Don't be one of those clowns who has a built upper body but who can't do a full squat with 200 pounds because they have no legs.
posted by PFL at 8:33 AM on February 1, 2008

Dumbbell presses work many of the same muscle groups, and if you can't rep one more you can just drop them.

Don't neglect your other big lifts (squats, deadlifts). Gains in these areas will help your bench, either by working supporting muscle groups (deads) or by stimulating growth in other parts of the body (squats).
posted by kableh at 8:40 AM on February 1, 2008

I did a program similar to this in High School and dramatically increased my bench press. During this time I also strength trained my entire body, not just my bench. Benching 300lbs will partly depend on how much you weigh. My goal at the time was to bench twice my body weight (140lbs) and I peaked benching 265lbs. If you use free weights you should always have a spot.
posted by mealy-mouthed at 8:45 AM on February 1, 2008

I think you should get a spotter if you're going to go for that kind of weight. It may be relatively safe to lift if you increase the weight very slowly and carefully, but it's going to take you a long time to meet your goals, because you won't be able to push yourself as much as you could with a spotter. Plus, you could still be hurt if something happens. I'll bet if you leave a note in the weight room, there's someone else in your apartments who's in the same boat and would be glad to trade spots...

Also, don't just concentrate on one exercise! I find that some sets of bench presses immediately followed by sets of dumbbell flys does a lot more for my chest than either one alone. I usually take a short break between sets, but in this case I do the last set of presses and then immediately pick up the bells for the first set of flys. And like PFL said, be sure to train evenly.
posted by vorfeed at 8:45 AM on February 1, 2008

Read Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. Some sample pages are available online. The best treatment of the bench press I have seen, as well as a great resource on squat, deadlifts, cleans, press, and other useful assistance exercises (that will help your bench).

And his Q&A has some tips as well.
posted by tiburon at 8:55 AM on February 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Totally seconding PFL. Guys at the gym that spend half their time on the bench are jokes. Biceps are just decoration.
posted by kcm at 8:57 AM on February 1, 2008

Mealy-mouthed has a link above to a pretty good program. I recommend you check out EliteFTS, which has a number of relatively easy-to-follow articles written by massively strong people that train in the Westside Barbell style. The site also covers other exercises in detail, which is important, as nobody has ever benched big without a strong back, shoulders, and triceps. You didn't list your weight, but you may want to look at Westside for Skinny Bastards, a modified program that helps people that aren't massive to begin with bulk up sufficiently to lift big without a lot of bodybuilding nonsense.

In my experience, I didn't need to start working on the speed of my bench press until I had nearly doubled my starting 1-rep maximum. One way to do a split might be to work out Monday/Wednesday/Friday, doing a 1-rep or 3-rep max bench on Monday, squatting or deadlifting to a 3-rep or 5-rep max on Wednesday, and then doing a 3x8 or 3x6 bench press on Friday to help your endurance and induce some growth. Don't be tempted to max out with a 1-rep max that often: you will burn out, hit a plateau, and get discouraged. Some general strength-building wouldn't go amiss, and I suspect that getting in some heavy deadlifting will help your end goals almost as much as bench-specific training.

It goes without saying that if you are on the skinny side you need to ramp up your intake of healthy food, particulary lean protein and carbs.

Lastly, some specific exercises that may help:
Close-grip bench press is one of the best ways to build tricep strength. Consider doing this as your main bench press exercise some weeks, though don't feel like you have to go as heavy as possible. Try a 3x5 or 3x6 set. Dips with a weighted belt will also help.
Heavy bent-over rows will build up your back and if nothing else will help balance the effect of benching on your shoulders.
Squats and deadlifts should basically be your foundation, even if you're only interested in benching heavy. No other exercise involves such a large number of muscle fibers.
Military press and chin-ups are good ancillary exercises and work well if super-setted (1x8 military press, 1x8 chinups, 1x8 military press, and so on...) together.

Dumbells are useful if you're without a spotter, but if your gym has a good power rack (like a squat rack but basically a full cage with adjustable safety bars), try moving a bench in there and see if you can adjust the safety bars to be level with your chest. That way, you can bench heavy and not worry about pinning yourself, though a good spotter is still much preferable.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:18 AM on February 1, 2008

way more impressive and useful to be able to benchpress your own body-weight 30 times. Nonetheless, if your apartment-complex gym has a squat rack with adjustable height safety bars plus a place above that to rack a bar, you can slide a bench underneath, lower the safety bars to chest level and bench press your brains out.

To really get a strong chest, I would recommend absolutely not using a Smith machine or any other kind of bench press simulator. Bench press and dumb-bell press require stabilization and thus you get stronger in a more holistic manner. I've watched people that can "bench" well over 200lbs on a machine and are crushed by 185 on a real bench. If you do weighted dips you'll get stronger faster than either sort of press.
posted by nameless.k at 9:18 AM on February 1, 2008

Note that there is some confusion about the term military press. It is *not* behind the head.
posted by tiburon at 9:32 AM on February 1, 2008

Can your apartment gym even go to 300 on the bench? Is it an actual Olympic setup with a 45 pound bar? I second the notion you don't want to do this on a machine, and whenever you max out you need/want a spotter. Not only is it critical for safety, but I swear it adds pounds to your lift because the possibility of getting crushed tends to make you focus less on why you're there. It's safe to do your build up work alone but not safe to max out alone.

Man, the bench press. It's the sexiest exercise there is. When I started lifting in high school all I did was bench. Four days a week. I was 160 pounds and could barely do 135. But at first I made gains fast because at first gains are easy. Then some guys in the gym noticed what I was doing and started steering me to tricep exercises, shoulder exercises, and alternate chest exercises like flies, incline presses, etc. In high school 200 pounds was my goal and I hit it my junior year. By senior year I was up to about 245. In my 20's my goal changed to 300 pound max and that was much more difficult to attain. I trained hard and heavy for all body parts (make sure you give muscles rest!!!) and did negative sets (spotter is a MUST) and the bench slowly creeped up, 275, 285, then finally at 26 in a Gold's Gym in Shoreline, WA I did a clean 300 pound bench. I did it again a week later.

That was all about 10 years ago. I'm pretty confident that if I made it my goal I could do it again, but since I already know I can it doesn't have the same attraction anymore. Plus at 37 it's a little too tough on my body. I will say this though, every winter when I train heavy I'm able to get back to 260 or 270 within about 10 weeks.

So - here's my advice. Your goal is clear and specific, and you can achieve it. Don't neglect other body parts, they are part and parcel of achieving the lift. Especially triceps, deltoids, legs and your core will all need to be strong to maximize your chest.

To build up your top end: first, stretch tris, delts, chest for 10 minutes, then this is a general workout that I do:
Exercise #1 - a stretching exercise such as flies, cable crossovers - 3 sets 10 reps really work on the stretching. Trying to get blood flow into the muscles and tendons and joints to prepare them for the battle ahead.
Exercise #2 - Bench 3 or 4 sets. First set light at 10 reps. Second set heavier 6-8 reps. Third and fourth set heavy, 2 to 3 reps. If you have a spotter you could do some negatives as well.
Exercise #3 - Dips or decline press, the bottom shelf of the chest is important. Also it's a bit easier to push heavy weight so it helps you build confidence and comfort holding heavy weights above your noggin.
Exercise #4 - hit the upper chest, incline press or bar, good to rotate which one you do every so often.

You're building for strength, so give a good rest between sets, a minute or so. Drink lots of water.

Work each muscle one day a week. Work chest and back and legs on their own days, combine the other muscles in whatever convenient fashion you like (i.e. do bis and tris together, traps and deltoids together). Don't neglect forearms and calves. You want to work chest on it's own because you don't want to weaken your best lift with fatigued ancillary muscles.

As you get stronger and begin testing your top end at subsequent workouts, I find this pattern helpful. Your best, strongest set will usually be your third. The first light set just kind of warms up the body parts, the second heavier set helps you feel the weight. I do few reps of my second set so I don't fatigue out for the third and final. It might help you to track your progress in a book, I tried that for awhile and it didn't do much for me.

Keep at it. Eat good foods, especially protein. Have a banana right after your workout. It will take time. Some days you'll feel weak, but it's ALWAYS, 100% of the time your mind goes out before your body. Some days it clicks, when you take that weight off the rack your mind says HEY! We can do this! and you rip through 8 reps at a weight you only did 4 before. The mind is the key, keep telling yourself you can bench 200, then 225, then 250 and you'll get to 300.

Good luck!
posted by vito90 at 9:57 AM on February 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

The gym I use is in my apartment complex and there is never anyone there that I could ask to spot.

Can you use dumbbells instead of a bar? Far easier to drop in case of a problem.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:08 AM on February 1, 2008

Read Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.

Seconded. One of the best things you can do at this stage. "SS" Is considered by much of the online strength and power (as opposed to bodybuilding) crowd to be an undisputed bible for beginners.

Take great pains to make sure the rest of your lifting program is in line with general strength gains. If all a person does is cable bullshit, like the rest of the damn curl monkeys out there, he can't expect to gain much in the major compound lifts. If you're basing your program around hard pushing, pressing, deadlifting, cleaning, rowing, and squatting... then you're looking at making good gains in strength.
posted by crunch buttsteak at 10:47 AM on February 1, 2008

Is there no-one else here who just rolls the bar down their body when they can't lift it?
posted by creasy boy at 10:58 AM on February 1, 2008

Is there no-one else here who just rolls the bar down their body when they can't lift it?

I've done it. Once.
posted by vito90 at 11:17 AM on February 1, 2008

Anyway, there's also a t-nation article on this.
posted by creasy boy at 11:43 AM on February 1, 2008

Note: what everyone else said sounds good, just wanted to add that you don't need a weight-belt to do weighted dips, you can hold a dumbell between your feet or your thighs.
posted by creasy boy at 11:47 AM on February 1, 2008

Awesome. Thanks everyone. FWIW I weigh 185 lbs. and am 6'-2". I figure the easiest way to get proper training would to be to go a good gym.
posted by chugg at 12:50 PM on February 1, 2008

I don't bench press huge amounts, but I have gotten in trouble by myself before. I actually don't put clips on the bar I'm bench-pressing with. If I get stuck I roll it to one side and some weights fall off, then to the other side. Potentially you could put 3/4 of the weight on, then clips, then the rest, so that you could shed enough to get it up, without dropping 100 pounds per side. Personally I do one-set-to-failure and I don't work quite as hard as I could, because I'm afraid of getting stuck.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:46 PM on February 1, 2008

When I bench, I place these sawhorses on either side of me, paralell to the bench itself, perpendicular to the squat rack I use to hold the bar.

These are my safety backup, my version of a power rack.

They seem to work pretty well. They haven't failed me yet. (knock on wood)
posted by jason's_planet at 6:29 PM on February 2, 2008

Well, the most that I've ever been able to bench with an 8 rep sets was 285. But, given that, here's what worked for me:

1. I did a lot of supplemental muscle work (shoulders, triceps, lats) on other workout days.
2. I worked out with my partner until my muscle reached negative failure. By this I mean I could not hold the weight above me without my partner's help.
3. I did 8 rep sets.
4. I mentally focused on the muscle movement, not the weight.
5. I tried to do my reps as slow as possible.
6. I waited about 2-3 minutes between sets.
7. I allowed 2-3 days rest in between workouts.

Oh, and definitely use free weights, not machines.
posted by brandnew at 4:50 PM on February 3, 2008