Plan to win or you will plan to fail.

We will first start with the bench press or dumbbell press warm up. It is better to warm up with the hard bench in both bench and dumbbell presses. I use this exercise since your body knows, (muscle memory), the postural hold position before, during, and after the lift. Your body feels the blood flow into the muscles and therefore holds a safer position, (body awareness0, during the movement.

Next we take out the bench and replace it with the 60-65cm ball.

Position of the ball should be as close to the pins in the bench press case, and the dumbbell press should position the ball such that the safety bars in the rack can regulate the chest extension by limiting range of motion. If you don’t have a rack don’t use heavy weight without a spotter.

Purpose of this lift is to enable your back, specifically your rhomboid muscle, to contract during the back arch. This motion decreases the press distance and strengthens your backs rhomboid, erectors, and lat's for improved bench workouts.

When your elbows compress against the ball the confidence of your press goes up. When your confidence goes up you work with greater detail and greater speed to build massive strength without over-training in the bench press alone.

I have asked the guys where they feel it the most when it comes to effort, and they all say in the back. I ask where do you feel the greatest strength increase and the reply is the ability to pause or hold the weight on the chest. This is imperative when it comes to competing. The dreaded pause or what the judges call a pause is hard to perform under strict contest conditions. I train my guys with a 2 sec pause in order to have enough in the tank to press out the max’s.

We then start the 5x8 or 5x5 programs and build up to assisted singles. This fits into our 6-10 week programs that we can design for you. Contact us to arrange a consultation.