The bench press is the holy grail of all the muscle building exercises – and there are certainly “bench press milestones” that every guy who lifts strives to achieve.
In my opinion the 2 biggest milestones for the bench press are 225 lbs. (aka 2 plates), and 315 lbs. (aka 3 plates).
I am a naturally skinny guy with long arms so it has been quite the journey going from barely benching the 100 lbs. when I first started out to bench pressing 300 lbs.
The hardest bench press plateau I ever had to get past was right around 225 lbs. Getting from 225 lbs. to 300 lbs. on the bench press took a ton of research, experimentation, hardcore training techniques, and outside the box thinking.
I am excited to share with you my 5 favorite tips for bench press domination. These tips have personally helped me to go from 225 lbs. to 300 lbs. – and I’m excited to join the “3 plates club” soon!
Bench Press Tip #1: Carb Loading
Continuous overload progression is the theory that you always strive to make small incremental changes to your workouts. You go in the gym and do 4 reps at 200 lbs. on the bench press, and your goal for the next workout is to hit 5 reps or 205 lbs. for 4 reps.
This is how you make GAINS – and it is super important that you fill up your body’s muscle glycogen before you attack the bench press.
The day before your bench press day you should consume at least 2.5 times your body weight in grams of carbohydrates.
This fills out your muscle glycogen and allows you to exert maximum output during your heavy bench press sets.
Some of my favorite muscle glycogen filling carbohydrates are sweet potatoes, oatmeal, fruit, red skin potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, lentils, and jasmine rice.
Another trick is to consume 5-10 grams of creatine the day before your workout. Creatine helps you maximum the energy output of your muscles – and creatine is absorbed into your muscles a lot easier when paired with an insulin spike from the carbohydrates.
I typically mix 10 grams of creatine powder into a 20 ounce Gatorade the day before bench pressing to help fill out my muscle glycogen from the simple carbs and also load creatine into my body. Try it out the day before your bench press days!
Bench Press Tip #2: 50-Rep Challenge
Time to dive into some hardcore training strategies. The 50 rep challenge on the bench press is a bit of German volume training hybrid strategy – and no doubt helped me go from 225 lbs. to 275 lbs. on the bench press within 4 months.
How do you do it? It’s really quite simple. You are going to pick a weight that you can do about 10 repetitions at maximum.
Now the fun begins! You are going to stick with this weight until you hit 50 repetitions. Be prepared for this to take A LOT of sets. This is the whole point. You are trying to place a ton of volume and overload on your chest so it gets STRONGER!
The first time I tried this it probably took me 11 or 12 sets. You’ll keep your rest times right around 75 seconds. Be prepared to end the 50-rep challenge with a lot of sets in the 3-5 repetition range.
Bench Press Tip #3: Increase Triceps Strength
Increasing your triceps strength is one of the most fundamental aspects to bringing up your bench press max.
Triceps strength helps you on the very last part of the repetition when you are trying to lock out your maximum weight.
How many times have you “almost” hit a new PR just to fail to lock it out? This is what happens when you put too much emphasis on your biceps and not enough on your triceps.
You should be doing at least 15 sets per week of hardcore triceps work. I recommend that you do a lot of different movements with your triceps. Dumbbell overhead triceps, decline EZ-bar skull crush, weighted dips, diamond pushups and underhand grip triceps press-down are some of my favorites.
Keep a workout log and always strive to improve with your triceps strength and sooner than later you will be locking out big boy weight on the bench press.
Bench Press Tip #4: 5×5 Continuous Overload Progression
And time for another hardcore training strategy! This is what I’m currently doing to improve my squat, and I used it on the bench press to improve from 275 lbs. to 300 lbs.
What you are going to do is train your chest with a 5 x 5 continuous overload progression strategy.
This means that for the barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, and barbell incline bench press you are going to perform 5 sets of 5 reps each. This allows you to put the perfect balance of volume and overload on your chest.
Your chest workouts should consist of heavy overload and the 5×5 continuous overload progression theory is the most efficient way to do this.
Keep a workout log and always strive for improvements. Even if you only improve by 2.5 lbs. each bench press workout this adds up to 10 lbs. per month. These gradual improvements over time will help you become a bench press monster!
Bench Press Tip #5: Mind Games
The most powerful thing you can manipulate for gains is your very own brain. Research has shown that listening to music that increases your adrenaline, or even getting yourself pumped up or angry can instantly boost your strength by 5-10 percent.
Get yourself in the zone each time you bench press any way that you can. Whatever mind games you have at your disposal use them each time so you can increase your adrenaline.
Listen to your favorite song that pumps you up, think about that girl who broke your heart, think of that kid who used to make fun of you, think about how your life would be if you could bench 350 lbs. and were swole! Whatever it takes to get yourself in the zone, use it!
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