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| John Davis completes a heavy jerk at Muscle Beach "back in the day." Davis always did plenty of heavy bench presses as part of his Olympic lifting workouts. |
Hail to the Dinosaurs!
For some reason, I've been getting a ton
of bench press questions lately. So let's
cover some of them.
Q. Is it better to pause the bar at your chest,
or use a drop, bounce and rebound so you
can handle more weight?
A.The pause style is better. It's much stricter,
and it's much harder. And if you intend to enter
powerlifting or bench press competition, it's
what you'll be doing in the contest.
The drop, bounce and rebound is a way
of cheating. You can handle more weight,
but it's because you're cheating, not because
you're getting stronger.
Q. What's the best assistance exercise for
the bench press?
There are three movements that are particularly
good.
One is the bottom position bench press in the
power rack. You can do it with the pins set so
the bar is brushing your chest at the bottom
of the movement -- or two inches above the
chest -- or four inches -- or six inches. This
helped my bench press more than anything
I ever did.
Do singles in the bottom position bench press.
The second movement is the close grip bench
press. By close grip, I mean a slightly less
than shoulder width grip. Do sets of five.
The third exercise is the seated press on a
very high incline bench. Do these in the power
rack with the pins set so you can start from the
chest. Do singles.
Upper back work is also very important for
bench pressing. So are heavy curls -- emphasis
on heavy. The back work and the curls help to
balance out the pushing exercises. Don't
neglect them.
Q. I know you were a National bench press
champion and record holder. Can you give me
specific tips on bench pressing technique?
I've done a complete bench press course that
covers this topic in detail. It's available at
John Wood's Iron league site -- along with
tons of other great stuff:
http://www.ironleague.com/
Q. Where can I find a good training program
for powerlifting and the bench press?
I've put together a terrific power rack program
that will be perfect for you. It's in book 1 in
my Dinosaur Training Strength Archive series:
Hard copy
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurtraining_archiveorder.html
Kindle e-book
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurtrainingarchive_kindle01.html
This is NOT a bench press only course -- it's a
complete guide to buiklding all-around strength
and power, but it includes exactly the kind of
bench press work that helped me win five
National championships in the bench press.
If you're looking to build strength and power,
this program will do it.
There are more questions, but we'll have to save
them for another time.
As always, thanks for reading and have a great
day. If you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. I almost forgot. I have more power rack
training tips -- and more about bench press
and powerlifting workouts -- in Strength,
Muscle and Power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- and
links to all of my Dinosaur Training e-books --
are right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Hard, heavy
and basic." -- Brooks Kubik
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