300 lb bench press game plan

[Klotz]

I want to bench press 300 lbs.
My best bench was 275 lb, that was about a year ago. I havent' done much benching this year, but I did 225x7 in October which was a PR. I recently got access to a good gym so I can work on my bench again.

I also want to work oly lifts, so I'll do those on another day. I assume some prerequisites for increasing bench are heavy squating, and vertical and horizontal pulling. My sticking point is at the bottom.

I also plan on gaining some weight, by eating a lot more meat and eggs, and also keeping my veggie consumption up. I might go on protein or creatine, if it's recommended. I was about 220 when I hit 275, I'm about 210 now.

My bench form suits me pretty well, with a narrowish grip and some arch, although I'm going to try to improve the arch with Steven Crowder's "touch the bench with your balls" suggestion. Any guides on how to use leg drive?

Now onto my proposed routine.

Day A:
Bench press (3-5)x3 with heavy (increasing?) weight
Dips-Either as many quintuplets as I can manage, or max rep sets. I don't like weighted dips, although I have the option.

Day B:
Clean and jerk
Snatch
Pullups

Day C:
Squats or front squats
Dynamic effort bench (suggestions?)
Bent over rows

I'd cycle through the days, and I'd do stuff I felt like at the end, to keep it fun. I'd also consider splitting cleans and jerks up and doing jerks on day C.


So how does it look so far?

 

[Donut62]

If you are benching less than 300 pounds I would not worry about doing dynamic effort. Hit it twice a week, once heavy, and once for higher volume/moderate weight. PAUSE YOUR REPS!!!! That is the key to building big power off the chest.

 

[Klotz]

So what, like 3x3 one day and 5x5 another?

 

[enright3060]

If you are benching less than 300 pounds I would not worry about doing dynamic effort. Hit it twice a week, once heavy, and once for higher volume/moderate weight. PAUSE YOUR REPS!!!! That is the key to building big power off the chest.

I agree with Shit. Dynamic effort is a waste of time for raw benching if you bench is under 300.

I would also take a video of an ME day. Once the weight gets heavy, a proper bench press form can add 25-30 pounds. You might not be using your legs properly or you could improve your arch. When weight got heavy for me, I would tend to flatten out. One thing that really helped me was thinking about raising my chest as I was taking the bar down. Dave Tate describes it this way:

. Get your sternum up. Act as if you had a string tied to your sternum and imagine you are being pulled off the bench. This will keep the upperback tighter.

Here are a few other tips he gives:

The Bench Press

1. The barbell should be placed in a location between 1 inch above nipple line to mid abdominal. This depends on...

a. Upper Arm Length. If you have shorter upper arms the bar will need to touch higher than if your upper arms were longer.

b. If you use a shirt. Different shirts have different touch spots. Denims are lower on the belly and poly shirts tend to be higher. Other factors that can change this is if the sleeves are twisted, where the neck line sits and how tight the shirt is.

2. The wrists should be in a direct line with the elbows. If the wrists are behind the elbow than you are placing too much on the triceps, if the wrists are in front of the elbow you are putting too much stress on the front delts and shoulder joint. In the extreme one would be a lying front raise and the other a tricep extension.

3. Your wrists should be straight with the bar resting over the center of the forearm.

4. Your upperback and traps need to be tight. If you want to know what I mean next time you get on the bench grab the bar and place your feet on the bench. Then lift your hips as high as you can in the air. You will feel ALOT on tension on the upperback and traps. Now set your feet back on the floor and seek a way to find that same tightness.

5. Your ass should be on the bench. If it is not look and see where you knee joint is in relation to the top of the bench pad. If it is higher, when you flex your hips will hike up to match that joint, BUT it can't flex higher than the joint. So you can either tuck you feet behind you can arch or spread you feet away wide and away from the bench.

If you tuck under then make sure to try and keep your heals pressed down. In most cases they will not hit the floor but the act of pressing down will keep the body tighter.

If you spread the floor than focus on trying to push your feet out of the toes of your shoes.

6. You belly up and full of air. You want to be at your tightest at the bottom of the bench so do not blow your air out on the way down.

7. Get your sternum up. Act as if you had a string tied to your sternum and imagine you are being pulled off the bench. This will keep the upperback tighter.

8. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can. If you triceps are strong try to pull the bar apart as you squeeze. If your pec are your strong part try to push in.

9.Keep your ass flexed. This will help transfer the strength of your lower body to the bar. If you are not tight the transfer will be lost. The bench press really is a total body exercise.

10. Shirt Work. This is pretty specific to the style and material of the shirt but some keys at the bottom to help touch are to, have confidence, lower faster, tuck the elbows, push your belly up, push heals down, and relax some.

 

[enright3060]

So what, like 3x3 one day and 5x5 another?

I would work on your front delts. On your other day, I would either hit heavy dbs (flat, incline) or work on your press.

If your press goes up, so will your bench.

 

[Donut62]

So what, like 3x3 one day and 5x5 another?

Something like that. Work up to a heavy 1-5 rep one day, and then the other I would 8x3, 5x5, 6x4 etc with a flat weight. An ME and a RE day, in the Westside terminology.

 

[MatterOverMind]

I like those tips from Tate.

 

[liquid!]

Change that 300 goal to 315. You can doo eet Klotz!

 

[hoss 601]

i'd find a max calculater and work the percentages on it for 5 to 6 weeks. they have some pretty goods ones on athletes.com. in the past i've done a heavey day and a speed day. on the speed day i used chains with a 25 lbs weight attached to the bottom. do reps of 2 for 6 to 8 sets. make each the 2 reps as explosive as possible (under control). also on your heavey day do workouts to supplment your chest and tri's. rotate these supplemental exercises each week. make sure to work your other bodyparts too. as they will come into play! thats what worked for me hope it helps ya!

 

[Ascendant]

Make sure you're treating each lift as explosively as possible. Even the bar. Work on lowering the bar slowly for now, until you're sure your groove is perfect, and then work on speeding up the descent more and more.

I disagree with Mr. Donut on the pauses, but it isn't the worst idea. It just isn't the only way to build big power off the chest. I've never worked paused reps, except for one workout a couple months ago, and I was surprised at how strong I was coming off the pause even though I hadn't trained it. Ad again, you may not even want to ever train your pause - that's a personal call.

 

[zop]

I'm in the same boat as you Klotz. I have a 275 bench and I weigh 210. i hope to surpass 300 very soon. Wanna race? Wanna bet?

 

[ThinkGreen]

Do RE bench instead of DE bench. One ME day and one RE day I think is much better, or even one RE day every 4 bench days or something.

 

[Merrill]

I'm in the same boat as you Klotz. I have a 275 bench and I weigh 210. i hope to surpass 300 very soon. Wanna race? Wanna bet?

Yes, we should have a race. My best single, yet, is 265 that I did about 2 months ago. 2 weeks ago I was able to get 230X7.

 

[fat_wilhelm]

pause work/massively excessive amount of upper back work

 

[Chaos Mitten**]

Do RE bench instead of DE bench. One ME day and one RE day I think is much better, or even one RE day every 4 bench days or something.

Isn't your bench PR less than 225?

 

[ThinkGreen]

Isn't your bench PR less than 225?

Yep. Do you disagree with my advice though? I actually got the idea from zero who told me he made good gains with RE bench.

 

[BAS_FAN]

I'm in the same boat as you Klotz. I have a 275 bench and I weigh 210. i hope to surpass 300 very soon. Wanna race? Wanna bet?

i'm hoping to get 315lbs in about 2 weeks. I'd join the race but i think you guys would eventually kill me because i'm only 170lbs BW. But then again, a 315lbs bench @ 170lbsBW is pretty good i think.

 

[chia]

One light day, one heavy day. Light day doesn't have to mean "RE" or "DE" in their true technical definitions, but just a moderate load for moderate reps (ie. 5x5 working up to around 75%) but every rep should be done with effort to move the bar as fast as possible. Heavy day should work up to a 1-3 rep max (you can cycle it between 3, 2, and 1 so every three weeks you are trying to set a new PR). I'm a believer in paused reps and I'd recommend doing them as much as possible, but you could also just do them on the light bench day and do touch and go on the heavy day. I'd also throw in some high rep DB rows to put more mass on the upper back and maybe another tricep exercise.

 

[Vedic]

Best advice I ever got about imprving my bench. "don't bench" Dips, incline, DB neutral grip presses, SOHP, etc etc.

 

[vince89]

Best advice I ever got about imprving my bench. "don't bench" Dips, incline, DB neutral grip presses, SOHP, etc etc.

Self-owned.