Road to Relentless: Programming My Bench Press

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In the sport of power-lifting there are three competitive lifts: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Over the past few years I've found that I could pretty much do anything and my squat and deadlift would get stronger. Part of this, I think is because they're movements that utilize such gigantic muscles. Look at the size of your quads compared to your triceps. There's simple more muscle to move more weight. The bench press, however, has been a tricky fella for me.

A short history of my programming for the bench:

• Starting Strength. 3 sets of 5 reps.
  A linear progression program, where you increase the weight every day you lift.
• Westside variation: two days of benching: 
• • "Max effort day" working up to  1 set of 3-5 reps.
  •  "Repetition effort day" - 3 sets of as many reps as possible.
• Smolov Jr. A Russian program where you move from 6 sets of 6 to 10 sets of 3, increasing the weight each week.
• Two-a-Day, once a week.
• • Morning: Heavy bench, Several sets of 3 reps
  • Evening: Light-to-Mid weight incline bench
• Strong-15
• • 5-4-3-2-1-1-1 Over warm-ups, dropping back for 3-5 sets of 5
• Current-Era
• • 3 x 3 at 80-85% of my 1 rep max, 5 x 5 at 65-70% of my 1 rep max.

AN ASIDE

Are you keeping a gym log? If you're not, you should start keeping a gym log. For the vast majority of the population, it doesn't really matter what you do, so long as you are consistent in doing something. Keeping a gym log will, in no particular order:

• Keep you on task. Even if you don't have your workouts pre-programmed, simply writing them down as you go will help you to stay focused.
• Keep you honest. You'll be able to see exactly what you have done. No more relying on faulty memory
• Keep you motivated. By seeing the progress you've made you'll stay more motivated. Or, if you're not making any progress, you'll be better equipped to figure out why.
• Gives you something to show off. To yourself, to others. It doesn't matter. Your fitness is something to be proud of

I used to use those Compsition Books. A notebook can be fantastic, as with a pen and paper you're not constrained to any style of notes. But I found I'd end up tossing them around a bit and they were getting kind of ratty. Plus I didn't like having to have a pen or pencil with me. Today I'm using my phone to keep notes. My favorite app for this is Fitnotes (android).

IF YOU'RE NOT KEEPING A GYM LOG, DO IT.

You'll be stronger for it, I promise.

As I've reviewed my bench pressing through the years, a few things have stood out:

1. The most progress I've ever made on my bench press has been when it was programmed with Smolov Jr., a system characterized by MASSIVE volume. 
2. Perhaps more than any other lift, my bench is STRONGLY correlated with consistency. Any time I've taken time off from regular lifting, the bench press has regressed more than any other lift. I've come back from a month and a half off only to squat 350+ on my first day back. Took two weeks off from benching and my endurance and poundage decreased dramatically. 
3. The muscles involved in benching (triceps, pectorals, shoulders) recover quite a bit faster than those involved in the squat and deadlift. 
4. Heavy singles and doubles don't seem to progress my bench like they do squats and deads
5. Either most assistance work (a massive blog post in and of itself, I think) doesn't carry-over well to the bench press -- or -- I'm doing my assistance work wrong. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I feel that there's a gradient between volume and intensity with the lifts:

INTENSITY Volume	Intensity Volume	intensity VOLUME
Deadlift	Squat	Bench

Now, I could program Smolov again if I wanted to see some massive gains in my bench (50# last time), but I don't think I will. Perhaps if I were only concerned about increasing my bench press, because the kind of intensity and volume characterized by these programs will tax your ability to recover like no other. And make no mistake, your ability to recover is what gets you strong. It needs to be exercised just like any other muscle, and it's quite possible to over-do it.

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Lately I've come to understand recovery and preparation for a meet like this: you build a broad base for recover through volume. Keep the intensities reasonable: 70-85%, pump up the volume and you'll build your strength and recover base. When meet time comes around you start tapering off the volume and bump up the intensity. Now you're no longer doing the volume you used to. Instead you're fine tuning your strength and technique, using that ability to recover you just built up to push you into prime shape.

Smolov is notorious for having unsustainable gains, something I certainly noticed when I ran the program. Were I to run it again I would almost certainly see a drop off (or at least a stagnation) of my squat and deadlifts. Instead I will take advantage of the recover rate of the lift to run it at least twice a week. I was doing one day bench, one day incline until last week when I switched both to bench. I felt a noticeable increase in bar-speed and was able to add another few reps in by just making that single switch.  My lifting schedule now:

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sa	Sun
Exercise	Squat	Bench	Recovery	Bench	Deadlift	Recovery	Rest

I'll be keeping with the 5x5 + 3x3 combination. Combined with the twice-a-week it provides a good amount of volume while keeping the weights heavy. While I think it's important to not work at your one-rep max so you can recover better, it's equally as important to stay used to heavy weights. I'll progress by moving my 3 x 3 weight to 5 x 5, and my 5 x 5 weight to 8 x 8 . When I've arrived there, I'll increase the weights. This is called a double progression, and it might look something like this:

Week	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Lift	185 x 5 x 5 225 x 3 x 3	185 x 6 x 6 225 x 4 x 2 225 x 3 x 2	185 x 7 x 7 225 x 4 x 4	185 x 8 x 8 225 x 5 x 4	185 x 8 x 8 225 x 5 x 5	225 x 5 x 5 265 x 3 x 1 265 x 2 x 2	225 x 6 x 6 265 x 3 x 3

and so on and so forth. Increase the rep x set goals, then increase the weight. Every once in a while, on a day I'm feeling +10%, I'll probably through in a set of as many reps as possible at 135 or 185.