Bringing Up Your Bench Press (Frequency, Intensity, Volume, Exercise Selection)

Yes, yes, I know another “How to Bench Press More!” article. Add it to the thousands already floating around the internet in 2019 – some beneficial, many more are simply click bait.

Hoping you’ll find this article leans towards the former!

This particular “check list” of to-do’s is not necessarily meant to be the Final Word on Bench Press programming. But, as I often do, I tend to write about topics and practices that I’m currently having success with whether it be personally – or more often – in the role of a coach working with my clients at the gym or online.

Frequency

It’s currently in vogue to Bench Press with a pretty high frequency, often 3 days per week, or even as many as 4 days per week. Obviously this can work as many lifters are finding success with the high frequency approach. The main drawback to this approach is you really need to be able to dial in your per session volumes and intensities as the margins for error decrease as frequency goes up. I don’t program this way as a coach or a lifter so I can’t really advise beyond that.

I personally have found my best results from a twice per week frequency on the Bench Press.

In 2010 my best Bench Pressing came from a simple twice weekly program using a 4-day Texas Method type split.

The first session of the week was a simple 5 x 5 volume approach. I generally followed the 5×5 Benching with 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps of Weighted Dips. Later in the week I would Bench for 5 singles across. I alternated the singles workouts between regular Paused Bench Presses and Dead-Stop Rack Bench Presses – each rep starting from the bottom from a Dead Stop. I followed this up with a high volume of strict shoulder presses and lots of tricep work.

The end result was a 380-lb strict paused bench at a body weight of 192 lbs. Nothing elite by any stretch, but it was a N.A.S.A. state record for a few weeks I think! A few weeks later I hit 405 in the now defunct Asylum Gym when my body weight crept back up to about 210-215. Sadly – that was my one and only 405 Bench Press! But since then I’ve been able to maintain a consistent ability to hit around 385 on the bench with a variety of different types of programming, benching just 1-2 days per week.

I’m a fan of hitting a fairly high volume of assistance work to compliment your Bench Press training and that is another reason I like just training your Bench two times per week. Most assistance work needs to be taken to, or at least very close to, failure for multiple sets in order to induce the hypertrophy response we want from it. If you are taking lots of sets to failure you will have to reduce frequency to 1-2 times per week in most instances. If you think you’ll respond better to benching 3-4 times per week, my suggestion is to severely limit the number of sets you take to failure on any major compound exercises or higher stress assistance work.

Cycling Intensity Every Week

The program I outlined above is not really a sustainable long term program although I would still recommend it to certain lifters for a short period of time prior to a testing date or meet. Pushing the heavy 5x5s combined with singles across is a really powerful stimulus, but it will run it’s course pretty quickly.

The one thing I do like about the above approach however is alteration at each training session between volume and intensity. I think most lifters do best when they feel something heavy in their hands once per week. However, the nature of “heavy” can change on a weekly basis.

In fact, I’d argue it SHOULD change on a weekly basis.

It’s a rare thing indeed to find me programming anything anymore that is not cyclical in nature. For a more basic intermediate program, like the one we just got done running in my online coaching group with the Garage Gym Group, we cycled each heavy bench press session between a heavy triple, double, or single. This works good for less experienced lifters, lifters who have limited equipment access, and lifters who simply prefer simple and basic. Combining this approach with a volume session on an alternate day of the week, we had a lot of PRs each week.

If I’m not cycling rep ranges for an exercise then I tend to cycle exercises. This is the basis of the conjugate method popularized by Westside Barbell and Louie Simmons, but now used in many many strength programs around the world. This is the system we are currently running in my online coaching group with the Power Building Group. What I generally do here is work through a rotation of maybe 6 Bench Press variations, and each time we have a heavy Bench Press session, we take one of the variations up to a 1-rep max for the day and then follow with a few back off sets. You can also work in variations of the Press if you want to split focus between benching and overhead pressing.

What I generally recommend is something like this if you are focused on the Bench Press:

Competition Bench Press – alternate between touch n go & paused
Change Angle – Incline or Decline (I hate declines, but you can use them if you want). Inclines are good between 30-60 degrees
Change Grip – use a close grip bench press with index fingers 16″ apart
Perform a partial – floor press, pin press, 1-2 board press, etc
Use a specialty bar – cambered bar, football bar, axle bar, buffalo bar, etc
Use accommodating resistance – bands or chains

So that is a 6 week rotation, but honestly if you used all the permutations available for each ‘category’ you have an almost infinite amount of variations you can use. The point of the Max Effort session is basically to strain hard against a heavy weight for a few heavy singles at or above 90%. You want to try and set a new PR if possible on a given variation, but it isn’t necessarily a requirement each week. By switching exercises we assure we don’t burn out and can condition the body to go heavy every week.

Which ever form of cycling you prefer…..go heavy. Go heavy often. But don’t repeat the same sets / reps / weight / exercise every week.

Two Weekly Volume Sessions

The volume work on the Bench Press or it’s close variations is performed twice per week for most clients, but the nature of each volume session is different. After the max effort exercise singles I like to perform some back off sets of that variation for about 10-20 total reps in the 75-85% range. So this is our heavier volume work.

Later in the week I like a lighter volume session focused on speed, often with the use of light mini bands. Speed work is done with about 40-60% of bar weight plus the addition of light bands. If no bands are used then we might up the percentages to 60-75% with straight weight. I find this is optimal bar speed for most lifters. The weight needs to move fast. But you should have to work to make it move fast. Speed work is done with 6-12 sets of 2-3 reps on about a 60-90 second rest, although we’ve done up to 15-16 sets and recovered fine. Many lifters get faster as they go between each set and in that case we may add sets to take advantage of the speed increases.

Having two different types of volume sessions in our week allows us to train volume HARD twice per week without overtraining.

Adding Assistance

The Bench Press responds well to the addition of assistance exercises. On your heavy Bench Press session – pick an exercise to blast the pecs and go to town with 3-5 sets with reps in the 8-15 range. I like a mix of Dumbbell Bench Presses, Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses, Decline Dumbbell Bench Presses (I only hate the barbell version!), and Dips (pick one exercise per session – not all in same session).

After you hit the chest, follow up some work for the lats and rear delts. Having a bigger back helps tremendously on the Bench Press.

On your Speed Bench Day, follow up with a high volume of work for the delts and triceps. Do a bunch of barbell or dumbbell presses, and 1-2 tricep extension movements: lying tricep extensions with dumbbells or barbells, overhead tricep extensions with barbell or dumbbells, cable pressdowns, or more dips, etc, etc.

Of course there is 101 ways to arrange assistance work so do whatever suits you best. But don’t avoid it if your Bench Press is stuck.

Example Week

Monday – Intensity Bench Press