For the “short of it” just read the bold. For the “long of it”, get some coffee and read extra at your own peril.
A few things:
- I needed to do more full range pressing
I followed the Westside Template for about 3 years off and on, 2 years religiously. I read every article I could from Louie Simmons and on elitefts.com. To sum up, they said, “the shoulders will take care of themselves” or “I have never seen weak shoulders as a weakpoint” or “being weak off the chest is usually a case of weak lats, slow barspeed, or the bar is too heavy”. I knew these things weren’t my problem. Of course, obviously those guys would also tell me to EAT, GET BIGGER, etc.
Then there is the “more benching won’t make your bench better”. So I didn’t do Max Effort flat bench presses, unless I was testing a max, which was about every 8 weeks.
Also, I didn’t want to increase size so much so I feared the bodybuilding assistance work. I ended up never doing a press for assistance work, except every now and then, maybe for 3-4 sets a week. Even when I did, I had another problem. (see 2)
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I needed more Time Under Tension/“Volume”
This has to do more with rep speed then actually increasing sets or reps.
When I did my assistance work with “big” lifts (presses and rows/pullups), I would do them FAST. I would finish a set of 8 of DB presses in about 10 seconds. 3 sets of this would be 30 seconds of total time. I guess, at least for me, this is not enough time to strengthen the muscles.
Now, I do all my assistance presses with a controlled eccentric tempo, maybe a slight pause at the bottom, and press up with whatever speed (though, when I do high rep DB presses or rep out on another press I just do it as fast as possible). I’m pretty sure that now, one set of 8 is 20-30 seconds as I’ve timed it but I forget right now. As long as I hit the reps, and stay controlled, I’m good with it.
On Sunday, one of the 2 “light” days for my shoulders, I do floor presses up to a heavy set of 8 staying controlled for the whole set. If I can do another set I will, if not, I will drop down 10-20 pounds and do another set or two. Eventually, I try to do up to 5 sets with the top weight as the mesocycle continues.
I also chose floor press, so as to work a “part” of the bench and have it still be a “movement”. Floor press would address the top half. For the bottom half, I would do dips usually or just incline presses. I don’t go nearly as hard on this 2nd exercise. I don’t even do it every time, especially if I can’t do the 8 reps on every set of my floor press.
On Friday, I do speed bench first. I was already a fast presser but DE bench with bands or chains helps my lockout more than anything. It also helps my SPP for basketball (dribbling and passing), due to the RFD developed in the shoulder/tricep musculature. After this I rep out with DBs and do 5 minutes between sets. This is another Westside innovation though slightly modified. I used to go to failure on some sets of these but now, I just try to gets some DBs that I can hit 3x10 with, and then get that to 3x15 over the next few weeks (week1 3x10, week2 3x12, week3 3x15). Once I hit 3x15, I go up 5 pounds and try to do the 3x10 again.
Since I’ve talked about my split, I’ll just outline slightly:
Monday (assistance presses) - 1. Floor press 1-5x8 2. Dips/Incline 3x8-12
Wednesday (ME workout) 1. Flat Bench Press (See 3 for loading)
Friday (DE bench and High Rep DBs) 1. DE flat bench 6-10x3 2. DB presses 3x10-15 (fast rep speed) with 5 minute rest between sets
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I needed to do more reps @ or above 85-90% Again, after reading the old Simmons/elitefts articles, I was stuck on the “break a record every week”, “work up to 90%, then a record. Then do assistance. If you miss, go to assistance.”
So as it worked out, I’d only be getting 2 lifts @ or above 85-90%. Prilipin has the minimum of 3 lifts. So in the last year, influenced by Jim Wendler articles and Q/A posts, I did more submaximal ME workouts using Prilipin’s chart as a guide.
Nowadays I do:
Week1- 85% 6x2 or 4x3
Week2- 90% 6x1 or 3x2
Week3- test max 1RM or 3RM
Week4 (deload)- rep out 225 or wide grip rep out or just nothing
- ?I needed to do more actual flat bench press for ME work?
I’m not entirely sure if this is a big factor, due to the other changes I’ve made in my assistance work. But I do know that I have done solely flat bench press for a few months, and my bench has kept going up. I used to do floor press, reverse band, incline press, and 2-3 board presses. All of these exercises’ records were greater than my bench press record, except for incline press, which was the same.
- DO 1-4 AT THE SAME TIME!
With all the experimenting and jumping around I did, I had spurts where my bench would increase or some component would increase, but another component would get worse. Once I brought all of these together is when things really took off.
It’s kinda funny that I was injured/rehabbing for 15+ of those 36 months (avulsed lesser trochanter which -> osteitis pubis, and also a possible torn adductor. MRI not done until 8 months post injury), and all I did was concentrate on bench, and improved hardly anything. Now that I can run and jump and ball again, I don’t even care about bench and VABOOM. Its just all about finding what works for you.