A BIG STRONG CHEST
A Guide To Increase Your Bench And Have A Bigger Chest
Disclaimer
This ebook has been written to provide information to help you develop strength and build a big strong chest. Every effort has been made to make this information as complete and accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes in typography or content.
Also, this report contains information on how to develop strength and build a big strong chest only up to the publishing date.
Therefore, this ebook should be used as a guide – not as the ultimate source of information on the topic.
The purpose of this ebook is to educate. The author does not warrant that the information contained in this ebook is fully complete and shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions.
The author shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this ebook.
About the Author
Gabriel Ferrchv was born in Mexico and moved to the United States when he was only seven years old. During high school, doctors discovered he had weak joints and bones, and told him he would be unable to compete in any sports that involved running or jumping. Undeterred, Gabriel fell in love with bodybuilding and the fitness lifestyle.
Now, Gabriel is a personal trainer, certified nutrition specialist, and entrepreneur with a passion for helping people overcome their own obstacles and achieve their fitness and nutrition goals.
Table of Contents
• Introduction Why the Bench Press
• Secret #1: Pump Yourself Up
• Secret #2: Pay Attention to Form
• Secret #3: Lift Explosively
• Secret #4: Give Your Bench Priority
• Secret #5: Feed Your Muscles
• Secret #6: Know How to Breathe
• Secret #7: Get a Good Spotter
• Conclusion
Your Long-term Bench Press Goals…
Introduction
Why the Bench Press
“How much do you bench?”
It’s the one question that you always hear around the gym. In fact, as soon as anyone learns you work out, they are probably going to pop that question. No other single exercise is more frequently talked about.
How well you perform this one exercise can earn you bragging rights, respect, and a reputation. But performing well on the bench press isn’t just about stroking your ego. It is actually one of the best measures of overall upper body strength there is.
The bench press is also great foundational exercise for building muscle mass and developing upper body strength. Even though it is widely considered a “chest” exercise, it also involves much more of your upper body. When you bench press with proper form, you are working your shoulders, triceps, forearms, lats, and pecs, traps, rhomboids, and pretty much every muscle in your upper body. However, like most complex exercises, the bench press also works your lower back, hips, legs and core muscles.
While the bench press may target your chest muscles it really is a full body workout. Think about it for just a minute. When you are benching, your body isn’t just lying on the bench limp like a dead fish. If you are doing it properly, your whole body is engaged – your shoulders are pinched, your back, hips, and legs are tight, and every muscle you have is working to stabilize the weight and create a solid base to help you generate the power to push the barbell.
If you want a killer physique that turns heads and commands respect, you’re going to need to do some bench press to get it.
But it really doesn’t matter how chiseled your chest or how well-defined your triceps if you don’t have the strength to back it up. If you aren’t also strong, those muscles are only good for one thing, and that’s to look at.
Having a big bench press is like a badge of honor. It will get you attention and respect, not just at the gym, but in every area of your life. It is a way to measure your strength against that of your buddies, and the strongest guy is usually the most respected.
Having a big bench is also an indicator of how strong and fit you are. There is a reason that college football coaches want to know how much their players can bench. That weight is a general indication of the strength and fitness level of their players.
And if that isn’t enough to convince you that you need to increase the amount of weight that you can bench press, here’s something else. Increasing the amount of weight you can bench press will increase your muscle mass.
As you keep adding more and more weight to the barbell, your body will have to add more muscle to handle the increasing stress of lifting the weight. The more you lift, the larger your muscles become.
Also, intense weight training with compound exercises like the bench press causes your body to release anabolic hormones, like testosterone and human growth hormone, into your bloodstream.
These hormones help your body pack on those head-turning muscles.
If you want to maximize your results in the least amount of time, you have to incorporate compound exercises like the bench press into your exercise routine, because they cause you to use ALL of your muscles simultaneously. And since there is no single upper body exercise that involves more muscles than the bench press, focusing on this exercise is a guaranteed way to get an intense workout for your whole body.
Secret #1
Pump Yourself Up
If you want to have big muscles and functional strength, you need to lift big weights. Your muscles grow in response to physical stress. Lifting heavy weights stresses your muscles and causes muscle growth When you lift heavy, it traumatizes the muscle cells. Other cells are triggered by the trauma and rush in to repair the damaged muscle cells. These new cells fuse with your existing muscle cells to increase the size of the muscle. When you stress your muscles by lifting heavy weights, your muscle fibers also go into a state of repair by forming new protein strands which make them thicker, bigger, and stronger.
Lifting heavy is the fastest way to grow big muscles. To create the kind of trauma to the muscle cells to stimulate the growth process, heavy weights work best.
But lifting heavy is a bit of a mental game. It’s easy to look at the number of heavy plates stacked on each end of a barbell and think, “There’s no way I can lift all of that.” By doing this, you convince yourself of failure without even trying to succeed. Your subconscious mind always believes what you tell it.
It is easy to psych yourself out when it comes to increasing your bench press. The good news is that it’s also possible to psych yourself up.
A study of elite rugby players completed by the Auckland University of Technology found that when the subjects pumped themselves up for a bench press set, they were actually able to increase force production by an average of 8 percent. This same study found that distraction significantly decreased the subjects’ ability to bench press. There was a full 12 percent difference in force production between the lifters who pumped themselves up and the lifters who were distracted.
What the AUT study proves is that focus and concentration, and a good psyching up, can significantly increase your bench press, and the results are immediate. And the more weight you bench, the stronger and larger your muscles become.
You don’t need to stomp around the gym shouting affirmations to get a good pump. That just scares the ladies on the treadmills and might even get you tossed from the gym. Instead, find the right workout songs and add them to your iPod. Listen to whatever makes you feel confident and motivated.
Avoid distractions while you’re training, too. While it might be tempting to chat with your buddies, check out the ladies, or answer that text from your sister, resist. When you focus on the task at hand – completing a heavy bench press – you’re more likely to get it done.
Also, learn to think positively. Tell yourself that you can lift those weights. If you believe you can, you’re already halfway to accomplishing your goal. Before you grab the bar, focus on the lift and visualize yourself performing it with good form and confidence. This may sound silly, but it is backed by scientific research. A 2012 study conducted by researchers at California
State University showed that visualization increased the likelihood of performance success specifically when it comes to strength training.
Secret #2
Pay Attention to Form
It might seem counter-productive, but in order to increase your bench, you shouldn’t focus on how much weight you put on the bar. Instead, you need to focus on form.
To improve your bench press, and potentially see an immediate increase, you need to think like an athlete, not a bodybuilder. You don’t just need to strengthen your muscles or stack on more weight plates. You need to also focus on the skill of bench pressing.
As your form improves and becomes more effective, your bench press strength will increase as well. Think of it this way: when all the parts of your body are aligned and working together, it optimizes your performance and allows you to push more weight with less effort.
Proper form has you moving the bar over the shortest distance from the middle of your chest to your shoulders. The shorter the distance you have to move the bar, the easier it is to complete the motion. Proper form also improves the transfer of force from your chest and shoulder muscles to your arms and then to the bar. It improves stability and balance. All of these things help to increase the amount of weight you can effectively bench.
Another perk to using good bench press form is that it helps to prevent injury. Bench pressing with poor form or a bad grip can stress joints like your wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Bad injuries keep us out of the gym, so preventing them is necessary for achieving a killer physique.
So, let’s focus on the mechanics of the bench press. Don’t be afraid to practice proper form and technique at a lower weight or even with an empty bar. You might feel like the other muscle heads will be judging you, but it is you who will be laughing when your practice results in a major bench press increase.
Just by practicing these basic techniques, you can increase your bench weight significantly.
• Widen Your Grip – Remember that the less distance the bar has to travel, the easier it is to lift. It’s simple physics. By widening your grip on the bar, you shorten the distance the weight has to travel. Even just a little bit can make a big difference. To get an idea of how wide to grip the bar, position your hands in what you would consider a normal push-up position and then bump your hands out just a bit wider.
• Squeeze Your Shoulders – Another way to reduce the distance the bar has to travel is to squeeze your shoulder blades together. Your shoulders should be well retracted and actively push your body into the bench through the whole movement of the exercise. This will also give you a more stable surface to press from.
• Arch Your Back and Raise Your Chest – Your back shouldn’t be flat on the bench. While your buttocks, shoulders, and head should all be in contact with the bench through the entire motion, it is okay to arch your back and raise your chest toward the ceiling as this also shortens the distance the bar has to travel. If this doesn’t feel natural, try placing a rolled-up towel under your lower back for a little extra support.
• Keep Your Feet on the Floor – Not only should your feet remain flat on the floor when you bench press, but your legs should also be engaged in the exercise. Don’t flail around or stomp your feet as you bench. This only robs you of power.
Keep your feet flat and push through with your heels to generate more power and lift that extra weight. Also, keep your feet directly under your knees just like you would when performing a squat.
• Keep Your Wrists Straight – You lose strength when you bend your wrists. Grip the bar low so that your wrists don’t kink or bend. Your arms should form a straight line that is vertical to the floor from elbows through your forearms and wrists. This will help you push the bar with more power as well as prevent wrist injury.
Don’t be surprised if your back, chest shoulders, and triceps feel sore the following day. This just means that you’re doing it right.
The bench press truly is a full body exercise.
Secret #3
Lift Explosively
It probably isn’t uncommon to see some of your gym buddies grinding out their bench press with a slow and deliberate motion.
Many people believe that slowing down your reps improves performance and causes more muscle stress. Since we’ve already established that muscle stress causes muscle growth, it would seem like a slow-motion bench press would result in better gains.
However, science says otherwise.
A study conducted in 2011 by the Ithaca College School of Health Science and Human Performance found fast explosive repetitions resulted in greater power output and more repetitions of heavy weights. So if you want to push more weight in your bench press, think about pushing explosively.
When using an explosive movement, you incorporate more help for the primary muscles from assisting muscles. Also, by using explosive power, it will help you blast through your sticking points.
Lifting heavy weights with the intention of being explosive will also help the weights to feel lighter, which is great for your mental lifting game. When confronted with heavy iron, your mental lifting game needs to be on point.
Lowering the bar quickly and then, without pausing at the bottom, exploding it quickly upward will not only make you more effective at benching your current weight, it will also result in greater power gains over time.
Just be careful. It is easier to lose form when executing fast-paced repetitions. You never want to bounce the bar off of your chest at the bottom of the motion. Not only is this “cheating”, it is also potentially painful as you increase the amount of weight on either side of the bar.
It can also be tempting to just drop the weight toward your body on the descent. If you do this, you’re missing an important part of the exercise and cheating yourself out of potential muscle growth.
Even when the motion is quick, it should be deliberate and your muscles should be engaged through the entire movement. It should almost feel as if you are pulling the bar back toward you rather than just allowing it to fall. Make sure that you are in control of the descent, not gravity.
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Secret #4
Give Your Bench Priority
If you are feeling stuck when it comes to improving your bench press, take a look at where it is in your workout routine. If you are spending the beginning part of your workout, when you are fresh and energized, on isolation movements that target specific muscles, you are doing a disservice to your bench press.
If you find yourself puttering around the gym, starting with some targeted dumbbell work, then maybe moving on to some bodyweight dips, and then finally getting around to your bench press, you’re doing it backward.
If you want to make progress, start your chest workouts with the bench press. A 2013 Portuguese study and a Brazilian study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine in 2009 focused on exercise order, strength, and muscle development.
Both studies concluded that for optimal gains in both strength and muscle size, exercises that engage large muscle groups and multi-joint movements such the bench press, military press, and squats should be performed before small muscle group exercises, such as bicep curls and triceps extensions.
It should make sense that if you want to lift more weight, you should attack it while your body is fresh, right after your warm-up.
But this also makes sense if you’re trying to whip your body into killer shape.
For best results both in strength and physique, move your bench press to the beginning of your workout. After you’ve reached failure, move on to exercises that specifically target your assistance muscles. Finish up your upper body workout with more isolation-type exercises such as dips, dumbbell rows, and lateral raises.
Besides, I doubt any of your buddies have ever asked you how much weight you can cable shrug. If bench pressing is your priority, and it definitely should be, then you need to give it a place of priority in your workout.
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Secret #5
Feed Your Muscles
In order for your body to move, whether pushing iron or walking across the room, it needs energy to complete the task. People who are trying to lose weight by burning fat, are often told to work out first thing in the morning before eating breakfast. This is because your body will burn more fat on an empty stomach.
But if your goal is to increase strength and improve your bench press, your body needs fuel to accomplish that. Even if you want to get rid of that extra layer of fat that conceals your six-pack, you really shouldn’t be concerned with burning fat during your weight training workouts.
Instead, you need to be fuelled for an intensity so you can do enough damage to the muscle tissue during your workout. Then after your workout, your body can work on repairing the damaged tissue and in doing so increase muscle size and strength. During this rebuilding process, your body will naturally burn through some of your fat stores after your workout.
In order to provide your body with the fuel it needs to bring a high level of intensity to your bench press workout, you should be eating a full meal about an hour before you hit the gym. If this isn’t possible, a pre-workout shake will usually do the trick.
If you find that you’ve hit a plateau with your bench press and you just can’t seem to bust through that sticking point, take a look at your diet. Make sure that you are getting protein, carbohydrates, and fat to keep your body performing in peak condition.
One mistake that people often make as they develop mass is forgetting to reevaluate their nutrition or make adjustments for gains. If you calculated the number of calories and the amount of protein you needed when you weighed in at 180, but haven’t recalculated for recent gains, your body may not be getting the fuel it needs to progress.
If you have packed on muscle, you need to adjust your daily nutrition to fuel the extra calories your body needs to maintain your muscle gains. Just adding 20 pounds will increase your daily caloric needs by 300 calories.
There are several equations for determining the number of calories you need to put into your body each day. All of them are based on the principle of energy balance. Energy balance occurs when the calories you consume is equal to the calories your body burns every day.
Weight loss occurs when there are fewer calories consumed than your body expends. Weight gain occurs when you consume more calories than your body expends.
There are many factors that come into play when determining how much energy your body actually needs. Some of these factors include age, sex, height, weight, activity level, and body mass index (BMI).
You want your calories to come from good quality, nutrition dense foods. When trying to increase your bench press, it is also a good idea to stay away from sugars, with the possible exception of your post-workout nutrition shake. Avoid junk food and fast food. If you want to perform well, your body needs quality fuel.
It is also important to make sure that your body stays well hydrated. Drinking a lot of water helps your body use the food you eat. It also aids in the body’s absorption of important muscle-building vitamins and minerals.
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Secret #6
Know How to Breathe
Every living person knows how to breathe. You’ve been doing it, with probably only a few brief exceptions, for your entire life, since just seconds after you were born. However, some people get on the bench and they seem to forget how to do it.
Breathing is important, even when you are attempting bench press. Perhaps it is more appropriate to say, especially when you are attempting to bench press. How you breathe during a max bench can mean the difference between success and failure.
As you take the bar from the rack, your lungs should be full. If you hold your breath momentarily during this initial part of the bench press, it will help alleviate that initial crushing feeling that frequently precedes a super heavy bench.
Holding your breath, or pausing before the exhale, is important for maintaining the intra-abdominal pressure that you need to get the bar up off your chest. You want to hold your breath until you are just through the sticking point to create a firm structure from which to propel your pushing force. If you feel like you must exhale, breathe out after you’re past the sticking point and as you extend your arms.
Make sure you don’t inhale too early as you begin to lower the bar. Too much time between the inhalation and the exhalation after the sticking point can be not only uncomfortable, but can also cause minor hypoxia, or a shortage of oxygen in the muscle cells.
Timing the breathing can be a little tricky if you aren’t accustomed to breathing so deliberately. You can practice breathing in the same way you practice form, by consciously synchronizing your breathing with the movements while lifting an empty or lightly-weighted bar. While the other brawny benchers at your gym maylook at you funny, practicing with little to no weight will help you focus on technique rather that weight and effort. Then once you’ve mastered the technique, you’ll be busting through your bench plateaus like nobody’s business.
Secret #7
Get a Good Spotter
Do not underestimate the importance of a tight mental game when it comes to successful bench pressing. If your mind, even subconsciously, thinks that you are in danger, it will start working to shut down your body. You can tell yourself it doesn’t matter, that you don’t really care, but your mind knows better, especially after it’s had a good look at all those big heavy plates on either end of the bar.
Training with a spotter will alleviate your mind’s fear of failure (and potentially being crushed) and allow you to concentrate and work at your true level of potential.
A spotter isn’t just handy for saving you from being crushed by the bar, but he can also help you get started with a hand-off of the bar. This will help you better maintain tension through your upper back and allow you to push more weight.
Having a spotter isn’t cheating. He isn’t there to lift the weight for you, but rather to support proper form and maintain safety as you struggle through lifting. They are just a safety net in case you get into trouble. Think of lifting with a spotter like fastening your seatbelt before you go for a drive on the highway.
When using a spotter for your bench press, have him stand behind you. Your spotter should allow you to struggle through your sticky spot and not jump in to bail you out too quickly. If a little extra help is needed to get the bar through the sticky spot, have your spotter just touch the bar with fingertips of open palms.
Surprisingly, this is often all the assistance that is needed for you to lift through.
If your spotter needs to pull the bar for you (or off of you in an extreme circumstance) when using heavier weights, a reverse grip with one overhand and one underhand will provide a solid and secure grip.
It is always important to communicate with your spotter before you begin to lift as well as while you are lifting. Tell them how many reps you plan to complete. Agree on how much help you want and a signal to communicate when you really need help.
While it is better to develop a relationship with a regular spotter, don’t be afraid to ask some random gym dude in a pinch. Make your safety a priority over your ego. Besides, with the psychological reassurance that benching with a spotter provides, you might just impress him with your bench press powers.
Conclusion
Meet Your Long-term Bench Press Goals
If you aren’t focusing on your bench press, you are missing out on a ton of muscle size and strength that could be yours. While the techniques discussed above will help you see immediate gains in your bench press, but if you want to see big gains over time, you’re going to have to do more.
If you find that you are struggling with the bench press, or you just aren’t lifting the kind of weight that you dream about, the newly revised and bestselling program, The Muscle gaining Secrets 2.0 will get you there.
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