2507: Six Steps to a 315 Pound Bench Press

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - Episode 2507 Summary

Title: Six Steps to a 315 Pound Bench Press
Release Date: January 9, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Introduction

In episode 2507 of "Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth," hosts Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews delve deep into the methodology required to achieve a formidable 315-pound bench press. Drawing from their combined expertise and personal experiences, they outline six actionable steps designed to elevate one's bench press performance effectively and safely.

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1. Mastering Bench Press Technique

Timestamp: [04:04]
Sal Di Stefano: "The bench press, when done properly, is a full-body exercise. It isn't just an upper body exercise."

The hosts emphasize that proper bench press technique is foundational. Contrary to popular belief, the bench press engages the entire body, not just the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Sal highlights the importance of a strong arch in the back and the activation of the lats to create a stable base, which not only enhances performance but also minimizes the risk of shoulder injuries.

Justin Andrews: "[...] mastering the technique is the first one. And this makes such a big difference."

Sal adds that even seasoned lifters can notice significant strength gains by refining their technique, underscoring that technique mastery can add an immediate 10 to 15 pounds to one's bench press.

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2. Increasing Frequency: Bench Pressing Twice a Week

Timestamp: [15:24]
Justin Andrews: "I clearly remember [...] bench pressing twice a week became a huge like shift in, like my ability to bench press."

Transitioning from a lower frequency to bench pressing twice a week is recommended to enhance strength gains. This approach includes alternating between heavy days, focusing on low-rep strength training, and speed days, which emphasize explosive movements with lighter weights. This balance ensures progressive overload while allowing adequate recovery.

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3. Incorporating Speed Days for Explosive Power

Timestamp: [16:05]
Sal Di Stefano: "The next day is what's known as a speed day."

Speed days involve lifting lighter weights explosively to improve bar speed and overall power. By practicing rapid acceleration during these sessions, lifters can overcome plateaus and enhance their ability to recruit more muscle fibers during the bench press.

Justin Andrews: "Speed power is the greatest expression of strength and it also does less damage than the heavy loading."

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4. Enhancing Shoulder Mobility and Stability

Timestamp: [18:09]
Sal Di Stefano: "Shoulder mobility issues, shoulder pain instability. It is the number one killer of people's bench presses, period."

Shoulder mobility and stability are critical for a successful bench press. Weak stabilizer muscles can hinder progress and increase injury risk. The hosts recommend daily shoulder mobility exercises, such as using a shoulder horn for external rotations, overhead holds, face pulls, and suspension trainer dislocates, to strengthen the rotator cuffs and scapular stabilizers.

Justin Andrews: "If you can handle nearly four times the load on the eccentric portion of a movement. [...] resistance training plays a huge role."

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5. Nutrition: Eating in a Calorie Surplus with High Protein Intake

Timestamp: [24:04]
Sal Di Stefano: "You got to eat in a calorie surplus and eat a high protein diet."

Achieving a 315-pound bench press requires not only physical training but also proper nutrition. Consuming a calorie surplus provides the necessary energy and building blocks for muscle growth, while a high protein intake supports muscle repair and hypertrophy. The hosts caution against merely increasing calories without adequate protein, as it can lead to suboptimal strength gains.

Justin Andrews: "Hitting your protein intake, a high protein intake and a calorie surplus, while good programming and doing things will certainly send you in the right direction."

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6. Strengthening the Back: Prioritizing Rowing Movements

Timestamp: [25:09]
Sal Di Stefano: "Don't neglect back work. In particular, rowing movements."

A strong back is essential for a stable and powerful bench press. Rowing exercises enhance the strength of the upper back muscles, which stabilize the scapula during pressing movements. This not only supports better bench press performance but also contributes to overall upper body strength and posture.

Justin Andrews: "If you want to increase your bench press, get a big bigger squat. [...] getting a strong back makes you stronger overall."

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Bonus Tips

a. Utilizing Isometric Pauses to Overcome Sticking Points

Timestamp: [27:15]
Sal Di Stefano: "Use isometric pauses when you're bench pressing. This is what took me to my final max bench press that I ever did in my life."

Isometric pauses involve holding the barbell at specific points during the bench press to strengthen weaker segments of the lift. By pausing above the chest or at mid-lift, lifters can train their muscles to handle and overcome sticking points, leading to increased overall bench press strength.

Justin Andrews: "This is another way that it improves CNS."

b. Emphasizing Incline Bench Press for Balanced Development

Timestamp: [29:49]
Justin Andrews: "Focus on the incline bench. It'll serve you so much more in all pursuits overall strength."

Incline bench pressing is advocated for its ability to develop the upper chest and shoulders more effectively than the flat bench. The hosts suggest prioritizing the incline bench to ensure balanced muscle development and improved bench press performance.

Sal Di Stefano: "From a muscle development standpoint, I actually prefer the incline over the flat bench."

c. Incorporating Bands and Chains for Progressive Overload

Timestamp: [32:09]
Sal Di Stefano: "They are my favorite advanced training tools for strength."

Bands and chains are advanced training tools that provide variable resistance throughout the bench press. As the lifter moves the barbell upwards, the bands or chains stretch, increasing the load and matching the lifter's natural strength curve. This progressive overload technique enhances strength and power at the top of the lift.

Justin Andrews: "It's a great way to progressively overload with weight that you can actually control."

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Conclusion

Episode 2507 of "Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth" offers a comprehensive roadmap to achieving a 315-pound bench press. By mastering technique, increasing training frequency, incorporating speed and mobility work, optimizing nutrition, strengthening supporting muscles, and utilizing advanced training tools, listeners can significantly enhance their bench press performance. The hosts provide practical advice grounded in experience and scientific principles, making this episode a valuable resource for anyone aspiring to reach new strength milestones.

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Notable Quotes:

• Sal Di Stefano [04:04]: "The bench press, when done properly, is a full-body exercise. It isn't just an upper body exercise."

• Justin Andrews [15:24]: "Bench pressing twice a week became a huge like shift in, like my ability to bench press."

• Sal Di Stefano [24:04]: "You got to eat in a calorie surplus and eat a high protein diet."

• Justin Andrews [29:49]: "Focus on the incline bench. It'll serve you so much more in all pursuits overall strength."

Transcript

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[Sal Destefano]

If you want.

[Adam Schaefer]

To pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump Mind Pump with your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews.

[Sal Destefano]

You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump. Today's episode we teach you how to get to a 315 pound bench press bench three plates. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor eight Sleep. This is the most advanced sleep system you'll find anywhere. It goes on your bed, controls the temperature of your bed. It self adjusts based on your sleep cycles. In other words, it's individualized. By the way, 8 Sleep Ships almost everywhere of course within the US, Canada, the UK, Europe and Australia. Go to our link get a discount 8 sleep.com mindpump use the code mindpump. You can get $350 off the Pod 4 Ultra. Also brand new year means we are doing our massive workout program bundle promotion. So these workout program bundles include multiple maps programs. Most of them are. All of them actually are $300 more or off. The first one is the new to weightlifting bundle. The second one is a body transformation bundle. The third one is a New Year extreme intensity bundle. And the last one is the body transformation bundle 2.0. You'll find them all at maps january.com all right, here comes the show. You want to bench press three plates. 3:15. This will make you really strong. Today's episode we're talking about the six steps that should get many of you to be able to bench press 315 pounds.

[Justin Andrews]

This is, this is a cool school because I think this is something I would have searched for absolutely in my early 20s.

[Sal Destefano]

Absolutely.

[Justin Andrews]

On the chasing this. And I think I would have got there a lot faster if I met a couple guys like you guys telling me advice like this. So hopefully the young, you know, the young guy that's listening to this that wants to or aspiring to lift £315 takes this advice and really applies it because I don't know, there's a handful of the things that we're going to go over that I don't think that I put a lot of energy and focus in until much later in my career. Same.

[Sal Destefano]

You know, first off, 315 pound bench press is a lot. So I want to be very clear. This is not like, hey, most of you are going to be able to do this. A lot of you aren't going to be able to do this. Even if you follow the six steps that we give you, however, you'll all get a lot stronger if you follow these six steps. And if you are generally pretty healthy, strong young man or male, you should get pretty close. You can get pretty close, but It's a lot. 315 bench. Not very many people can do a real good 315 pound bench press. So this is a pretty awesome goal to go after. But now we've all done that in here. But it took a long time, it took a while to hit that.

[Justin Andrews]

A lot of reps and dedication for sure. Again, for me it was a lot of the technique that I had to learn over the years that made quite a big impact.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, so, so I was almost 30.

[Justin Andrews]

You know how old you were?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, I was almost 30. When you finally hit it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I was like 28, 29.

When did I hit it?

[Sal Destefano]

Same. I want to say you were college. So you were younger. Yeah, I, you know, so it's, it's. First off, bench press is a, an excellent overall muscle building exercise. It will develop the chest, shoulders and triceps pretty well. It's up there with some of the best exercises you could do. I would definitely put it top 10, top five even. It's. It's a good exercise. It's. It's relatively functional. It's a favorite. It's lost a little bit of popularity over the last decade or so, but when we were younger, it was the exercise. Right.

[Justin Andrews]

We're going to bring it back.

I think the only reasons why it's lost popularity, and I don't even know if I'd say it's lost popularity. I think exercises that should have been more popular have become more popular.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. Like people are more aware of deadlifting, squatting.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Deadlifting and squatting was not popular when we were kids.

[Sal Destefano]

Nobody knew. Nobody even knew what a deadlift.

[Justin Andrews]

Those are the two most important.

As it should have been.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So it belongs as a more important exercise. And so I don't really know if I think chest is like fallen out of favor per se. I just think that the average consumer lifter gym bro. Has become wiser and more aware of what belongs on the top two exercises, which I think deadlifting and squatting.

[Sal Destefano]

Now, what's interesting about the bench press is when you look at the Bronze era of bodybuilding, like turn of the century, late 1800s, early 1900s, bench presses didn't exist back then. If you wanted to do something like this, you'd have to, like, get the weight up off the ground, lay down and try and press it. And it wasn't a popular exercise, so they didn't do very much of it. Then somebody invented the bench with the rack. Right. So you can lay down and unrack it. And you see this change in the physiques of bodybuilders. Right. Once you get into the silver era, this is like in the, you know, when it gets to the 40s, 30s, 40s, 50s, now bodybuilders have these really well developed pecs that didn't have before. And historians will say it was the bench press, this was the exercise that did that. And I think it was a 50s.

[Justin Andrews]

Way better look, by the way.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. In the 50s and 60s, I think is when you got, you know, some of these men were benching. 400, 500 pounds was like the biggest bench press of the day. And then it just quickly became an extremely popular exercise by the, by the 60s and 70s and it became a staple. It's a very. You said this, Justin. It is an incredibly technical exercise. I think it has to be one of the most kind of misunderstood exercises. Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

From a standpoint, from a technique standpoint, people think, oh, you lay in a bench, you just press the weight up and down. There's not a lot of technical technique involved. To do a proper bench press is very technical. In fact, it's one of the most technical traditional strength training exercises, more so than most other exercises. And because a lot of people don't realize that so many people do it wrong as a result. But make no mistake, it's very technical. The lift itself is very technical.

[Justin Andrews]

I think that that's the reason why though is because it's hard to see like what a bad. Like you could have a, a bad bench press technique wise and it not.

[Sal Destefano]

Look that average person.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, the average person walks by and sees it and goes like, oh, that looks. That's how you do it, you know.

Unless you know what to look for.

Yeah, right. If obviously if you know what to look for, then you can look at very specific things and you know, if that's a good technique.

But you know, obviously like in terms of a squat or a deadlift, like it shows up right away. Yeah, that's terrible.

Yes, you can see, you can see a really bad squat or deadlift. I think even to the average ey were bench press sometimes when you're looking at somebody which I found this I found as far as teaching exercises as a trainer, this was one of the most difficult exercises to teach.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

I actually found it easier to teach squatting and deadlifting than I did bench pressing. Took me a long time to learn how to cue it to get people to do it properly. And I think it's just because when you lay down flat on the bench, you, you already start to promote and people already rounded and forward because of.

Everything they do and relaxed because you're laying down. So there's a lot of relaxed muscles that need to be tense that they don't realize.

And I hadn't been at that point. I was already teaching, you know, the general pop how to bench press before I had ever been taught by like a real good lifter. Somebody who could teach me. Like I was going based off of the pictures and our, you know, certifications and what I thought like I didn't understand really, really good technique until. Which is explains why I didn't get to 315 till I was almost 30 years old.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, mastering a technique is the first one. And this makes such a big difference that if I took somebody that worked out regularly and bench pressed regularly but didn't understand the technique of a bench press, I could probably add 10 to 15 pounds or lift simply by mastering the technique same day. It's actually I'm going to say something that someone might not understand, but it's a true statement. The bench press, when done properly, is a full body exercise. It isn't just an upper body exercise. This is where a lot of people have the misunderstanding. They think it's chest, upper body. They lay on the bench and it's just their arms moving and the rest of the body's just kind of sitting there. Because I'm on a bench. No, no, no, no. Proper technique of a bench press utilizes the entire body. And there is a proper technique that I. Now, it took me longer to learn this. Just like you, Adam, as a kid, I just thought, you move the weight. Then I got a powerlifting magazine. So when I was a kid, I would subscribe to all these bodybuilding magazines. And once I ran out of bodybuilding magazines to subscribe to, I found a powerlifting magazine and I started reading it and I read an article on bench press technique and they talked about things that nobody ever taught me before. Like, first off, you need to have a strong arch in your back.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Now, that doesn't mean your butt comes off the bench. I think that's what people think an arch is. Yes, your butt stays on the bench, but you should have a natural arch in your low back. You should not have a flat low back. There was actually a period of time there in the gym where there was this total. I mean, just people were wrong about this. Lots of people thought your back had to be flat, bro.

[Justin Andrews]

I was, I was their feet on the bed.

I was so ignorant that I taught that.

[Sal Destefano]

Wow.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I taught. I used to tell clients that, that when people would ask about that arch, I would say, oh, no, that's. That's purely for sport. And they're getting leverage. And that is not good. That is not good for you and you shouldn't. And you want a flat back. And I would have people literally lift their legs up off, off the ground so they would flatten their back. Like, it was horrible advice, horrible advice. And that, I mean, that's why I was so wrong about that for so long. Because I really did believe at that point that, that those massive arches were. And it is for leverage and it is to get a bigger bench press. But how stupid am I? Like, one of the best ways to getting a good bench press is also being able to lift more weight, right? And bench press more weight. And so that's part of the.

[Sal Destefano]

The benefit of it simultaneously, the technique that tends to allow you to lift the most weight when you. Especially when you take it from is.

[Justin Andrews]

The most proper way to do it.

[Sal Destefano]

Is also the safest.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

That's why it's the one that allows you to lift the most. So that natural arch on the bench puts your, your upper body in a better position. In particular your shoulders in a better position. So you need to have that nice natural chest out arched back position because it actually prevents a lot of the injury or issues that people develop in their shoulders from bench pressing. Bench press probably is responsible for more shoulder injuries than almost any other exercise because of poor technique. Good technique is actually a very safe exercise. So you want to have a strong arch in your back. You also want to learn how to activate your lats when you're bench pressing. Now when I first read this as a kid, I remember this made no sense to me. Why would I activate my lats? My lats pull the bar down? Yeah, I'm trying to press the bar up. Why? What does this mean by activating lats? And it through practice, what I understood was when I activate my lats I anchor embrace shoulder girdle.

[Justin Andrews]

Stable.

[Sal Destefano]

Stable.

[Justin Andrews]

And that's really, I mean, I guess once you start to really think about all these cues and everything in terms of the technique, what it's really allowing is your body to become way more stable. And you're not allowing any sort of swing or, or any kind of lateral twisting force to impede on, on your performance. So there's the less like performance leaks that, that you can create by tensifying your body in certain areas, especially lats and between the shoulder blades and legs, which we'll get to. But all of that stuff, it, it just adds into more weight you can put up.

[Sal Destefano]

Yep. So you activate your lats, you pull your shoulder blades back and down. So you have what's called a retracted and depressed shoulder girdle with active lats which creates this incredibly strong stable base underneath your body to support this bar. So it doesn't like you said, move side to side, feel shaky. It is solid. Then you squeeze the bar real tight, you slightly tuck your elbows and you also use. This also confused me as a kid leg drive. I thought what do the legs have to do?

[Justin Andrews]

That's a hard concept.

[Sal Destefano]

With a bench press, your central nervous system, which is what is telling your muscles to contract and fire. Your central nervous system, which is just as responsible for the force and strength that you produce. Probably even more responsible than actual muscles themselves, activates and turns on better when it's fully turned on. Okay. And the example I like to use, I always use this Example is if you were to squeeze as hard as you could with your right hand, but keep everything relaxed, including your face, and then repeat it. But allow yourself to tense up your entire body, including gritting your teeth. You would see a improvement in strength production. Significant by tensing everything.

[Justin Andrews]

If you can feel it. I love that example too, is what I used to teach clients. Because it's like, it's. You can feel it right away right now. People listening can like squeeze your fist as hard as you can, but relax the rest of your body and your face and then do it. And you can feel how much tensor you.

[Sal Destefano]

We actually do it naturally. Whenever you exert force, you tend to grit your teeth and tense up your entire body. That's your body generating more force by activating the entire central nervous system. And so leg drive literally just means you get your feet underneath you without lifting your butt up. You drive into the floor, intense your lower body. Maintain tight shoulder blades down and back. Activate your lats, squeeze the bar, come down controlled and pressed up. Master this technique. Yeah, the way you master is you practice it often with weight that is not heavy, so lightweight. Practice this. By the way, if you've never done this before, go do your bench press like you normally do. Then practice the technique that we just said, we just talked about and watch how you feel.

[Justin Andrews]

You'll immediately feel the radiating effect.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, you'll immediately feel like, oh, my gosh.

[Justin Andrews]

I just picture myself as like, you know, if I can become literally an anchor. So if I anchor, my feet are anchored to the ground. And that's the thing about ground for that you learn later about lifting heavy objects is the more that I can really anchor myself to the earth, you know, the more likely I'm going to be able to create and generate more force. And so if I can do that even laying down, you know, that's where you see this in crazy increase in performance.

I like the way we've laid out these tips because as we go through them, I remember the times in my journey where like that light bulb went off and the next one that you've listed was really like the first, like, that was the first thing. So even before I had like master technique, the first like increase in bench press for me was simply moving away from the one chat, you know, one muscle group a day or a week and blasting it really hard to just increasing the frequency, which probably also helped with a little bit of technique, you know, you're practicing just practicing it more. And so I think bench pressing twice a week became a huge like shift in, like my ability to bench press.

More than just Monday.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes, yes, Huge. By the way, now you're not just benching and bodybuilding twice a week. One day is heavy. In other words, one day you're Pratt, you're training in the 5 rep range, 6 rep. By the way, you're not going to failure. You're, you're stopping about two reps short of failure. That's, that's the right intensity for most people, but it's a heavy day. This is when you're doing your traditional heavy bench good technique. The next day is what's known as a speed day. Now this was borrowed from Westside barbell and the way that they train, but it's through just trial and error. This is, and it's lasted as long as it has, it's produced some of the biggest bench presses of all time because it works. The next time you bench press during the week is not a heavy day, it's called a speed day. What does that look like? Lightweight, explosive acceleration. Right. So if you're bench pressing with 225 on your heavy day, your light day is 135. It's even lower intensity. In other words, I'm not going two reps short of failure. What I am trying to do though is see how fast I can move the bar. So I lower it and I explode up. Lower it and explode. I'm trying to move the bar very quickly. When I feel the speed start to slow down, I stop the set. So what that may look like is 6, 7, 8 reps, something like that stop the set. That's the second bench press.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. Speed power is the greatest expression of strength and it also does less damage than the heavy loading. So it's like this perfect way to express this technique in a way that's not going to do as much damage. So. And then you're also getting the frequency and the, the more practice. So this I, I clearly remember, like this is well before 3:15, but I remember this is like me on my way to 225 because I could barely bench 135 as a young 20 year old. So it took me a long time.

[Sal Destefano]

These are the steps that I literally exactly took to get to 315.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm glad you brought up the acceleration because that's one component took me a while to figure out because it's a grind and that's one of the things that really like crushes people when they're doing bench and they can't get over that, that, that Hill because they don't have that initial explosive energy that they create. And if you don't have that initial explosive energy to, to be able to get you up to a point where it's just the extension now, you know, you're, you're less likely to put up like that much more weight.

Well, especially when you, when you realize. So a lot of people don't know that you can handle nearly four times the load on the eccentric portion of a movement. So. So as you lower the weight, you can easily. Even when you can't even bench 315, most people listening, they could bench, you know, 200 pounds or 130, could even resist 315. But then to recruit enough and explosively move back the other direction is where most people fail. So part of you training that speed, power like that you get, you. You learn how to recruit all that muscle and explode out of that hole. This plays a huge role getting that bench up.

Yeah, that's right.

[Sal Destefano]

Next up is you want to work on shoulder mobility every single day. This has to be for people who know how to bench, people who had good technique, people who, you know, practice bench press with the right frequency. Shoulder mobility issues, shoulder pain instability. It is the number one killer of people's bench presses, period. End of story. Either their shoulder can't stabilize, and so they notice that their, their, you know, their rotator cuff, they start to get pain in the supraspinatus or the infraspinatus, or they'll get pain in the AC joint or it just doesn't. For whatever reason, they feel stuck with their bench press. The first time this became evident to me, I ordered. There was an ad at the bottom at the back of a bodybuilding magazine for something called a shoulder horn. This was a long time ago. I was in my mid-20s, maybe early 20s. And it's literally, you rested your arms in it and you did external rotation. Very basic, like shoulder, you know, mobility strengthening exercise. It's so basic, I wouldn't put it in the top five of my favorite, but it was way more than I ever did. And they sold me on it because it said, add 15 pounds to your bench, you know, right out the gates. So I ordered it and I practiced it, and I literally did add. I remember what I was 10, 15 pounds because my external rotators were so weak that they were holding me back. That's what happens when you have mobility issues and stability issues, is your body will stop your strength gains. It will not allow you to lift more weight than it feels you can safely lift. It's always trying to prevent you from hurting yourself. And there's these small muscles that stabilize the upper arm that need to stabilize. And you have these very powerful movers that are pressing heavy weight. Well, if your powerful movers far surpass the stabilizer's ability to stabilize, this is a limiting factor. It'll stop.

[Justin Andrews]

Your strength is almost always one of the things that's neglected because you can gain quite a bit of strength on your bench press initially without addressing this, but then eventually this becomes a limiting factor. And I used to use the analogy of like somebody who's building like a, you know, a supercar, building an old school and putting. Beefing it up with horsepower. And at some point you could take that standard car and you could start to build the engine and make it get a. 10 more horsepower, 50 more horsepower. Sooner or later, that rear end and chassis has to be able to match and support how much horsepower, or else you. That engine will just blow right through and it won't be able to support it.

[Sal Destefano]

If the car had like, AI regulators in there, it would say, no, we're not gonna let you, we're not gonna let you use all this horsepower.

[Justin Andrews]

Right? We can't support it, and it can't in that car. Let's say you build this car with 700 plus horsepower and you don't reinforce that chassis or reinforce the rear end, you won't even be able to get.

A snap and twist.

Yeah, snap, twist, break. You'll never see what that 700 horsepower is really capable of doing until you reinforce that. I think the same thing is with shoulder stability, with the bench press, is that you start to build this great bench press. You're actually, you could be stronger than you even realize, but you can't get it because you have these limiting factors. These stabilizers are so weak. You got to catch them up.

I actually listened to a pretty interesting conversation. It was with Kelly Starrett, and he was, he was talking about David Wack and the rope flow that he came up with and talking about the value of that, how he incorporates that a lot with his shoulder health, with his, his clients and everything. And, and really it's the acceleration of it. And so it's the rapid movement and stuff that we don't really get a lot anymore as we age. And we don't really incorporate because, you know, when kids were playing, we're. Our arms are very active. We're swinging, we're throwing, we're doing a lot more, you know, accelerated type of movement and so this plays into fact factor towards the bench too, because to recognize, you know, acceleration, we need to be able to stabilize that appropriately. And this helped me a lot when I was doing Indian clubs. And that's really like, my limiting factor was always the shoulder. It was like I could only get to, like, you know, I couldn't get to that 405 mark. But I, you know, I was pressing so hard to get there, and then I would have my. My shoulder would get impinged and, you know, I'd get all this, like, pain and. And so to. For me to get back in and really work on the mobility of it, but then also, you know, add a little bit of load with acceleration was enormous.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So a good way to know this, like, if you're an advanced lifter, you've been lifting for a while, and you go throw a baseball or a football or a Frisbee, and your shoulder is really sore the next day, it's because you've got really strong, big prime mover muscles and stabilizers that can't support that strength and that power. So mobility for the bench press, it would be like having weak ankles and hips and squatting. Like, at some point your body's like, no, we're not gonna let you lift any more weight. That was my experience. I put the shoulder horn on. I literally did it three times that week or two times that week. Nothing crazy. And I remember being like, oh, I could kind of feel where that that hurts or whatever. And my bench press went. I had been stuck at the center, remember what it was. But I added like £10 in a week. And I didn't build my chest and my prime movers anymore. It was just more stable. So Indian clubs are great. I love that.

[Justin Andrews]

For.

[Sal Destefano]

I like overhead hold holds, face pulls, external rotations. Always good. Very basic exercise. You know, the good old, you know, physical therapy.

[Justin Andrews]

W's are my favorite.

[Sal Destefano]

W's are great on a suspension trainer shoulder dislocates. Another good one, Handcuffs with rotation. Shoulder mobility work for advanced lifters in particular, tends to increase your bench press. All right, next up. And this is just so, you know, once I say this, everyone's gonna say duh, but yeah, you'd be surprised how many people miss this. You got to eat in a surplus. Like, if you're trying to get stronger and you're not eating a little bit more calories than you're burning, good luck. Like, you can still get stronger by mastering the technique and increasing central nervous system output, but you're going to be stuck at Some point, because you just need more building blocks, you need more materials, right? So you got to eat in a calorie surplus and eat a high protein diet. If you want to hit a number.

[Justin Andrews]

Like this, I definitely would emphasize the hitting the protein too, because surplus is important. But I remember even making that mistake of just eating tons of calories but not enough protein. But not enough protein. And so hitting your protein intake, a high protein intake and a calorie surplus, while good programming and doing things will certainly send you in the right direction.

[Sal Destefano]

And in fact, for a lot of people just eating in a surplus alone and hitting protein, their bench press jumps just from that alone. Next up, don't neglect back work. In particular rowing movements. They that back, if it's strong, you'll see your bench press be stable and you'll see your bench press sometimes even go up. I've had clients who, you know, men in their late 30s, mid-40s, been working out a long time. They're like, you know, they want to get more fit. Of course we're looking at their lifts and getting their back stronger, got their bench press and their overhead press to go up because we strengthen.

[Justin Andrews]

Remember the back, the support system.

[Sal Destefano]

When you look at the shoulder joint which is involved in the bench press, it's not just the upper arm moving in a joint, it's also the scapula, the shoulder blade that has to stabilize and hold steady when you're bench pressing. The shoulder joint's quite complex. The back muscles are what stabilize the scapula. It's the rhomboids, it's the mid trapezius, it's the lats that stabilize the upper arm. It's also the infraspinatus, superspinatus, which, you know, some of that is on the back as well. So having a good solid, strong back, you don't want to skip that. You need to have a strong back.

[Justin Andrews]

I also think there's some carryover benefit from the CNS too. Like for, for example, there's been old saying, if you want to increase your bench press, get a big bigger squat, right? And a lot of that has probably to do with you overall. Yeah, overall, when you get strong legs, the overall entire body gets a little stronger. And the back is like the second biggest muscle area, right? Like your legs are number one, back is number two. So it's bigger than even the chest. And I think that it is an area because it's on the backside that people, especially young people, tend to neglect. And getting a very strong back, strong deadlift, those type of movements carry over into all other pursuits of strength. And so I think there's something to be said there. Of course, it is the part of the eccentric portion and stabilizes in the bench press, But I think too, just getting a big, strong back makes you stronger overall, so definitely don't neglect that.

[Sal Destefano]

And then lastly, use isometric pauses when you're bench pressing. This is what took me to my final max bench press that I ever did in my life. This one thing right here added £20 to my bench press, and it was learning how to take a weight that I could handle and pausing it in my sticking points and just getting strong in those sticking points. So for me, there were two sticking points. The first one, which is most sticking point is right at the chest. So what I started to do with the weight that I worked out with is when I got felt like I was strong enough to, I would bring it down, I'd hold it right above my T shirt, right above my chest, and I would hold it for five seconds and then press it up, and I'd get to the point where I could hold it for six, seven, eight seconds. When I was able to do that, when I would go to my max, that sticking point was no longer a sticking point. Then I had another sticking point, which was about midpoint, and I did the same thing. I'd go down, I'd come up to the halfway point, I'd pause, I'd hold and get tight and come up. This is a great way to practice your bench press and get better and stronger, because everybody has a sticking point. There's one part of your bench that if you get past it, you could probably lift the weight because actively you.

[Justin Andrews]

Can summon more muscle fibers. You can lift, literally recruit. You just have to command it. And so to be able to do that and direct it in your weak points of your lift is so effective. And it's worth doing that and really segmenting the lift out with lighter weight. But you really have to put the work in in terms of, you know, squeezing with max force.

In other words, this is another way that it improves cns. Oh, yeah, right. This is another area, because what's happening is there's a point in your lift where you're weak because you are enabled to recruit all the necessary muscles. And then holding that isometric and contracting. Like Justin's saying is teaching your body how to recruit more.

[Sal Destefano]

It'll make your weak point.

[Justin Andrews]

And when you get good at doing that, that thing that in that was a weak point ends up being a strong Point I actually got to recruit more.

[Sal Destefano]

I actually practiced this so much at the bottom because I had such a bad sticking point there that this. Now, now till this day. Yeah, that is. No, not my sticking point. That is actually the strongest part of my bench press.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, you know. Yeah, and I did that too. I mean, I took it kind of to the next level level when I was doing ring dips and I was trying to work on my transition into getting a muscle up. And what that really did was it improved my bench substantially because I got so much depth. And so. And you really have to fight for it. So I mean, you can, you can emulate. Obviously you don't have to do rings to, to pull that off. You can do that in a dip as well. But to just get that depth and really summon that kind of strength down there is very beneficial.

[Adam Schaefer]

Got a couple questions here. The first one is how important is including an incline press?

[Justin Andrews]

Most important? Yeah, I think I'm such a fan of incline.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm a huge fan for overall balanced development. I think it can help with your bench press, especially if you've been bench pressing for a long time. You could not bench for a little while, get stronger at the incline, go back to the bench and notice some of your weaknesses have been solved. From a muscle development standpoint, I actually prefer the incline over the flat bench. I think it develops the chest in a more balanced way. Functionally speaking. I've heard arguments that say that incline is probably more functional. I think from an athletic standpoint, it's probably true. I think you tend to push people more in the incline. It's one of my. I would say you could replace bench for incline and you wouldn't hear a complaint out of it.

[Justin Andrews]

That's how I train. I rarely ever, ever flatbench. Ever, ever, ever. I, I mean, because of all the things you just said. You. For just performance, overall health, function, it makes sense. Incline is better. You, you could have an incredibly strong flat bench and a terrible weak incline bench, but you will not have an incredibly strong incline bench and have a weak flat bench. If you can, if you can incline 315, you can, you can flat bench 315. So that's what like. So. And I wish someone would have told me that in my early 20s because like a lot of young, young guys, they gravitate towards the thing that they're better at. And naturally, if you've never done any of them and you go to bench press, you'll be stronger bench pressing than you will be inclining. And so like many young men that avoid exercises they're not good at. All I did was flat bench press and never did incline until I tell the story of where I made it a goal. Like, I want to try and catch my incline bench press up to my flat bench. And so I totally stopped doing flat. Went all incline. I had the best chest development. I ended up catching my incline up to my flat bench. And I've been stronger in bench than I've ever been. It's like, what's the purpose of doing the flat if you get good? So if, if I could give any advice to the young listener, like, focus on the incline bench. It'll serve you so much more in all pursuits overall strength. Now, granted, if you're in a powerlifting competition bench, you got a bench press you have to flat branch. But if you're not going to compete and you just want to get a strong bench press, you just want the aesthetics. You just want all the results from it. Incline bench is the way to go.

[Adam Schaefer]

How can bands and chains be used to improve my bench press?

[Sal Destefano]

My favorite, favorite tool. They are my favorite advanced. If you're. I mean, I guess, for lack of a better term, advanced training tools for strength.

[Justin Andrews]

Maybe the best four bench too, right?

Oh, perfect. On your speed day, you add. And that's exactly what I would do is attach those, you know, to the barbell and to. And it's so great because you get that it's, it's not wonky at all.

[Sal Destefano]

Like.

[Justin Andrews]

So the, the thing is like, you know, the chains are a little bit different because it's. It, it could separate and it could be one to the next and you have a little bit of shifting. But the, the, the bands are always smooth and you can go pretty fast with them under control.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. They're my favorite tools by far. Bench press. They work so well in they.

[Justin Andrews]

Wouldn't you say it's the best muscle.

Group to probably use that squat for strength curve.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So good. So here's what. So people aren't familiar. So why would you use bands and chains on a bar? I remember the first time I saw them, I thought it was stupid setting. Get it? I'm like, you just put weights on. Why are you adding these other things? I had no idea what was going on. Yeah. So when you imagine chains for a second, right. So I have a bar loaded and I put lighter weight than I can normally lift. Someone add some heavy chains. So then I add heavy chains and let's say each chain weighs 30 pounds. So it's at the end of the bars and it's hanging all the way down to the ground. When I lower the bar, the links hit the ground and the bar gets lighter. As I lift the bar, I'm lifting links off the ground and the bar is getting heavier. Why is that valuable? Because I'm getting progressive resistance as I get stronger in the lift. In other words, people tend to be the weakest at the bottom, strongest at the top. So as I'm lifting, the bar is getting heavier, making the lift match my strength curve bands. Same thing. As I stretch the band out, it gets harder. As I unstretch it, it gets easier. Which one's better? They're just different for speed. I like bands way better. I generally like bands better anyway because they, they seem to feel so.

[Justin Andrews]

I've always liked chains.

[Sal Destefano]

Chains just look cool.

[Justin Andrews]

I mean, I like the sound, I like the sound of them. I like the grinding strength feel that you get from them. I mean, it allows you to lift like so. Your analogy of like, like. So let's say you're somebody who, you know, 225 or 200, let's say a flat number so it's easier. 200 is the number that you can use your Mac bench, you could, you could put 185 on the bar with probably 60 pound chains and lift that. So total it's over £200 at the top. But it's because in the hole, you're only at your 180something. So you can get it out of the hole really easy. But then by the time you get to the top, you're lifting more weight than you've ever lifted on the bench press. So it's a great way to progressively overload with weight that you can actually control. So I love chains.

[Sal Destefano]

Totally. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is mindpumpjustin. I'm mindpumped. Distephano and Adams. Mindpump.

[Adam Schaefer]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, Anabolic maps, maps, performance and Maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB super bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

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