How do you increase your bench press?
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To increase the amount you bench press, begin with a one rep max test. Be sure to have a spotter (someone who can help you if the weight is too heavy to return back to the starting position). Slowly add weight, resting about one minute or more in between, until you reach the maximum load you can press.
Over the course of the next 1-2 months, work between 75-85% of that number for your regular chest workouts. Slowly edging closer and closer to 85% of your 1 rep max number.
During these months, also continue to develop core, triceps, shoulders, back, and bicep muscles, since all are synergists or antagonists of the chest muscles.
When you have increased your baseline numbers for regular workouts, retest your one rep max. Don’t expect a huge increase. Your one rep max may increase by only 5–10 pounds every 2 to 3 months.
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Over the course of the next 1-2 months, work between 75-85% of that number for your regular chest workouts. Slowly edging closer and closer to 85% of your 1 rep max number.
During these months, also continue to develop core, triceps, shoulders, back, and bicep muscles, since all are synergists or antagonists of the chest muscles.
When you have increased your baseline numbers for regular workouts, retest your one rep max. Don’t expect a huge increase. Your one rep max may increase by only 5–10 pounds every 2 to 3 months.
If you want to bench more weight, train on the bench press more frequently. Hit the bench twice a week if you normally only do it once. Change the tempo, or the speed, you lift weights. Try to lower the weight to your chest for a 3-count, pause one second with the bar at your chest, then press the bar back up for a 3-count.
A proper warm-up can help you make the most of your training session, improve your strength progress, and reduce injury risk. Ramp up the weight between sets so you might start with 50% of your working weight, then 60-70%, then 80% before starting your working sets. Do just a few reps at each weight so you don’t burn out while warming up.
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A proper warm-up can help you make the most of your training session, improve your strength progress, and reduce injury risk. Ramp up the weight between sets so you might start with 50% of your working weight, then 60-70%, then 80% before starting your working sets. Do just a few reps at each weight so you don’t burn out while warming up.
Start with a weight that you know you could do for 10 to 12 reps. And then add 5 to 10 pounds. Try that weight for 8 to 12 reps for a couple of sets and see how it feels. If it felt easy, increase your weight further. If you get stuck and can’t complete a full set, stay at that weight until it becomes easy. If you can do the weight for 3-4 sets consecutively, that’s a sign you can probably increase your weight. You're only going to get stronger if you push yourself, and that’s how you’ll build more muscle too.
There are also things called intensifiers that you can try, including a rest-pause or drop sets. For a rest-pause, you can take a 10-15 second rest in between reps before trying the weight again, so you can continue to try to complete your reps at the increased weight. With drop sets, you start at your desired weight and do what you can, then drop the weight to a lower weight (100 lbs down to 80 lbs for example) and then keep going with that lower weight. This will help build muscle endurance too.
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There are also things called intensifiers that you can try, including a rest-pause or drop sets. For a rest-pause, you can take a 10-15 second rest in between reps before trying the weight again, so you can continue to try to complete your reps at the increased weight. With drop sets, you start at your desired weight and do what you can, then drop the weight to a lower weight (100 lbs down to 80 lbs for example) and then keep going with that lower weight. This will help build muscle endurance too.
My game plan for a client who wants to increase the amount that they can bench press would be hitting chest twice a week. On that first day, you're going to be hitting the chest for just overall pressing. If you want to increase your bench press on a flat bench, we're just pressing that day, doing that sagittal movement straight up and down. You're going to do anywhere from 5-8 sets, and arrange your reps in a pyramid fashion. So let's say we did seven sets. We'd start off with 15 reps, then move down to 12 reps, then down to 5 reps, then 3 reps, and then back up to 12. That pyramid fashion will allow the body to adapt to fewer reps while putting on heavier weight, adapt to that change, and then take it off. And on the last one, we increase the reps and lighten the weight so that you're able to put some endurance and blood pumping back in there. So one workout session a week would be just on that pressing type movement to help increase that strength.
The next one would then be doing all the supportive chest exercises. And I would schedule that no sooner than at least two to three days after that first pressing chest day. That would be exercises like flies, scoops, and incline presses so that you're hitting the pectoralis minor and the pectoralis medius and not just the bigger pectoralis muscles. So then you're doing the smaller supportive muscles, and they're not exhausted on the first day, and you're able to help them build up so that they can support the bigger muscle. That's going to be classic. I have cousins who have been world record holders in the Guinness Book of World Records for bench pressing in Hawaii for years, and we grew up with my uncle training them out of our gym in Hawaii.
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The next one would then be doing all the supportive chest exercises. And I would schedule that no sooner than at least two to three days after that first pressing chest day. That would be exercises like flies, scoops, and incline presses so that you're hitting the pectoralis minor and the pectoralis medius and not just the bigger pectoralis muscles. So then you're doing the smaller supportive muscles, and they're not exhausted on the first day, and you're able to help them build up so that they can support the bigger muscle. That's going to be classic. I have cousins who have been world record holders in the Guinness Book of World Records for bench pressing in Hawaii for years, and we grew up with my uncle training them out of our gym in Hawaii.
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