Training

This part of the article series will focus on a muscle group that even bodybuilders almost never stop fine-tuning: the complex muscles of the shoulders. These are made up of the following main areas:

• The anterior, lateral and posterior regions of the deltoid muscle, which include the following muscles:
• Pars clavicularis - the muscle that attaches to the collarbone
• Pars acromialis - the muscle that attaches to the acromion
• Pars spinalis - the muscle that attaches to the shoulder blade

• The rotator cuff, which consists of the following muscles
• Musculus Infraspinatus - the muscle that starts below the shoulder blade at the Fossa Infraspinata Scapulae and supports inward rotation,
• Supraspinatus muscle - the muscle located directly above the aforementioned muscle and involved in the lateral adduction of the arm
• Musculus Teres Minor - the muscle that attaches to the side of the shoulder blade at the Margo Lateralis Scapulae and plays a role in the abduction of the arm
• Musculus subscapalaris - the muscle that attaches to the inner part of the scapula and enables internal rotation, adduction and abduction of the shoulder.

Figure 1: The muscles of the shoulders (red) on the front and back of the body and the rotator cuff (purple) - the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulders.

Of these two muscle groups, the first - the complex of anterior, lateral and posterior shoulder muscles - is the muscle group that gives your shoulders the broad look everyone strives for, while the rotator cuff muscles are a necessary, yet often overlooked, prerequisite for building muscular shoulders.

Ultimately, the rotator cuff muscles provide the stability necessary to properly perform exercises such as front presses, side raises, reverse flyes and all the other common exercises used to build round, muscular shoulders. It's crucial to keep this synergy in mind when putting together your training program. And if the risk of shoulder injury due to underdeveloped shoulder stabilizers doesn't faze you, then perhaps the information that a strong shoulder base in the form of a well-trained rotator cuff will help you increase your weight on the bench will get your attention.

But enough of the complaining and mockery. Let's start building some mass in your shoulders and take a look at the most effective exercises for building massive shoulder muscles and a strong rotator cuff, according to EMG research.

1. The best exercises for the front, side and back of the shoulder muscles:

Figure 2: As it turns out, the neck press, which has been labeled for its susceptibility to injury, is the most versatile shoulder exercise because this exercise works both the anterior and lateral portion of the shoulder muscles hard (image from sportkrachtfitness.nl)

I will probably never get tired of telling you that full isolation exercises like in "petri dish experiments" are not something you can do in the gym - not even if you use one of those fancy new training machines whose names suggest that they will allow you to do just that.

In the real world (and believe it or not, the gym is a part of this), your muscles will always work synergistically to move a weight from point A to point B. However, by choosing the right exercises and/or manipulating exercise execution, it is very possible to influence which muscle group and even which individual muscles do the lion's share of the workload. Always remember this when you look at the following list of "the most effective exercises" (perhaps more correctly I should say "the exercises with the highest EMG activity").

For the lateral area:

• Lateral raises - with dumbbells, internal rotation
• Reverse flying movements - machine, external rotation
• Neck press - barbell, seated

For the front area:

• Shoulder press - barbell, seated
• Neck press - barbell, seated
• Side raises - barbell, internal rotation
• Bench press - barbell
• Front raise - dumbbells, external rotation

For the rear area:

• Reverse flying movements - machine, internal rotation
• Reverse flying movements - dumbbells, internal rotation

Figure 3: The EMG activity of the anterior, lateral and posterior regions of the deltoid muscle during selected exercises relative to

• Barbell shoulder press (anterior region), bars 1 to 5 (barbell shoulder press (blue), barbell neck press (red), front raise with external rotation (green), dumbbell side raise with internal rotation (purple), dumbbell side raise with internal rotation (turquoise))
• Dumbbell side raises (lateral range), bars 6 to 8 (dumbbell side raises with internal rotation (orange), reverse flying movements on the machine with external rotation (light blue), barbell neck press (pink))
• Reverse flying movements with dumbbells (rear section), bars 9 and 10 (reverse flying movement on the machine with internal rotation (light green), reverse flying movement with dumbbells lying on a bench with 90 degree arm/torso angle and internal rotation (light purple))

Based on the data from (1).

The EMG data in Figure 3 confirms what exercisers around the world have been advocating for decades.

A pressing exercise for the anterior shoulder muscles, some lateral raises for the lateral shoulder muscles and reverse flying movements for the posterior shoulders are all you need to develop shoulder muscles like cannonballs.

Another common belief is that front raises are one of the most effective exercises for the front shoulder muscles. Even with outwardly rotated arms, front raises with dumbbells are 41% less effective than the gold standard barbell shoulder press. One possible reason (and one of the primary drawbacks of all EMG data) for the "inferior" activation of the anterior shoulder muscles by dumbbell front raises is that significantly lower weights are used in this exercise than in barbell shoulder presses.

For example, if the subjects used 120 pounds in the barbell shoulder press but only 25 pounds per dumbbell in the front lift, the muscle activity per pound of weight in the dumbbell front lift would have been about three times higher at 548µV/25lbs=21.92 than in the barbell shoulder press at -929µV/120lbs=7.71.

Against this background, however, there is no question that there is certainly a place in a volume program for an isolation exercise such as dumbbell front raises, even if this is not a classic muscle-building exercise whose most prominent characteristic is maximum overloading of the muscles.

Training tip:

Although the corresponding EMG values for dumbbell exercises were not measured in this study, it is very likely that exercises such as dumbbell shoulder presses provide an additional stimulus compared to their barbell counterpart, which is related to the natural arc of the movement, where you get a good stretch at the lowest point of the movement and can consciously tense the muscles hard in the contracted position as the dumbbells approach each other at the top of the movement.

This also makes dumbbell shoulder presses a viable alternative to barbell neck presses, as the position of the center of gravity is more in line with your head throughout the movement. It can therefore be assumed that the stimulus is shifted away from the front shoulder muscles more towards the lateral shoulder muscles, as is also the case with neck presses vs. barbell shoulder presses.

Figure 4: With the natural arching movement, dumbbell shoulder presses could be a viable, if not preferable, alternative to barbell shoulder presses and barbell neck presses (Image source: everkineti.com)

I can't emphasize enough that form becomes increasingly important with lighter weights, and since your shoulders are particularly susceptible to injury and generally weaker than, say, your legs, using lighter weights is not only advisable but simply a matter of physical limitations. The previously cited example of the dumbbell front lift shows that lighter weights are not synonymous with inferior muscle stimulation, as - correctly performed - isolation exercises can generate significantly more torque/pull-through force per pound of weight moved than their mass-building counterparts.

Figure 5: Reduction in EMG activity in selected variations of dumbbell side raises and reverse flying movements relative to side raises with external rotation, side raises with 90 degree arm/torso angle and reverse flying movements on the machine with internal rotation:

• Dumbbell side raises with internal rotation (blue)
• Dumbbell side raises with neutral grip (hammer grip)
• Reverse flying movements with dumbbells and 45 degree arm/torso angle
• Reverse flying movements on the machine with internal rotation

(Calculations based on (1)).

However, form doesn't just determine the overall intensity - the way you perform your shoulder exercises also has a strong influence on the degree to which the three areas of the shoulder muscles are activated.

• For example, performing dumbbell side raises with internal rotation reduced the activity of the lateral portion of the shoulder muscles by 16%.
• The use of a neutral grip (hammer grip with the thumbs pointing upwards) was associated with a 12% reduction in EMG activity.
• In the case of reverse flying movements with dumbbells, using a 45 degree angle instead of a 90 degree angle reduced the load on the lateral aspect of the shoulders by 29%.
• For reverse flying movements on the machine, gripping the handles from the outside instead of the inside (external vs. internal rotation of the arm) resulted in a 20% reduction in stimulus.

How to perform side raises correctly

If you use what you learned at the end of the last section to your advantage, you can optimize the load on the target muscle while using lighter weights and reducing your risk of injury. I know the heavy weights are more impressive, but at the end of the day, what's the point of using the heaviest weights if you're not making progress in terms of strength or muscle mass due to incorrect exercise execution form?

It's one thing to fudge the last 1 to 2 reps of a set to squeeze every last drop of fuel out of your muscles' tanks - and quite another to neglect proper form just to be the guy moving heavy weights.

There are few exercises where this is as obvious as dumbbell side raises. If you don't do it yourself, then you probably know someone who grabs the 25 kilo dumbbells, holds them vertically in front of the bar, pulls the dumbbells up to the side, lets them fall back down and then starts the whole misery all over again until he grabs his shoulders with a pained face after putting the dumbbells down - but not without the pride of having used heavier weights than the guy next to him.

Note: The following analysis is based on a very simple mechanical model and does not take into account factors such as increased load per square surface area of muscle fibers in the stretched position, effects of static or full contraction, etc.

You already know from the previous section and the EMG data that it is crucial to keep the arms externally rotated - i.e. pretend you are trying to pour an imaginary liquid out of the dumbbell at the highest point of the movement - if you don't want to lose 16% of the muscle tension from the start.

But what about the guy I just mentioned who doesn't even get a chance to think about pouring a liquid other than the one in his shaker bottle when he's doing his ballistic exercises? Which of his mistakes do you think affects the effectiveness of the deadlift the most?

1. Too much flexion of the elbow (often to 90 degrees) and a reduced lever arm as a result?
2. Or the inability to move the dumbbells up to shoulder height, i.e. the angle between arm and torso is well below 90 degrees (often even well below 70 degrees).

Well, from a physical point of view - which always provides a very selective and oversimplified view of reality - the answer is "1. too much flexion of the elbow." Surprised?

Figure 6: Effects of arm/torso angle and elbow flexion on torque/tightening force during dumbbell side raises.

While raising the dumbbells to 75 degrees only reduces the torque/tightening force by 5%, flexing the elbow 90 degrees reduces the torque your lateral shoulder muscles have to overcome by a massive 50%!

Think about this the next time you see a guy at the gym using 25 kilo dumbbells for side raises. There's a good chance you're significantly stronger than him with your 15 kilo dumbbells as long as you don't reduce your elbow flexion by more than that 15%, which reduces some of the load on the joint but only minimally reduces the torque applied to the muscle.

2. the best exercises for the rotator cuff

With all that you've learned about shoulder training, I hope you haven't forgotten what I mentioned at the beginning of this article: Training for the rotator cuff is synonymous with active injury prevention.

Although most exercisers don't even feel these muscles working, the rotator cuff muscles are critical to the stability of the most mobile and sensitive joint in your entire body. These often overlooked and untrained muscles hold the ligaments and bones of your shoulder in place so that your other muscles such as the shoulder muscles and pectorals can do their job. Developing strong infraspinatus, supraspinatus and teres minor muscles is also the foundation for moving heavy weights on the bench to impress the guys at the gym. If you don't believe this, then you should read the following anecdote from strength coach Charles Poliquin:

One of my pro field hockey players, Jim McKenzie, improved his close bench press by almost 51 pounds from 280 to 331 pounds in 12 weeks by focusing on rotator cuff muscle strength.

While I would question the universal applicability of Poliquin's "research," as far as the average gym-goer is concerned, it's certainly worth noting that his years of experience training athletes of all disciplines have shown him that "rotator cuff strength should be about 9.8 percent of what you can bench press without pain." This means that if you bench press 100 kilos, don't be surprised if your shoulder starts to hurt if you are unable to perform external rotations lying on a mat on the floor with 10 kilo dumbbells.

Figure 7: EMG activity of the primary rotator cuff muscles during selected exercises relative to external rotations with dumbbells lying sideways on the floor (blue):

• External rotations with dumbbells, elbow on a bench, upper arm horizontal (red()
• External rotations with dumbbells standing, slightly bent (green)
• External rotation on cable pulley (purple)
• Static door post pushbacks with 90 degree arm/torso angle (turquoise)

The calculations are based on the data from source (1).

Speaking of external rotation - as the data from Figure 7 shows, this is by far the best isolation exercise for the rotator cuff muscles. Basically, it doesn't really matter whether you perform this standing with a dumbbell, lying on the floor or with your elbow on a bench, or whether you prefer to perform this exercise on a cable pulley.

The differences are negligible compared to the big difference an incorrect exercise execution would make. So it's better if you perform an exercise you like with light weights and feel the muscles working than if you use an exercise that was shown in study XYZ to be most effective with a weight you can barely handle and where you don't feel the target muscles working.

Incidentally, this also applies to static doorframe pushbacks, which are basically an inverted stretch of the pecs where you push backwards with the back of your arm (arm/torso angle of 90 degrees) against an immovable object such as a doorjamb. If you don't feel that this static exercise is working for you, then choose another exercise.

Isolating the supraspinatus muscle with side raises:

According to Jobe & Moynes (1), dumbbell side raises with a 30 degree horizontal adduction of the arm completely isolates the supraspinatus muscle when you rotate your shoulders so that your palms are facing the floor (the good old "emptying the bottle" technique). Doing 1 to 2 sets of side raises in this way is a time-efficient way to include a strengthening exercise for the upper part of the rotator cuff in your program. However, you will need to use much lighter weights than for regular side raises.

Figure 8: Dumbbell side raises with arms adducted 30 degrees horizontally for the supraspinatus muscle (Image: Thirty Exercises for Better Golf Paperback- January 1, 1986 by Frank W. Jobe)

3. conclusion - three plus one equals injury-free strength and muscle mass

A mandatory prerequisite for building impressive shoulder muscles and therefore broad, round shoulders is a stable foundation in the form of strong rotator cuff muscles. If you neglect the latter, you will either reach a plateau or - even worse - injure yourself sooner or later.

Your front shoulder muscles in particular are worked hard during pretty much all chest and triceps press exercises. It is therefore neither necessary nor advisable (if at all) to perform more than one "isolation exercise" in the form of a multi-joint exercise such as barbell or dumbbell shoulder presses. Shoulder presses are also an exercise that will significantly help you to develop your upper chest - an area where many bodybuilders feel they have deficits.

If you do some side raises and reverse flyes in addition to this mass building exercise, then the only thing left to do is a rotator cuff exercise of your choice - after which you're ready for some highly anabolic rest and recovery.

An EMG optimized shoulder workout

There are of course a variety of ways to combine the individual exercises. My personal recommendation for good overall shoulder development and rotator cuff strength based on EMG measurements would be as follows:

1. Shoulder press - barbell or dumbbell seated, 6-8 reps
2. Lateral raises - with dumbbells, elbow flexion <15°(!), 10-12 repetitions
3. Reverse flying movements - machine or dumbbells, internal rotation, 10-12 repetitions
4. External dumbbell rotations - lying on the floor, 12-15 repetitions

Tip: You can also perform a few Arnold Presses if you feel that you are not challenging your front shoulder muscles enough with the shoulder press.

You may have noticed that I don't give any volume recommendations (i.e. number of sets). This is based on the fact that I have found that everyone has to find out for themselves what works best for them in terms of optimal volume, training frequency and split program. This may change over time depending on lifestyle factors, diet and supplementation.

References:

1. Wend-Uwe Boeckh-Behrens Wolfgang Buskies. Fitness strength training: The best exercises and methods for sport and health. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 2000.
2. Thirty Exercises for Better Golf Paperback- January 1, 1986 by Frank W. Jobe

Source: https://suppversity.blogspot.com/2011/08/suppversity-emg-series-m-deltoideus-m.html

I answer a lot of questions. I answer phone calls, emails and text messages. I give a lot of workshops and spend a lot of time on the internet. Something I've realized recently is this - people are good at reading articles and books, but sometimes they miss the point.

I readily admit that this is my fault. I love experimenting, testing and adapting good training ideas. My mistake is writing a short article about Tabata front squats, slosh pipes, or the "Big 21" program. This is the beginning of the problem. People read these articles and are left with a big problem. And this is the point I'm trying to make here.

Not every good idea, training advice or diet can or should be used all at once. In previous articles, I've tried to describe this with terms like "warrior", "king" and "park bench". Recently, however, I realized that I need to simplify it even further by using just two words:

• Sensible
• Brutal

Reasonable is a pretty tame word, but it's rarely used these days. There's a fantastic quote from Clint Eastwood:

"I tried to be reasonable - I didn't like it."

I think Clint sums it up well when you relate it to sensible eating and sensible workouts. Let's be honest - they're not particularly sexy. A sensible approach to fitness lacks all the great adjectives that define our business, but most of us can get by with "sensible" for a long time.

Brutal is more fun. I no longer use other terms as they may fall under copyright. I do, however, have a handy tool for any of you who want to publish your own e-book.

Simply choose one word each from column A, column B and column C:

* For some variation, put a number in front of column A of your choice - usually "three", "five" or "seven".

Then fill in the following template:

The (insert a word of your choice from column A here) (insert a word of your choice from column B here) (insert a word of your choice from column C here).

I am just as guilty here as anyone else and hope everyone sees this with humor. Feel free to insert your own descriptions.

"Brutal" training sessions are what we tend to look for on this site. If I write something about a workout that makes you throw up, I'll be getting emails about it for years to come.

Are you interested in a brutal diet? Maybe I can find a link to the Velocity diet somewhere. I tried this diet as part of a psychological "retread" and I have to agree, it was psychological because after 28 days I felt like a psychopath.

One of the articles that really interested me was the "Eat like a man" series of articles. This diet combined 5 high protein, high fat days with a weekend of carb loading. I adapted this concept for my athletes and still use it as my nutritional template for strength athletes. I still believe this is a sensible nutritional approach to a 'clean' diet for athletes who need to develop strength and speed for their sport.

It's the mix that people overlook. This is what I want to address here. If you imagine a simple pie chart, I want you to lay out the next few years of your training as quadrants of the pie chart in the following way:

• Sensible training sessions, brutal nutrition
• Sensible training sessions, sensible nutrition
• Brutal training sessions, sensible nutrition
• Brutal training sessions, brutal nutrition

Let's look at each of these quadrants in detail:

Sensible workouts, brutal diet

Most of us use diet for our fat loss needs. Years ago, a well-known professor told me the following during one of my workshops, "Heck, we know how to lose fat and weight: tie yourself to a tree and come back in three days."

I would bet that works, but I would hesitate to actually recommend such a thing. Of course, the following will be the some message some readers will take away from this for themselves "Hey, dude...tie me to a tree!"

Brutal diets work - we all know that. Adherence can be a problem, of course, but brutal diets get the job done. I do, however, have a problem with trying to follow a brutal diet - I just don't do well on them. But brutal diets do the job for me too. I've lost a lot of weight very quickly with them before competitions.

However, I believe that if you are going to follow a brutal diet, you should do sensible training sessions. What are sensible workouts? Well, in most cases, I recommend that you perform the basic human movements as part of your workout:

• Push
• pulls
• hip flexions
• Squats
• Loaded Carries (carrying loads over a distance)

I tend to have people stick to a total repetition range of 15 to 25 reps for each exercise in reasonable workouts. You should know these workouts. The classic workouts fall into this range:

• 3 sets of 5 reps
• 5 sets of 5 repetitions
• 3 sets of 8 repetitions

The "5 x 5" workout was popularized by Reg Park over half a century ago and it formed the basis of most of Arnold's mass-building phases. 5 x 5 on bench press, rowing, deadlifts, squats and farmer's walks is enough training for anyone. I have a simple formula for the load used:

• If you can't do 15 total reps (over all 5 sets), then the weight is too heavy
• If you can easily do more than 25 total reps, then the weight is too light
• If you stay in this range and increase the weight over time, then you are doing everything right. If you fail to increase the weight over a longer period of time, then consider this as the real problem underlying your lack of progress.

If you are putting all your energy into your diet plan, then choose an exercise program that you know you can do. At best, you can follow a brutal diet twice a year. So choose a training program that you know how to do, make sure you have sufficient recovery and - most importantly - be aware that you don't have to expend a lot of mental energy in terms of discipline and free will to complete this phase successfully.

Sensible training sessions, sensible nutrition

I think you should spend most of your training year (a better term would probably be training decade or training life) combining sensible training sessions with sensible nutrition.

A few years ago at a clinic in Colorado Springs, we were told that our diet should revolve around three things:

• Low-fat protein sources
• Vegetables
• Pure water

This is still good advice. I've been to several workshops over the years centered around the Mediterranean diet and these two approaches seem to be in line with each other. However, if you are more comfortable with Atkins, Paleo, Zone, Ornish or whatever you consider "your" way of eating, then this would be your sensible diet.

You should spend most of your life on this method of "sensible and reasonable". That seems sensible to me.

Brutal training sessions, sensible nutrition

For me, these are phases in life when it's all about maximum performance. As a teenager, I referred to these phases as "the big push." As I prepared for the track and field season or an Olympic weightlifting competition, I knew it was time to spend extra time in the weight room or on the sports field. Not only did I need to improve the quality of my movements - I also needed to increase the quantity.

And that's the key to brutal training sessions. Marty Gallagher is planning these for 12 weeks. Tommy Kono is planning an eight-week maximum phase. And Dave Turner (my strength coach) plans eight weeks of increasing load, followed by two weeks of perfecting technique, which is immediately followed by competition. The Soviet program I used to use involved six weeks of long, heavy squat training three days a week.

If you are doing a really brutal training session then your diet needs to match this and be simple. I hope you are supporting your training with "big boy" food choices.

For years I believed that brutal training could offset any nutritional choices. However, based on my experiences and observations of others I trust, as well as long discussions with one of the brightest minds in sports nutrition, I've learned that I was wrong - again.

Choose your foods wisely as you ramp up your training! Like a brutal diet, most people can do a period of brutal training maybe twice a year. I have encouraged my older athletes (mid-twenties and up) to think about a smaller increase per year and work up from that to a maximum increase later in the year. This is also reasonable, doable and repeatable.

Brutal training sessions, brutal nutrition

Everyone thinks they can pull this off, but in reality there are very few people who can train hard and diet brutally at the same time. Years ago, I had two bodybuilder friends who helped each other compete. One day, Lance called me and asked if I could help them with their training. The other bodybuilder, George, had a week to go until his competition. He was basically living on salad. That and no more. That's a brutal diet.

He did one set and then lay on the floor. It was my job to get him back on his feet and push him to do the next set. And then - bang - he was back on the floor. After the timed rest period was over, I had to push him again to do his next set.

Personally, I can't understand this. I might be able to muster the energy and resources to approach my training in this way once every four years, but it would really have to be worth the time and effort. There would have to be something really big at stake.

But if you look on the internet, everyone seems to be training with absolute ruthlessness and eating nothing but straw mixed with protein powder. Hats off to you!

Workout-free, diet-free

This is something I never understood until recently. Just stop worrying about training and diet once in a while. Go on vacation to an all-inclusive hotel, don't work out, eat whatever you feel like and forget about everything else. I learned a lot about being human on a week-long cruise, believe me.

Just for the record - if you haven't sunbathed for a while, don't spend day one lying in the sun and drinking beer all day. I've seen a lot of this. And women who drink a lot of alcohol in a hot pool seem to leave the pool with less clothing than they were wearing before. These are lessons I didn't realize I needed to learn.

The idea behind all of this is pretty obvious. Structure your year or training career in a way that includes different phases of really hard training and some phases of strict dieting efforts, but have an eye on long periods of smart, progressive resistance training.

When I read something about an excellent diet or training idea, I file it away in my extensive collection of materials. I let it simmer there for a while and then look for a place in my training year where I can incorporate that idea.

It's that simple - and that sensible.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tough-or-reasonable

By Dan John | 10/15/12

1 - Press over your face

Press exercises respond very well to higher volume and frequency. At this point, let's first look at the basic form of the exercise execution.

To generate a solid base for the bench press movement, you should pull your shoulders down and back. Imagine that you want to press your shoulders into the pad and tuck the tops of your shoulder blades into your back pockets. Your feet should be flat on the floor and your gluteus should be tensed.

The grip width will vary depending on how tall you are, but as a rule of thumb, the grip should be somewhere between your hands on the knurling and your little fingers on the rings. Now you are ready to push the bar out of the rack.

Once you have lifted the bar out of the rack, let it rest in the position that feels most comfortable. Adjust your elbows to the side as you begin to lower the bar. This is the ideal position to distribute the weight evenly across your pecs, shoulders and triceps, allowing you to use the greatest amount of muscle to push the most weight.

Do not perform bench presses with your elbows out. This puts too much strain on your shoulders and will almost inevitably lead to problems in the long run. On the downward movement, the bar should touch your chest at about nipple level or even slightly lower.

When you push the bar up, don't try to push it straight up, but push it up and over your face back to the starting position. This position is much more beneficial at the highest point of the movement. If you have trouble pushing the weight further up in the middle of the movement, tell yourself "over my face, over my face" and the weight will start to move again.

For more experienced exercisers, using bands and chains on the bench press is a great variation to help train the upper portion of the movement.

2 - Pin Presses

Exercisers have long used pin presses to improve their bench press performance. In this variation of the bench press, you start the movement not at the lowest point of the movement but from a point in the lower to middle range of motion by using a bench with a safety rack and setting it to the appropriate height.

However, instead of starting the movement from the safety rack as usual with pin presses, lift the bar from the rack at the highest point of the movement, lower it to the safety rack where you pause briefly and then press it up again.

Also try to use two different heights of the safety rack: one in the lower section of the range of motion and one in the middle section. The variation with the safety rest in the lower range will help you to increase your strength in the lower range, while the variation with the safety rest in the middle range will help you to increase your strength in the upper range of motion. Do not use these two variations within the same training session. However, you can use them during the same training week.

3 - Floor Presses

Floor presses - bench presses lying flat on the floor - take all pressure from the legs out of the movement, which means you have to rely solely on your pressing muscles. Using a tighter grip will help you to increase recruitment of the triceps and strong triceps are vital for using heavy weights on the bench press. The use of chains is a very useful variation in this exercise to increase strength at the top of the movement.

4 - Paused bench press

Use a full 3 second pause with the bar on your chest. This will make you feel like a weakling, but it will lead to strong improvements in the lower range of the bench press. The pause will also take the stretch reflex out of the equation.

This pause will require you to move the weight up using only the strength of your muscles, as the stretch reflex will not help you through the bottom half of the upward movement. Paused bench presses also help you to improve your technique and control the bar better.

5 - Barbell press overhead

Strong shoulders play a huge part in your band press performance and there are two versions of the barbell shoulder press that are really effective. The best is a strict standing barbell shoulder press with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.

Another excellent variation is seated shoulder presses without a back pad or other back support. This variation requires you to keep the torso more vertical and it also emphasizes the triceps more. For even more variation, you can use chains to put even more stress on the triceps.

Repetitions, sets and autoregulation

Bench presses respond very well to a wide range of repetition ranges - anything from 1 to 10 repetitions is suitable. If hypertrophy is your goal, then stick more to the upper end of this range. If strength is your goal, then stick more to the lower end of the range.

Use autoregulation to determine the weight to use and the number of sets to perform during a training session. Autoregulation allows you to train to the level of performance you are capable of on a given training day.

If you have a good day, you will be able to use more weight and perform more sets. If you have a bad day, your body will tell you to use less weight and do fewer sets. This will allow you to get the stimulus you need that day - not too little and not too much - which will help you make greater progress over time.

But how do you autoregulate your training session? First, work your way up to a heavy set. Then perform descending sets with a given percentage of the heaviest set until you reach the desired level of exhaustion. Try to perform the heaviest set about one repetition before reaching muscle failure so that you have one repetition left in the tank and also perform the descending sets to the point where you have one repetition left in reserve.

Here is an example:

Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heavy set and perform sets of 5 reps. The whole thing might look like this for an exerciser who can bench press 300 pounds:

• Empty bar only x 20
• 95 x 10
• 135 x 5
• 185 x 3
• 205 x 5 (more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (still more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 245 x 5 (about 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (reduce the weight to roughly 92% of the heaviest set and keep one repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (more than 1 repetition in the tank)
• 225 x 5 (roughly 1 repetition in the tank, the training session is finished)

Achieve a new personal best in 6 weeks

In this program you will bench press 4 days per week and use autoregulation style sets. You will use a variation of the bench press 3 days per week and a variation of the overhead press one day per week. You will also use different variations to focus on the bottom and top end of the bench press movement, which will help you improve your bench press performance faster.

During the first week, you will probably feel sore muscles, but soreness should not stop you from training. You will adapt to this.

Remember to leave about one repetition in the tank on your heaviest set and then start doing descending sets. You should have a few reps left in the tank after each descending set, but when you reach a set where you only have one repetition left in the tank, end the training session.

Week 1

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin Presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 2

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict shoulder press standing or seated: work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: Pin Presses with pins in the lower range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Floor presses with close grip: Work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank. This is a great time to use chains if you have access to them.

Week 3

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 7 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set, and perform sets of 7 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 3 reps, reduce the weight to 94-96% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 3 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 4

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict shoulder press standing or seated: work your way up to a heavy set of 6 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 6 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: Pin Presses with pins in the lower area: Work your way up to a heavy set of 2 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 2 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Floor presses with close grip: Work your way up to a heavy set of 5 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 5 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank. Use chains if possible.

Week 5

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 2 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 2 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Tuesday: strict standing or seated shoulder press: work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92-94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Thursday: 3 second rest bench press: Work your way up to a heavy set of 4 reps, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 4 reps until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.
• Saturday: Pin Presses with pins in the middle range: Work your way up to a heavy set of 6 repetitions, reduce the weight to 92 to 94% of the heaviest set and perform sets of 6 repetitions until you have roughly 1 repetition left in the tank.

Week 6

• Monday: Bench press: Work your way up to a heavy single repetition with last week's weight.
• Tuesday: No training
• Thursday Bench Press: - Work your way up to a single repetition with 90% of Monday's weight.
• Saturday Bench Press: Set a new personal best.

Can't train 5 days a week?

If you feel that you can't bench press 4 days a week, combine the Monday and Tuesday workouts with the Thursday and Saturday workouts. For the first training session of the week, always perform the bench press first, followed by the shoulder press variation.

For the second training session of the week, perform the exercise that improves your weakest point first. If your weak point is in the lower range of motion, perform the lower range exercise first. If your weak point is in the upper part of the movement, do the exercise for the upper part first.

You will continue to build strength with two days of pressing per week with the same volume, but not as much as with four days of pressing exercises per week.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/bench-like-a-beast

By Derek Binford