For years I've struggled with the bench. I've conjured dozens of excuses as to what was truly stagnating my bench; was it my form, my long arms, my grip, my program, my wrists bending, the Commies? And with this litany of culprits, I tried a litany of methods to try to bolster my paltry bench. I’ve done close grip, pause reps, used bands, chains, done board presses, done floor presses, run Westside, pin presses, lock outs, I’ve put on a slingshot, I've run peaking programs. But nothing. Nothing took my bench out of the mid-200s.





Dubliners, a book predicated on a variety of characters experiencing epiphanies regarding the veracity of their plight, I had an epiphany of my own. As I implemented this keto diet, I began shedding some fat, and the true form of my musculature began to show. That is when I discovered something: my pectorals were severely lacking in muscular development compared to the rest of my body. Then, as I sat flipping through Joyce’s, a book predicated on a variety of characters experiencing epiphanies regarding the veracity of their plight, I had an epiphany of my own. As I implemented this keto diet, I began shedding some fat, and the true form of my musculature began to show. That is when I discovered something: my pectorals were severely lacking in muscular development compared to the rest of my body.





It's called "Kofi Kingston" syndrome

After shutting my mouth which hung agog, I realized that it completely made sense. I never really subjected my chest to a program which focused on pectoral development. Whenever I decided I wanted to have some respectable powerlifts, I immediately jumped into strength based bench programs. Strength based programs assume that you are already beginning with a good base and tend to neglect volume for the chest. Sure, I was hammering my accessory movers, such as the triceps, lats, upper back, and shoulders. I figured if these individual body parts got stronger, then so would my bench. WRONG.





Listen, it’s simple. If you have a bench that is not intermediate or elite level, fuck all the frills. Forget the fancy accessory lifts and boards and chains and speed reps and what not. Just work your chest. Adopt a bodybuilding style program for your chest which forces it to grow. Why do you think those bench-curl monkeys who can’t squat, deadlift, OH press, or row any amount of weight always seem to have a somewhat respectable bench? It is because their lifting career has predicated itself around working dat dere chest with as much volume as possible.





Stan Efferding is an IFBB pro. He has benched 606 in RAW competition. Coincidence?

I adopted this program unintentionally. As you may have read in my previous post, my primary concern at the moment is developing an aesthetic physique. Thus, for the first time, I subjected my chest to a bodybuilding routine. It was nothing complex. I worked chest twice a week, every three days. I did three exercises a day, usually around 6 to 12 reps. Another thing I did was move every pressing movement to its incline version. From what I had researched, this was a great way to develop a round, thick, and tighter chest. Many people having a sagging or soft lower chest. And how they attempt to correct this issue is by doing lots of decline or flat work. This is the exact opposite of what you want to do. Build a better upper shelf and the lower pectoral will be forced to correct itself. So my sample chest routine looked like this:





Monday





Pullovers: 2-3x15-20

Weighted Dips (elbows flared): 5-6x5-10

Incline Flies: 3-4x8-12

Incline Guillotine Press on Smith Machine: 2-3x10-15





Thursday





Pullovers: 2-3x15-20

Incline Dumbbell Press: 5-6x6-12

Cable Cross Overs: 3-4x10-12

Chest Press Machine: 2-3x10





That’s it. Nothing involute. But notice, no flat or decline pressing. So how did this work for chest development? Here are two photos spanning around 8 weeks:









But what about benching strength? Well, after approximately 8 weeks of this program, I decided I wanted to see where my Flat Barbell Bench Press was at. One week I capriciously decided to see what reverse grip bench press felt like. I played around with the form but didn’t try to put up any serious weight. The following week I did it again. However, this time I benched 235 reverse grip for a paused set of 7. Easy, real easy. I believe it even came after a couple chest movements. In the recent weeks I’ve started experimenting with conventional bench press again. What I’ve discovered so far is that I can easily rep out weights I used to hit for singles, doubles, or triples. I have also noticed that now I have a tendency to take a much wider grip than I have in the past. In the past, the close grip would attempt to compensate for my pectoral weakness. Now that the movement can effectively utilize my chest as a primary mover, my body feels naturally inclined to grab wide.





So that’s it. For you novice lifters who fret about the bench, abandon all the mendacious complex secret fixes and just shut up and work your chest.



