5 Secrets to Boost Your Bench Press

The bench press has been considered one of the gold standard exercises to develop muscle, strength, and bragging rights. Have you ever met someone who didn’t want to better their bench press?

Whether you want muscle mass, incredible strength, or the best of both worlds, we have some secret weapons you can use to maximize your bench press. Let’s take a look at the top 5 secrets for boosting your bench press 

5. Use Drop Sets

Drop Sets are a training technique that will help you increase lean muscle tissue as well as strength. You’ll also notice a jump in your muscular endurance. The system of a Drop Set is simple but it may require the use of a spot for safety reasons.

• Complete one set of 10 repetitions on the bench press.
• Now, lower the weight by 5 or 10 pounds, depending on your initial set.
• Complete another set of 10.
• Lower the weight again.
• Follow this pattern until you reach total failure or there are no more plates on the bar.

4. Eat More Quality Protein

It isn’t enough to work hard in the gym; you also need to work hard in the kitchen. Nutrition is the path to big gains. If you are crushing it at the gym but then coming home to a mess of a diet, you won’t see the changes you want. You should be eating a well-balanced diet but one key point is to increase your overall protein intake. This can come in the form of lean meats, vegan protein sources such as peas or rice, and supplement. A whey protein supplement is a quick and easy way to help with your bench press.

3. Train Your Bench Twice

If the bench press is your focus, then you need to put it front and center in your workout schedule. If you’re serious about boosting your bench press, then you need to be training chest twice a week. The best way to do this is to switch back and forth between hypertrophy training and strength training. Here’s a quick breakdown of both:

Hypertrophy:

• 65% to 75% of your one-repetition maximum
• 8 to 12 repetitions

Strength:

• 75% to 90% of your 1RM
• 4 to 8 repetitions

2. Rest Up

Continuing with this idea of supporting your gains, there are days when the only thing you’ll need to do is sleep. Getting a consistent 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night will help support your bench press in a big way. During the R.E.M. stages of sleep, your body releases high levels of growth hormone. This will help to rebuild muscle tissue and support your recovery.

1. Wear a Sauna Suit

One of the best ways to increase your bench press is also one of the easiest. Wearing a neoprene sauna suit can help to dramatically increase your total fatigue time. What does this mean for your bench press?

Higher endurance levels will allow you to push yourself harder for a longer period of time. This increased time under tension will promote muscular hypertrophy and strength. Sound too good to be true? Science has proven it to be true. A recent study from Dr. Lance Dalleck demonstrated that subjects wearing the Kutting Weight sauna suit during their workouts experienced a boost in endurance (total fatigue time) up to 67%.

Tell Us What You Think!

Do you have your own methods for increasing your bench press?

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