The Big Lifts. Benchpress:

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Linette Lawrence
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2 Ogus / OGUS753 / 2 Before beginning any new exercise or diet program, it is recommended that you seek medical advice from your personal physician. This book is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a licensed physician, nor is it intended for the treatment or prevention of disease. Use of the information herein is at the sole risk of the reader. Copyright No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author. Copyright 2016 by Matt Ogus. All rights reserved.

3 Ogus / OGUS753 / 3 Chapter 2: The Big Lifts You ll be doing a ton of squatting, deadlifting, benchpressing, and strict overhead pressing on #Ogus753. We ll generally be referring to these lifts as The Big 4, Core Work, or The Main Lifts. We re focusing on these lifts to keep things simple and to get you strong. If you re reading this book, it s assumed that you re not a beginner, so I m not going to treat you like one. Normally for the squat I d have to teach the bodyweight squat, the goblet squat, and so on, before ever having someone put a barbell on their back. I won t do that here because I m assuming you can already squat at least your bodyweight for reps. This isn t a book on biomechanics, but here are some basic fundamental tips for your Big 4. Benchpress: Just like the squat and deadlift, the benchpress is also an extremely unique exercise from person to person. Shoulder anatomy differs from one guy to the next just as hip anatomy does, not to mention everyone s benchpress is highly influenced by previous injuries, setbacks, and how they ve done it in the past. We all have different preferences and our benchpress is even dependent on who we look up to on Instagram and other social media. If you look around,

4 Ogus / OGUS753 / 4 everyone is going to have more or less elbow flaring, they re going to bring the bar higher or lower on their body, have more or less arch, and have more or less hip opening and hip drive than the next guy. Just go to a powerlifting meet or watch a full length meet on YouTube and you ll see what I mean. Some guys plant their traps before their feet, other people set their feet before their back arches. The setup for the benchpress is perhaps the most unique of all lifts. With that said, I ll cover some of the fundamentals that should apply to the vast majority of you benchpressing. Then I ll cover the step-by-steps of how I recommend setting up to benchpress for most people and most purposes Benchpress Fundamentals Properly warm up the shoulders, chest, triceps, and even lats prior to your sessions of benchpress When setting up the benchpress and during the execution KEEP THE SHOULDERS DOWN AND BACK - Same as when you re standing up - down meaning towards your hips, back meaning retracting your shoulder blades and popping that chest up - do this while lying on the bench You don t want a completely flat back, no matter how much you re trying to target and isolate your chest and no matter how often you say you ll never do a powerlifting meet, and no matter how much shit you used to talk about that Russian 12 year old girl who benchpressed 300 lbs with a huge arch If your back is completely flat, it means you re not doing your upper body correctly; you re not sticking out the chest

5 Ogus / OGUS753 / 5 and bringing down and back the shoulders enough - You ll probably hurt yourself if you haven t already The larger arches (the ones you see on YouTube and that you share and talk shit about on Facebook) tend to come from a combination of intentional spinal flexion and proper upper body benching position. It s usually down for powerlifting purposes - to limit the ROM Mild to moderate arches come from simply doing what you re supposed to do on benchpress involving the upper body musculature. There s a strong correlation between the people who don t follow/haven t followed these guidelines and shoulder injuries The feet should never leave the floor unless you re intentionally doing legs-up benchpressing The heels don t necessarily have to be on the floor, and such is the case if you position your feet towards the bench as opposed to out from it, but you should always be driving through the heels and the entire foot. Keep your butt on the bench - no matter how much leg drive you use Do not bounce the weight off your chest - don t use momentum Now that we ve covered the fundamentals of proper benchpressing, let s go over a few of the different ways Setup As I ve mentioned before, benchpress setups are as unique as

6 Ogus / OGUS753 / 6 snowflakes. Everybody who s serious about their bench has some sort of ritual they go through every time. The ritual itself isn t as important as what you re actually doing through the setup - and that s positioning yourself in a safe and powerful place to benchpress. The main goal with the setup is so that you cover the benching fundamentals and that you get into the same starting position every single time that you benchpress. What a ritual helps with is creating a habit of doing the same exact setup every time, giving you a consistent, reliable benchpress. I m going to give you an example of just one way you can set up. Over time you should create and find your own groove. You want the bar to be racked at a height that is proper for you, such that unracking the bar doesn t require you to do half a benchpress to get it off, but also such that your shoulder blades don t get unpacked when you lift the bar off the rack Unless you know exactly where your feet go, I d recommend just guesstimating where your feet are going to go but focusing on setting up your upper body first. Lay back onto the bench with the bar somewhere above your face or neck Some people begin their setup by putting their feet up on the bench, and then putting them on the floor only after their upper body is exactly where they want it Pick your grip width that is most comfortable and best accomplishes the goal at hand, whether it be maximum chest stimulation, maximum weight you can lift, or a combination of both Wider grip will involve more flaring of the elbows and

7 Ogus / OGUS753 / 7 appears to beat up the rotator cuffs in many lifters more than a more moderate width grip Your perfect grip is a journey; it will change over time and that s perfectly okay. When you do, only make but small adjustments and be cognizant In a one-swing movement, lift your upper body off the bench and plant it a little lower on the bench, the bar somewhere above your forehead or the space above your head, except this time with your chest puffed up, and your shoulders down and back - Remember that, DOWN AND BACK Instead of lifting yourself into this position, you can also slide The key here is upper back tightness and arching the upper back, making it look like you re turning this movement into more of a decline press A lower back arch comes as a side effect of an upper back arch and planting the feet on the ground This is usually where the benchpress setup ends for most people, even those with decent setups (except with the bar above the forehead). I like to add in this next part Next, while keeping complete tightness, In the opposite direction, Scoot or Slide your upper body just a half an inch or an inch back up the bench towards its head, ending with the bar directly above your eyes or eyebrows. This is done to keep the meat of the traps down towards the bottom of the bench and keep the upper back stable during the bench press Open the hell out of your hips and make sure your feet are where

8 Ogus / OGUS753 / 8 you want them Your feet can be placed in towards the bench/butt, or out directly underneath the knees When the feet are set closer to the bench/butt, you have to be careful of bridging, which is when your butt leaves the bench Just like we usually don t want your feet in the air, we don t want your heels out further than directly underneath your knees. You lose foundation and most of the benefit that the legs have to offer during the benchpress Re-assess your grip if necessary Make sure the bar is placed in the lower meat of your palm, and not in the middle of your hand as if you were doing a pushup I ALWAYS recommend a thumbs-around grip, they don t call the thumbless grip Suicide Grip for no reason Apply tension through the legs, and take one final deep breath into your diaphragm and then unrack Before discussing the unrack, let s have a quick word on the use of spotters. Using a Spotter on the Benchpress Despite the warning signs in most gyms to always use a spotter, I

9 Ogus / OGUS753 / 9 recommend becoming self-dependent and not needing one in everyday training. Yes, even during your heavy top-sets where you re hitting new PR s (but if any situation calls for a safety-spot, that one would be it). I m not advocating recklessness here, I m advocating mastering your craft, unless of course, you re into being dependent on somebody helping you with every the majority of your work sets for the rest of your life. I feel that it s better to not need one than to need one and not have one, or worse, to need one every single rep of every single set in every single benchpress workout. Get used to not having to use a spotter. If your gym has a benchpress that sucks so bad that you need a spotter because the unrack point is so high that without a spotter you completely lose your upper back tightness and shoulder retraction you know where I m going with this. As a lifter independent of spotters during normal training, in terms of the unrack, you want to be as high up on the bench as you can, while not hitting the pins when you re actually benchpressing. The lower on the bench you are, the more impossible it is to unrack the bar by yourself, especially with weight on it. I m assuming you re using a typical standard benchpress and not one of those magical Easy Unrack benchpresses. Anyway, let s move on. Unrack: Before, during, and after the unrack, remember that maintaining all fundamental benchpress elements I mentioned above is incredibly important Take a deep breath into the diaphragm before the unrack, and before each rep

10 Ogus / OGUS753 / 10 Press the weight up just enough that you can bring the bar out from its supports Keep everything tight, and don t allow yourself to lose the retraction in your shoulder blades while unracking Do not begin the descent until the bar is in its starting position and the weight has completely settled Benchpress Execution Break the bar with your grip and keep everything tight With a deep breath, flex your lats as you lower the bar to your chest (where you lower it will depend on your grip, your arch, your goal, your preference, past injuries, etc) Tuck your elbows during the descent and inversely flare the elbows to the same degree during the ascent. The extent of tuck is incredibly individual Let the bar either touch the chest or pause it for a 2 count Whether you do touch-and-go or pause reps, just keep it consistent from one workout to the next. Keep in mind that you can touch-and-go more than you can pause rep, so don t do pause reps with your touch-and-go training max. Don t bounce the weight off your body, or double-dip if you re pausing (where you pause it on your chest, and then let it sink further just before pressing) If you do pause reps, don t change elbow position while paused Once you ve pushed the weight up, allow the weight to settle before beginning the next rep Maintain the same high level of tightness and shoulder blade retraction, lower the bar to the same place, have the same pause count if you re pausing, on every rep of every work set On the last rep, complete the repetition and let the weight settle before

11 Ogus / OGUS753 / 11 racking it, don t start begin racking it during your last rep Benchpress Miscellaneous Head Position: It s very common for people to lift their heads off the bench as they keep there eyes on the bar during the descent. As long as it s not excessive, I don t see a big issue. Wall Slides: As an insurance policy, I highly recommend incorporating wall slides during your upper body warmup routine, and perhaps between your first few sets of benchpress warmup. Heck, maybe even between working sets. Maximizing your benchpress on 7/5/3: If you re leaning more towards maximizing your benchpress (say, versus getting in more upper chest work), during more work on your OHP day you may consider doing close grip benchpress for 2-5 sets of 6-10 reps. This will give you more bench work and help you strengthen the triceps for a bigger normal benchpress. Don t do so much that it negatively impacts your normal benching. Try to stay beneath RPE 9 on the majority of sets if possible. It s advisable to structure and customize each mesocycle a bit differently, having slightly different goals for the sake of specialization, variety/fun, and to back off in terms of volume on certain muscles or movements so that you can push even harder on them later. If going ham on everything equally is working for you right now, that s great, but if/when you feel like you don t want to do that any more, consider specialization blocks, which will be discussed later. End of Sample Get the full ebook at

FULL BODY WORKOUT ROUTINE OVERVIEW 3 WORKOUT A BEGINNER VERSION 4 WORKOUT A INTERMEDIATE VERSION 5 EXERCISE TUTORIALS 6 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS 13

TABLE OF CONTENTS FULL BODY WORKOUT ROUTINE OVERVIEW 3 WORKOUT A BEGINNER VERSION 4 WORKOUT A INTERMEDIATE VERSION 5 EXERCISE TUTORIALS 6 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS 13 DISCLAIMER 14 2 THE FULL BODY WORKOUT ROUTINE