So a brief history of me and pressing movements. I started off in martial arts and specifically kickboxing. As a result I did a ton of heavy bag work punching and kicking my life away. I am not sure on the science of it, but to me punching a heavy bag is similar to depth jumps for pressing. Also due to the positioning of a punch there isn't a ton of pec work but a lot of shoulders and tricep action. From there I went to CrossFit and later Strongman. Both have a lot of overhead pressing work thus continuing my tricep and shoulder dominance. I didn't bench all that often when doing strongman in the standard sense but I did a lot of close grip benching and slingshot and block work just to hit the triceps for locking out my log and axle presses. My best bench while I was doing strongman was 385lbs. I know it could have been better if I had hit more chest work but that's not what Strongman tests. Once I switched to powerlifting training and started bringing rep ranges down and my grip out a bit the poundages flew up. 385lbs-470lbs in less than a year. So let's address what happened throughout my training history.
First of all I have been hitting heavy bags since I was 12 years old. I am 33 now. So that means I have been, at least to some degree training my pressing muscles for 21 years. That's a pretty big base. So if you are benching 225lbs, you have been training for 6 months, and you don't know why you aren't pressing in the mid 3's then you need to stop reading now and just keep eating and hitting the weights for another few years. Rule 1 for Bauss Benching: Get some years under your belt.
Training age aside think of how many reps were spent with relatively heavy weights (for me) while training strongman. Ignore the overhead pressing and realize I was hitting close grips, sling shots, or board presses for sets of 6-10 for 4 years straight. That's in addition to the heavy overhead pressing. This is a pretty big hypertrophy base for once I started benching at higher percentages. Rule 2: Hypertrophy phases lay the groundwork for massive presses.
The next step for my bench was actually benching heavy and with a decent frequency. I was hitting more traditional bench presses 2-3 days per week. They were structured with 1 heavy day and 1-2 rep days depending on how I was feeling. Rule 3 for a big bench: Bench heavy once or twice per week.
The last thing that helped me is equal parts mental and physical and that's variety. Don't just flat bench every day. Mix it up a little. Use some chains or bands. Hit some incline bench or dumbbells. If you are hitting your chest, shoulders, and tri's you will be hitting the muscles that need to get stronger to hit bigger numbers. Also hitting those variations will allow you to address any weak spots you may have and prevent you from overuse injuries. For me the biggest part of this concept is that I don't get bored. I did come from CrossFit after all. Variety will keep you engaged with your training. Rule 4: Variety will keep you coming back and progressing.
So out of those are all well and good but I would say rules 2 and 3 have the biggest impact. It's the basic stuff that will always work. Make your muscles bigger with hypertrophy work. Make those muscles stronger with heavier weights. Peak for a month then repeat the process.
Happy benching. Now go get freaking strong!
Talk soon,
Dan is a top 10 ranked amateur
strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004.
You can follow Dan on Instagram @RoninStr and @RoninStrApparel
For training and nutrition advice and tips email roni
