QUANTUM BENCH PRESS MANUAL www.quantumcrossfit.com ABOUT THE AUTHORS Alastair MacNicol is an elite powerlifter competing in the 220 pound class. As of the publishing of this manual, September 2015, he holds the Canadian deadlift record at 760 as well as best lifts of 645 in the squat, 402 in the bench press and an 1802 total. He’s currently ranked in the top 20 all time by powerlifting watch and has competed in and medalled at some of the most prestigious international competitions including the WPC World Championships and Raw Unity. He did his first meet in 2009 where he totaled 1315, since then he has competed in over 30 competitions and slowly improved his performance through hard work and relentlessly striving to optimizing his technique and training methods. Alastair holds a degree in Health Studies from Queens University and works as a coach at Quantum Crossfit where he shares his love for fitness and runs the powerlifting program. Peter Roberts is an in-demand strength & conditioning expert and nutrition coach in Toronto, Canada, based out of his home gym Quantum CrossFit. Since 2007, he's coached hundreds of successful clients to achieve their long-term fitness and health goals, specializing in helping athletes improve weaknesses, imbalances and technique limitations so they can hit personal bests and stay injury free. He also posts useful content and consults through PeterRobertsCoaching.com QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 2 BEFORE YOU START Prerequisite: Being Able to Row Before we get started with the bench press, you’ll need to be able to perform a proper row. As you’ll see in this manual, you must haev a great deal of upper back strength in order to maintain an ideal shoulder position in the bench press. Strength Test: 6-8 reps of chest to bar bodyweight row with horizontal body, with two second pause at the top of each rep. Start with your body relatively Finish with the chest touching the You’re not able to touch the chest horizontal. bar and the body straight. to the bar. Even if you’re able to touch the chest to the bar, you might still have a problem. The shoulders must stay back and down during the row. If they elevate/hike up toward the ears at all during the row, this is incorrect and must be fixed. Otherwise, you will never have the ability to fully control your shoulder position in the bench press. How to Build Strength in the Upper Back: Phase 1 The key with all of the following drills is that you feel the exercises in the right muscles and that you maintain perfect form. If you let yourself cheat the movement you will never build muscle and strength where you need it. You’ll only continue to exacerbate the strength imbalance that’s keeping your upper back weak. QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 3 Start with isolation exercises. The upper back is a major weak point for most people and it will take most people 4-12 weeks (sometimes more) to build this up sufficiently. Our favourite drills to start are (click for a video demonstration): ● Back Flys with band or cables ● A’s ● Single arm band or cable retractions (if you’re really having trouble isolating the muscles) ● Dumbbell, cable or band external rotations ● Single arm band or cable rows ● Lat Pull Downs If you need extra work in this area, pick 2-4 exercises and perform 2-3 sets of 10-20 reps 2-3 times per week. We like to see a client able to do cable back flies with 10% of their max bench press for 10 reps with a slow tempo and perfect form. How to Build Strength in the Upper Back: Phase 2 Once you can feel these muscles working and have some basic strength, you can start to do more complex exercises. The exercises listed below are all good options if you can perform them properly (click for a video demonstration): ● Bent-over barbell rows ● Single arm dumbbell rows ● Hand-over-hand rope pulls ● Ring Rows When you’re ready for phase 2, pick one or two exercises from the list above. Do 2-3 sets of 6-12 reps with quality and control at the top position (where the arm is bent and the dumbbell or barbell is as close to the chest as it will get, where applicable). Then pick one or two exercises from the Phase 1 list and do 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps with proper form. Doing this twice a week is a great starting point, and adding a few easy sets of the Phase 1 drills into your daily warm-ups can really help lock the motor pattern down. QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 4 Mobility Requirements If you just can’t seem to master being able to do a row all the way to your chest, you may have a mobility problem. In order to perform a bench press you need to be able to keep the shoulders back while bringing the bar to the chest. This requires mid-back strength, but also enough mobility in the shoulder. Mobility & Control Test: PVC to Chest Drill (great for practicing basic bench technique). Hold a PVC or dowel in your bench Pull the PVC in toward your chest. It’s a fault if the shoulder moves press grip and squeeze the It should touch the chest without even a little in this exercise. shoulder blade together hard. causing any movement in the shoulder. If you lack shoulder mobility , it will be impossible to bring the bar to the chest without compromising your shoulder position, as seen in the “bad” example above. The shoulder will either hike up to the ears or else it will translate forward toward the chest slightly. Here are our favourite mobility drills for getting your shoulder into the right position for benching. Click on each one to watch a video demonstration. ● Shoulder setting with dumbbell ● Bully stretch 1 ● Bully stretch 2 ● Self massage on upper traps ● Self massage on pec ● Self massage on front deltoid QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 5 How to Start Improving Your Mobility ● Do 6-15 minutes of mobility work per day, picking the drills from the previous list that seem to have the biggest impact on your ability to get into a better bench position. More time is better, and a little bit every day is worth more than doing a whole lot once a week. ● To do some extra prep, spend time doing your 2-3 favourite mobility drills the night before a bench workout, for at least 6-8 minutes or more. ● In the morning prior to a bench workout, spend a few minutes doing these same drills. ● As part of your warm-up in a workout requiring bench press, do a couple sets of cable back flys and cable external rotations to activate those muscles. These sets should only be done to 70% fatigue or less with a moderate weight, and not to all out failure. The idea is to “wake-up” the muscles, not to overly fatigue them before the workout where you need them to be fresh. ● Use common sense. Ease into stretches, don’t force anything, and if it feels weird, STOP. QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 6 THE SET-UP THE KEY THREE 1. Create shoulder tension (scapula down and together) 2. Keep the bar deep in the palm. “Knuckles Up” 3. Select the foot placement that’s best for driving your upper back into the bench. SHOULDER TENSION The Basics The first step to a good bench press is a strong set up. We want to create a strong and stable platform through the shoulders so we can do our bench pressing from a solid position. This allows for more weight to be lifted and is safer at the same time. Two birds with one stone! You want to draw the shoulder blades down and pinch them together. You then want to drive your traps (upper back) into the bench and think about getting as high onto them as possible. Try this drill (pictured on the next page) to practice: squeeze the shoulder blades together and set the feet on the bench. Then raise the hips so you can feel all your weight sitting on yours traps. This is the feeling you want to recreate with your feet on the ground. Shoulder blades are Shoulder blades are not Shoulder blades are together but together & down. together. are hiked up toward the ear. QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 7 Many lifters have trouble setting their shoulders “down and together” without shrugging the shoulders up toward the ears. If you have this issue, try practicing band pull-aparts, either with no resistance to lear n the movement, or with a band. Focusing on keeping the shoulder blades retracted and down. Put your feet up on a bench and feel how To perform a band pull apart, Squeeze the shoulder blades your weight shifts on the upper back/traps. start with the arms at chest together as tightly as possible This is the feeling you want to recreate height gripping a band palms and be sure not to let them throughout the bench press. down. hike up toward the ears. Setting the Shoulders There are essentially three ways to set yourself on a bench: 1. lay flat and set the shoulders, set the feet before or after [Video] Minna Pajulahti sets ups by laying flat and setting the shoulders for 198x2 [Video] James Henderson presses 600x3 by laying back and setting his shoulders.