If that sounds familiar, you have probably read your fair share of bench press articles. Most of them repeat the same messages—work on your form, overload partial range of motion, build up your triceps, get strong overhead, and build a big back. While most of those tips are good advice, I think we can do better.

You might not agree with all of the ideas I present here, and that’s okay. Just keep an open mind. If you take at least one piece of advice from this article and implement it in your training, I think you have some big gains ahead.

Related: The Best Chest Workouts for Muscle Mass, Strength, and More

Bench Press Every Day You’re in the Gym

 “If it’s important do it every day, if it’s not important don’t do it at all.”

–Dan Gable

If improving your bench press is important, start doing it more frequently. Depending on who you ask, that might be unorthodox advice. I feel you should bench press as frequently as you can. Once a week likely won’t cut it, but I’m not necessarily saying you need to bench seven days a week, either.

The first question is, how many days per week can you actually dedicate to the gym? There is no correct answer here. More is not necessarily better. Be honest with yourself. Obviously, if you are currently training three days per week and that’s all you can do, don’t try and force six.

The second question is, how many times per week do you bench press currently? If International Chest Day is the only time you are on the bench, start small. Add extra bench sessions one day at a time, until you work up to your desired frequency.

Increased training frequency is beneficial for a few different reasons. Arguably, the biggest benefit is simply a greater opportunity to practice. Yes, I’m talking about practice (paging Allen Iverson). Strength is a skill, and like any skill, you get better with additional practice.

Make sure you stay consistent with mobility work, and warm up properly before every bench session. Increasing training frequency is not the time to get lazy with the little details!

Skip Direct Shoulder Training

When I say, “skip direct shoulder training”, really what I mean is don’t overhead press. It’s not the missing link to a huge bench.

I like the overhead press. I really do. The problem is, you can only do a limited amount of pressing, both from a recovery and a joint health standpoint. If your goal is to get a huge bench, you would be better off doing more pressing that resembles the bench press. Specificity is key here.

In order to increase your bench press frequency, we need to make a few adjustments. Unfortunately, that means overhead work needs to be taken out or drastically limited. I recommend looking at shoulder work as prehab. Focus on shoulder health—face pulls, band pull-aparts, etc.

Ditch the Dumbbell Work

Dumbbells are great, but like I said above, specificity is king. If you want to maximize the bang for your buck from your workouts, prioritize barbells for assistance work.

Somewhere along the way, people got it in their heads that it was against the rules to do two barbell movements back to back. You start out with a barbell movement and move over to the dumbbell rack for assistance work. Once an idea gets in circulation, it can be hard to make it go away.

What I propose is a different strategy. Pick assistance exercises that more closely resemble the bench press. So instead of dumbbell presses, think close grip bench press, Spoto press, floor press, pin press, board press, incline barbell press, etc.

Following this advice, bench workouts would now look like this:

• Bench press
• CGBP or Spoto press or floor press, etc.
• Back, arms, rear delts

Pause Every Rep

This might seem counterintuitive. Pausing every rep will most likely decrease your bench numbers, at least at first. But in the long run, it will lead to greater gains. Let me explain.

Most raw lifters fail on their chest or a couple inches above. It’s common for lifters to lose tightness and control of the bar during the last couple inches of the eccentric part of the lift. This causes the bar to accelerate at the bottom, which leads to a lack of stability on the chest. Pausing every rep will not only help build stability, it can also improve reversal strength off the chest. If you are weak in a position, it makes sense to spend more time there.

If you are a powerlifter (or plan to be) this is really non-negotiable. The pause is required in competition, so it makes sense to practice how you play.

Most importantly, even if you are not a competitive powerlifter, a paused bench press is still legitimate. There is a reason powerlifting federations require the bar be motionless (pause). It helps standardize the movement. There is a wide range of “touch and go” bench technique, from nice and controlled, to bouncing off the sternum like a beach ball. Nothing is more impressive than hitting a huge PR with picture-perfect form that would pass in a meet. When you do this, the lift doesn’t need an asterisk next to it.

Be Willing to Change Your Form

Last but not least, form. Nothing will make as big of a difference in your bench press strength than dialing in your form. Some lifters can add 20-40lbs on their bench in literally 10 minutes, just by improving technique.

I’m sure you know how to bench press to some extent. The bench is one of the first fundamental lifts you learn after stepping foot inside a gym. However, very few lifters outside of elite powerlifters will understand all the variables and intricacies involved in a proper bench press.

If the first thing you think about when starting a bench press is grabbing the bar, you have already started down the wrong path. First, you need to get your body in a good position. A proper set up will absolutely add pounds to the bar.

The most important point to consider during the setup process is scapular retraction (squeeze your shoulder blades together) and depression (push your lats toward your waist). To accomplish scapular retraction, you will need to arch your back while retracting your shoulder blades together like you would at the top of a barbell row. Think about trying to hold a pencil in your upper back. Once you are retracted, you want to “lock” your lats into place. This is not only the most efficient way to bench press, it’s also the safest.

A powerlifting setup on the bench press isn’t just the most efficient, it’s also the safest.

The “arched” bench press puts the shoulder joint in a more favorable and healthy position, as well as shortens the range of motion. A shorter range of motion creates a more efficient press, especially for longer-armed benchers. Get your shoulders in the right position, and keep them there throughout the entire movement.

Next, we need to look at grip position. Where you grip the bar is going to largely depend on personal preference and limb length. Longer-armed people will require a wider grip. Generally speaking, you want to find a grip position that allows your forearms to remain vertical throughout the entire lift. Keep in mind, the wider you grip the bar, the shorter the range of motion. Most people will be able to bench more weight with a wider grip as long as it’s within reason.

Ok, so you are set up properly and are ready to start. Now what?

The first thing to do is create tension on the bar. The cues “break the bar” or “pull the bar apart” can be helpful to keep in mind.

Elbow position is a big aspect of the bench press where people often need some work. A “bodybuilding bench press” involves flaring the elbows throughout the entire range of motion. Keeping your elbows out wide may provide the greatest stimulus to the chest, but it’s not the best or safest way to bench the most amount of weight. For maximum performance, tuck your elbows on the way down and don’t let them flare out until the bar is about halfway up.

You have to be willing to change everything about your bench—back position, how you grip the bar, etc. Do what is best for the long-term growth of your bench, not how you can bench the most amount of weight today.

Want to know how you stack up to the pros?

How to Smash the 225lb Rep Max Bench Test

The post Unconventional Advice to Revamp Your Bench Press appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

That’s not to say strength athletes can’t learn a thing or two from their jacked and tan counterparts, because they certainly can. But at the end of the day it’s important to remember the ultimate goal. As a strength athlete you are trying to get as strong as possible, while the bodybuilder is trying to look as strong as possible.

It doesn’t matter how effective your training program is, or even how good your genetics are, nutrition is important. If you want to be as strong as possible, you need to get your nutrition dialed in. There is no room for error in your quest to be the best.

How Much Should You Eat?

Let’s start off with the basics. First: how much should you eat? Daily caloric intake and macronutrient distribution is of the utmost importance. Nutrition is a game of numbers. The key is getting the numbers to work in your favor.

The absolute worst thing to do as a strength athlete is to be one of what I call the “Chronic Dieters.” These people are on a diet every time you talk to them. They ultimately spend 75 percent of the year in a caloric deficit, often times jumping from one fad diet to the next in an attempt to get shredded.

Don’t be that person.

The typical chronic dieter complains about being a “hardgainer” and deems it nearly impossible to gain size or strength. From an outsider’s perspective, it is easy to see what the issue is. It’s impossible for anyone, regardless of genetics, to gain muscle and strength while trying to cut calories for the majority of the year. In order to build muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus. The exact amount of calories in excess you are able to consume is going to depend largely on your own specific metabolic capacity.

It’s easy to underestimate how many calories you need. To get this right you need to quantify exactly how much food you need to eat. Simply saying, “eat more” is not good enough, since eating more means different things to different people.

Consuming a diet consisting of only meat and veggies is not eating big and is not optimal for building muscle. On the flip side, eating fast food all day is not optimal for strength either. We need to find a balance.

In my experience, there is nothing that provides balance like following a flexible dieting (IIFYM) approach. Keep your plan as simple as possible. Since you are not looking to optimize aesthetics we don’t need to be quite as intricate.

Step 1 – Set Total Calories: Before you do anything you need to determine caloric intake. Sixteen calories per pound of body weight will create a caloric surplus for most people. Start with 16 and increase calories from there depending on your progress. Remember, protein and carbohydrates are 4 calories per gram. Fat is 9 calories per gram.

Step 2 – Set Protein: After you figure out how many calories you need, next is to determine protein intake. The tried-and-true 1g per pound of body weight works well for most people. An argument could be made for slightly more or less depending on the circumstances, but 1g per pound of bodyweight is simple and effective. However, if you are above 25 percent body fat, 0.6-.08g per pound of bodyweight would be a more accurate intake.

Step 3 – Set Carbs and Fat: This is where the lines get blurred a little. As a strength athlete it is not going to make much of a difference how you split up your carbs and fat. They are energy nutrients and are going to be responsible for fueling your workouts. As long as you get a good balance of both (don’t go extremely low carb or low fat) you can eat as you see fit.

Some people feel better with more carbs in their diet and some feel better with more fats. The key is being honest and not trying to “force” yourself into one or the other because of some bullshit you read online. At the end of the day, eat more of what you enjoy.

Hypothetical John and His Nutrition

Here is an example of how this all plays out. Let’s take a hypothetical man named John, who weighs 180lbs. John wants to try and add a little bit of muscle. John figures out in part 1 that he needs at least 2,880 calories a day to be in a caloric surplus.

Since he weighs 180lb, he is going to shoot for 180g of protein a day:

• 180g protein x 4 cal/g = 720 calories from protein
• 2880 total calories – 720 protein calories = 2160 calories left for carbs and fat

John decides he wants an equal distribution of carbs and fats, so this is what it breaks down to:

• 2,160 left over / 2 = 1080 calories
• 1080 calories worth of carbs = 270g (1080/4 calories per gram of carb)
• 1080 calories worth of fat = 120g (1080/9 calories per gram of fat)

The Result:

• John’s Macros:
• 2,880 Calories 
• Protein: 180g
• Carbs: 270g
• Fat: 120g

The beauty of this approach is you only have to hit two numbers: overall calories and protein intake. Carb and fat intake can fluctuate from day to day depending on how you feel and your workout for the day, as long as protein and calorie intake remains the same.

John’s Sample Meal Plan

I’m not a big fan of meal plans. I prefer everyone track their calories and macros and eat what they want. However, I know seeing food on paper laid out in a meal plan helps it set in for some of you.

Keep in mind that this is just an example, not something you need to follow.

• Meal 1: 6 whole eggs, 1 cup oats, 1 apple
• Meal 2: 6oz chicken breast, 1 cup rice, 1 serving green vegetables, 1.5 servings almonds
• Meal 3: 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 banana, 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• Meal 4: 6oz steak, 8oz potato, large green salad, 2 tablespoons salad dressing, 1.5 servings of ice cream

Adjust the portion sizes and foods to fit your macros and preferences.

Other Factors to Consider

1. Fiber: Fiber plays a number of beneficial roles in the body. However, just because it’s “good” doesn’t necessarily mean more is better. When fiber gets up into the 80-100g+ ranges, you may start to run into gastrointestinal tract issues and malabsorption of certain micronutrients. My general fiber recommendation is 10-20 percent of total carb intake with a minimum of 20g and a maximum around 80g. If you are on a low-carb diet, shoot for higher on that range, whereas if you are on a high-carb diet, shoot for lower on the range.

2. Pre, During, and Post-Workout Nutrition: This trio is not nearly as important as the absolute daily intake of nutrients. As a strength athlete you do not need fast-digesting carbs immediately post workout. In actuality you don’t even need to eat immediately post workout. Just make sure you are consuming a mixed meal of protein and carbs a few hours or so before and after training. They can be regular meals or a shake, it doesn’t really matter.

3. Meal Timing: In addition to nutrient timing, meal timing is largely irrelevant as well. There is no real difference between consuming two meals a day or eight meals a day, as long as daily calorie and macronutrient numbers are hit. It all comes down to personal preference. Between 3-5 meals a day seems to be the sweet spot for most people.

Eat for Strength

As a strength athlete, it can be confusing trying to figure how to eat for performance. Hopefully this article cleared up a few things. For the first week or two, weigh and measure everything you eat. This will help you figure out what portion sizes look until you get comfortable estimating. At this point you can become a little less strict on weighing and measuring everything. I do highly recommend always measuring fat sources because they are so calorically dense.

Always track everything with a website or app like My Fitness Pal. If you have never tracked your food intake before, trust me – it is easier than it sounds. Don’t let the numbers scare you. Keep it simple, and you’ll see results.

More on Strength and Nutrition:

You’re Not Overtraining, You’re Under-Recovering

More on Coaching Strength Athletes:

4 Phases of a Solid Strength Program

The post Fuel to Be Strong: Nutrition for Strength Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Hypertrophy and CrossFit Are Not Enemies

People watch the CrossFit Games on ESPN and see both the men and women looking jacked. Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Sam Briggs, the list goes on. All of them look like amateur-level physique competitors.

People want to make things out to be black and white. The notion is you can train for aesthetics, strength, or function discretely – and that is just not true. In fact, they can all complement each other perfectly. In my opinion, if you are spending a good amount of time in the gym, you should at least look like you lift.

Before the haters start flooding my email inbox, if your only goal is to compete in a bodybuilding or physique show a traditional periodized hypertrophy program is still going to be your best bet. But for those of you who want to look like you lift and perform like an athlete, this is how it’s done.

Part 1: Nutrition

The most important part of building muscle and looking like a bodybuilder with CrossFit training is nutrition. For this article’s purpose, we are going to focus on gaining muscle. In my opinion, that is the biggest obstacle for the person who wants to be an aesthetic CrossFitter.

If you want to build muscle, then you need to be in a caloric surplus. What I am about to say may be a little unpopular in the CrossFit community, but that’s okay. The paleo diet is not the best approach for a CrossFit athlete who also wants to focus on building muscle (or even one who wants to perform the best, but that’s a separate article). Getting the majority of your calories from protein and fat is not going be enough for building muscle.

So, your first step is to find out how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight and go from there. Remember, at the end of the day, calories in versus calories out is what is going to determine your body composition. If you want to build muscle, then you are going to need to eat big. To find our maintenance caloric intake we need to first figure out our basal metabolic rate (BMR).

BMR is the total amount of energy (calories) your body requires just to maintain normal daily functions, including digestion, circulation, respiration, temperature regulation, cell construction, and every other process in your body. BMR is the total of all the energy you use for basic bodily functions at rest. This does not include physical activity, so it’s not that applicable to our everyday lives but, it’s a starting point.

How to Find Your BMR and Maintenance Calories

There are a hundred different formulas to determine BMR, but I have found through field observation that just multiplying by the numbers below produces results within 5% of any formula. I favor simplicity.

• Men: BMR = (body weight in pounds x 8-10)
• Women: BMR = (body weight in pounds x 7-9)

The next step is to multiply by an activity multiplier. This will take into account your daily activity to determine your maintenance calories, which is what we are looking for. Again there are many forms of activity multipliers, but this is what we have found to work best at my gym.

Activity Factor Multiplier:

• BMR x 1.3-1.4: Lightly Active (active a few days a week, exercise 1-3 days)
• BMR x 1.5-1.6: Moderately Active (where most people are at, train 3-5 days a week and active lifestyle)
• BMR x 1.7-1.8: Very Active (training hard for a specific sport or purpose 5-6 hours a week, could be a hard labor job as well)
• BMR x 1.9-2.2: Extremely Active (endurance training or hard charging athlete who spends 10 or more hours training a week and/or lots of activity outside of training, can even require more calories than this depending on metabolic capacity)

Now we simply take that number and add calories to create a caloric surplus. Start small with the surplus and go from there. Add between 250-500 calories and see how your body responds. If you are not gaining any weight or a small amount (~under ½ pound a week) add more calories, if you are gaining too much weight (~more than 2 pounds a week) decrease calories.

Here is how I recommend dividing up your caloric intake into macronutrients:

• Protein: Eat between .8g-1.2g of protein per pound of body weight. For more information on protein intake check out my article here.
• Fat: Eat between 20-35% of overall calorie intake from fat. The total will depend on how many carbohydrates you prefer.
• Carbs: Fill the rest of your calories in with carbohydrates. Make sure you are getting between 25-45g of fiber a day.

Part 2: Training

Training to be functionally fit and muscular seems a lot more difficult than it is. For the CrossFit athlete who wants to focus on muscle, aerobic conditioning will need to go on the backburner for a while. The days of doing four or five metcons a week and running three miles a day are over – for now.

You can focus on building muscle for a specific period of time and then go back to a more balanced program later, but with added muscle. If this is starting to sound a lot like periodization, don’t freak out. Periodization is just a fancy word for planning. Right now we are going to plan to build muscle while maintaining other aspects of your fitness.

Building muscle is going to require a few changes from a typical CrossFit training regimen:

• Shorter Metcons: When the goal is muscle, you will want to favor shorter duration training with higher intensity. Anything longer than fifteen minutes is going to be working against the goal. You can still metcon to maintain conditioning, just keep it brief.
• Incorporate Programming: Random training is going to have to be limited. Jump on a strength-training program. It doesn’t matter which one as long as it is progressive.
• Add Some Assistance Work: The best program for hypertrophy goals will be built around basic compound movements with accessory work in a varied multi-planar, multi-angled fashion to ensure maximal stimulation of all muscle fibers.

Conclusion

Building muscle with CrossFit training might not be as hard as originally thought. Skip the paleo diet and start eating like you want to build muscle. Add in more strength work and limit long conditioning sessions. With a few small changes to your nutrition and training, you will be on your way to looking jacked in no time.

Photo 1 and sidebar image courtesy of CrossFit, Inc.

Photo 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 3 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post Can You Look Like a Bodybuilder by Doing CrossFit? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

For starters, flexible dieting is not a diet – it’s a nutritional concept. The basic rundown is simple: You have a daily calorie, macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, fat), and fiber target to hit and as long as those specific numbers are achieved, then food selection is left up to your personal preference. That is an oversimplification. The ins and outs of flexible dieting can be a lot more intricate, but it’s this oversimplification that lends to the misconceptions floating around the Internet.

Here are the misconceptions I feel are most important to discredit in an attempt to educate the masses and clean up one of the more controversial topics in fitness:

1. Flexible Dieters Only Eat Junk Food

This fallacy originated on social media. I am actually partially to blame for this, along with all of the other flexible dieters who post pictures of Pop Tarts, doughnuts, cake, pizza, and other junk food on Facebook and Instagram, usually including the hash tags #FlexibleDieting and #IIFYM just to rustle some clean-eating jimmies.

Are those the only foods we eat? Definitely not, but no one needs to see another picture containing Tupperware, chicken, asparagus, and sweet potato.

The fact is, in order actually hit macronutrient numbers that are conducive to building muscle, losing fat, and improving performance, it would be impossible to only eat junk. The majority of a flexible diet consists of what would typically be considered healthy food – lean meats, complex carbs, and quality fats. The only difference is a flexible diet allows you to have a treat while staying on the diet.

Where people get confused is comparing food items that do not contain a similar macronutrient breakdown. For example, I often hear people say something along the lines of, “I feel, look and perform better eating sweet potatoes than I do eating doughnuts.” But these two food items do not have comparable macros. An 8oz sweet potato comes in with around 6g of protein, 48g of carbs, minimal fat, and a good dose of fiber. In comparison, an average doughnut is going to contain a lot more fat and sugar and no fiber. This is not to say you cannot eat doughnuts. You can – just don’t compare them nutritionally to sweet potatoes.

As long as macronutrient goal numbers are hit (along with fiber), food choices take a backseat to personal preference whether that is oatmeal or Pop Tarts. The goal is to stop thinking of foods as “clean” or “dirty,” but see them for their macronutrient composition. This will go a long way in helping you understand the freedom of food selection that flexible dieting creates.

2. Flexible Dieting Doesn’t Work For Me

Did science throw a secret party and forget to invite you? Without even getting into the science, here is the bottom line: every diet regardless of food selection consists of specific macronutrient numbers. Even if you eat eight meals a day of chicken, rice, and asparagus, those foods still have a macronutrient number at the end of the day. In essence, every diet is a macro diet.

And there is no rule that in order to follow a flexible diet you need to eat junk food. The beauty of flexible dieting is that you can eat whatever foods you want as long as you track them and they fit into your macros. Let’s say you are a unique individual who actually enjoys clean foods over more tasty treats. While I would argue that you are kidding yourself, you can still follow a flexible diet eating chicken and sweet potatoes. All you have to do is figure out your macros, and then fit your clean foods into them.

For you clean eaters, the benefit of flexible dieting comes in the form of consistency. When you follow a clean diet, unless you are tracking your foods (weighing and measuring), there is no way to know if you are actually consuming the same amount of foods day in and day out. An extra 4oz of chicken here, half a cup of rice less there, and boom your diet is all over the place without you even realizing it. The idea that a flexible diet can’t work for you is invalid. It can work for you and it would probably be better than what you are currently doing.

3. It Works for Aesthetics, But It’s Not Healthy

Yes, flexible dieting originated within the bodybuilding community. People began to realize they could get the same body composition results hitting macronutrient targets as they could eating clean. Plus, they didn’t experience any of the psychological side effects that can occur when following a strict diet. This quickly became notorious as a bodybuilding diet, as most of the advocates were in fact bodybuilders.

As flexible dieting began to branch out into the mainstream the question became, “Can it work for general health, too?” I have even heard bodybuilders ask this same question. The answer is, yes, it can.

A flexible diet is mostly whole and nutritious foods. In order to hit an adequate amount of fiber in a day, you are going to need to eat a variety of different fruits and vegetables. Does every flexible dieter do this? No, they probably do not, however, I doubt that most clean eaters do either.

I would even argue that a flexible diet is healthier than a strict meal plan. The reason is variety. You do not want to eat the same foods day in and day out. The best way to consume a full range of vitamins and minerals is to eat a wide range of foods. If you only eat the same foods every day you are restricting yourself to a specific range of micronutrients. Eating whatever foods you want just to hit your macros without any consideration for fiber or micronutrient intake is not healthy, but that is not what flexible dieting is about.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Why What You Think About Flexible Dieting (IIFYM) Is Wrong appeared first on Breaking Muscle.