5 Tips to Help You With the Bench Press

Mud stomping a hole in Monday’s attempt to bring me down. 255lbs on the bench is probably light work for you, but it’s heavy for me. 

So getting 5 good controlled reps without ripping or breaking anything in my body is an accomplishment for my dinosaur butt. 

Here are 5 key points I teach / follow on the bench press are:

1. Proper grip, not too wide, not too narrow. Knuckles face the ceiling as you try to crush and pull the bar apart.

2. Body alignment on the bench, eyes under the bar, shoulder blades even on the bench, slight arch in the lower back, butt remains in contact with the bench, legs squeeze into the bench as heels drive into the floor. 

3. Lower the bar at a controlled pace to touch your shirt, never bounce the bar off your chest. Then explode in the push or concentric phase to get the bar up twice as fast as it came down ( in your mind anyway).

4. Inhale on the way down, hold and brace during the transition and then vigorously exhale on the push. Animal screams are authorized and encouraged.

5. Keep your core and legs braced and solid. Don’t let your body move under the weight. Drive the legs into the floor. Keep your butt on the bench. If a foot raises off the floor or your butt raises off the bench even for a second you are a no-go on that rep. 

My bench tutorial goes on but that is what people pay me for. I’ve had dozens of clients raise their one rep max by up to 25lbs just by receiving my class and implementing the instructions. 

Education and experience matter. My two key learning points that I teach are that 1. People think they know and 2. People don’t know what they don’t know. Always be open to learning from someone even if you think you know it all cause 1. You don’t know and 2. You’d be surprised at what you could learn. 

I’ve had the most problems/ resistance to learning over the decades from military clients and former athletes. 2 type A groups who definitely think they know. Then I teach them something they didn’t even know existed (so how could they possibly know that they didn’t know it?) and their minds get blown. 

And yeah I was that guy too until I learned stuff that I didn’t even know existed. Now I learn everyday because I’m acutely aware that I don’t know! Go learn something and hit the weights!

Do you feel some anxiety and fear before the next set of your workout?

When you are in the iron arena facing the beast and your next set is rapidly approaching, it’s normal for there to be a little anxiety, fear, and dread. 

It’s purely a mental battle but you still have to address it and drive on to the next set. A simple technique I use to overcome the mental battle is by using timed rest periods between sets. 

The general rule of thumb is heavy sets require longer rest periods, lighter sets require shorter rest periods. A lot of it has to do with ATP cycle rejuvenation. 

If you don’t experience this mental battle, then you should reevaluate the level of challenge and intensity of your workouts. 

An age old saying is “if you aren’t scared of your next set, then you aren’t working hard enough”. There is a lot of simple truth in that concept. Now on to the next set!

Intermittent Fasting doesn’t mean starvation

Post fasting meal: sirloin steak, smokehouse almonds, sweet potato, and red grapes. 

After my daily fasting window ends, I’m ready to eat! I use the 16/8 method daily. The fasting window is 16 hours and the feeding window is 8 hours. I usually have 4-6 smaller meals during my 8 hour feeding window. 

Based upon the best fit for me, I picked this fasting protocol after testing the most common 4 methods over a span of 8 months beginning in 2011. 

I tested these methods again in 2012 and decided to stick with the 16/8 protocol. 

There are many different fasting protocols. Use the one that fits your daily routine the best. 

One of the common flaws that occur with people who try to lose weight with intermittent fasting is that they do not eat the required amount of food in the proper macronutrient ratio. 

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is not about starving. It is simply a more disciplined and structured schedule of eating and not eating. 

The goal for body composition change is to lose fat while maintaining or building muscle and lean body mass. The number on a scale is irrelevant. The process has to be done correctly for optimal results. 

Most people can benefit from Intermittent Fasting. But it takes some learning, knowledge, and experience to do it right.

I have a package deal of 4 digital books on Intermittent Fasting which take you through all of the relevant information needed to be successful with IF. 

Right now this IF package is on sale for a ridiculously low price. 

I’ve made these books in PDF format so you can immediately download them and start reading. 

If you are interested in learning more about Intermittent Fasting and how to successfully implement it into your lifestyle, 

visit my online book store IF direct link here:

https://payhip.com/b/6oOK

https://payhip.com/b/6oOK

Back Extension Variation Eliminates My Back Pain

I do these back extensions this way to modify it so it doesn’t aggravate my old injuries. 

I still get full range of motion while avoiding dangerous hyperextension. 

And the band adds resistance to add challenge to the movement. 

My back always feels so much better after I do these. When I do the back extensions regularly, lower back pain disappears for me. 

When I slack off and don’t do them, inevitably the lower back pain comes back.  

Keep your core and your lower back strong to minimize pain and injury.

Turning Can’t into Can Do with Heavy Kettlebells

Tonight’s workout was 5x5 kettlebell goblet bench squats. My days of heavy lifting on any type of squats are long over because of my (totally not service related according to the VA) back and hip injuries. 

After the warmup it went from 45, 55, 62, 70, and 79. Then I decided to try the monster, the 106lb kettlebell of doom. I haven’t touched the monster in awhile. Waiting till the end of the workout to pickup the heaviest thing is never a good idea. So I was like, why not? 

I knew it was gonna be a short lived bad idea as soon as I picked it up. It was heavy after too long away from it. I managed to get in 2 reps and I quit while I was ahead. 

But it brought about a positive note. I overcame the mental deterrent that it’s too big and heavy to even try. 

It’s heavy but with a smarter approach, I’ll be able to eventually get 3,4 and 5 reps. It’s not impossible. Your mind will fail you long before your body does most of the time. And if you don’t face your fears, they will always win. 

Entering the arena to face the beast is the mental challenge. If your training doesn’t scare you a little bit, you probably aren’t challenging yourself enough. So in that regard, there was no failure, there was a lesson relearned.

Understanding Rates of Progress with Fitness and Nutrition

Have you ever heard someone say “it’s only been a couple of weeks, we have to give it time”. It’s a classic line (excuse) in the fitness and nutrition industry. 

When you are on a fitness/nutrition program and you don’t see the progress which you hoped for, people throw this line out there to cover for it. 

First, you have to understand what realistic expectations are. Most people don’t know or understand and are way off on both ends of the spectrum. 

Doctrinal rates of healthy progress in the weight loss/ fat loss realm are normally around 1lb per week or 1% body fat loss. That means generally 4lbs or 4% body fat loss per month. 

In my program, I expect you to achieve more than that. That is a minimum standard or guideline.

So theoretically if you go two weeks and see nothing, or very little, you are not meeting the standard. “Just keep at it and it will come in time” is absolute BS. 

No progress or less than optimal progress means that you are either not doing something that you should be doing or you are doing things in a manner which are inefficient or ineffective. 

That’s why over the decades my program evolved to using two weeks as a micro cycle for programming. Two weeks is a solid base line to reflect behavior, training and nutrition habits. 

If after two weeks of training, and you are not seeing the progress expected, analysis and course of action development are required. 

Make the necessary changes to your program and you should see progress at the end of the next 2 week cycle. It doesn’t take a month, 3 months, or 6 months to get the ball rolling. 

I give clients two weeks. Either do what needs to be done or be honest with yourself that you are not really committed to the goal / program. 

It starts with your mindset. Free your mind and your glutes will follow! 

Workout Programming Doesn’t Need to be Complicated

Knock ‘‘em out airborne! 

Sometimes the basics are all you need. 

Simple doesn’t means easy.

Here I did 10x10 on the push-up bars.

10 sets of 10 push-ups with a 2 min rest in between after the 5th set. 

It started off easy but half way through it got tougher with each set. You can adjust the variables to suite your own needs. 

Complicated and super detailed programming is not always required. 

If you are an athlete or training for a specific event, then your programming needs to be more specific and detailed. 

If you are training for general physical preparedness and daily life activities, the programming can be much simpler which doesn’t mean easy or ineffective. 

This push-up workout smoked my pecs (chest), anterior deltoids (front of your shoulders), and my triceps (back of your arms). It also provided some core stabilization training. 

And it was something that I could actually do without causing injury or further injury to the old beat up vet bod. 

The complicated and super detailed “perfect program” rarely lasts more than a few weeks unless you are training for a specific task or event. 

Create a simple plan that you can and will follow. Odds of success are much higher.