Increase Your Max Bench Press

So you've hit a point where you can't seem to increase your bench press? Don't worry; it happens to all of us as some point. You have probably hit a plateau that you need to work through. There are many things that you can do to get back on track to building a bigger chest and growing muscular strength. Here are a few suggestions.

How to increase your bench press performance

Take it easy

Have you been training hard for too long without taking a few days' rest? Perhaps your muscles are getting tired from accumulated stress over time and all you need is a good rest so that they can fully recover before reaching maximum recuperation and increased strength. There are times when after a few days off I come back to the gym bigger and stronger than ever. You should take a rest week every 2 months or so. Here are ways to turn your rest week into bigger muscle. Also, here are ways to get the most of every rest day.

Check your frequency

Are you working the bench often enough? Or are you hitting it more than you should? Aim for once to twice a week for great gains and make sure that each workout puts enough stress on your muscles so that they are tired the day afterwards. If they aren't tired the day afterwards, then it is time to change up your chest exercises. Make sure that they keep adapting and they keep growing in response. Change up your program regularly so that your body is forced to adapt to new challenges. If you want to change things up, try the totally exhausting Garry program. We examined a few studies to determine the best workout split here.

Change your rep range

Have you been using the same 8-12 rep range for months already? Try using a lower rep range like 5-8 for a month or two and see the difference. Or switch to the higher 15-20 rep range to keep your muscles growing. It is best to alternate between three rep ranges (high, low and standard). Change it up every few months so that your muscles will develop a variety of rep strengths and keep adapting to different stimulus (and therefore gaining size). Changing rep ranges will increase the bench press max of your original rep range because the muscles will have to grow in strength to adapt to the new kind of stress placed on it. And yes, high reps can be just as good as low reps at building muscle.

Vary your exercises

Don't do the barbell bench press on its own and expect your chest to grow to its full potential. Include other exercises like the dumbbell bench press, dips, cable crossovers, dumbbell pull-overs and dumbbell flies. This will grow the entirety of your chest to its best potential. Every few months, change the exercises up again by changing the order in which you do the exercises, adding incline or decline exercises, and changing all the exercises with other chest exercises altogether.

Change your grip

Changing your grip (the way you hold the bar) will help to develop other muscles that might not usually get as much stimulus for the bench press but are still crucial to performing the lift. These muscles include your forearms and even parts of the triceps, shoulders and the chest itself. When these muscles are stressed more and strengthened by changing your grip for a period of time, they will be more capable of supporting your original bench press, therefore helping you beat your max. 

Strengthen your supporting muscles

What if the weaker triceps or shoulders are the culprits that are limiting your bench performance? Weaker triceps, for example, will tire before your chest muscles get the decent workout that they deserve and you stop before they get the stimulus needed to grow at their best. Try strengthening these supporting muscles so that your chest has all the time it needs to work its magic under the bar. Determine whether you need a separate shoulder day or whether any other specific muscles are holding you back.

Check your diet

In order for muscle to grow, your calorie intake needs to exceed your caloric output (What else would they grow from if all the food that you eat is burnt up as energy?) Besides that, are you eating the right foods that your muscles need to grow, along with the right nutrients to sustain the energy that you need to perform the workouts that cause muscle growth in the first place; without forcing your body to dip into its muscle reservoir? This is why it is easier for bodybuilders to work within bulking and cutting cycles because it us safer to take in too much calories to build muscle than taking in too few calories which hampers (and can even reverse) muscle growth. Consider taking supplements to aid muscle growth or fill in the nutritional gaps that your diet keeps missing.

How's your ZZZ balance?

Getting enough sleep is crucial to growing muscle strength and size. Most of your muscle growth happens during sleep. If you are not getting enough shut-eye, your body will prioritize other functions that happen during sleep over muscle growth to survive. Lack of sleep could lead to quicker over-training, lack of motivation, and worst of all... lost gains. 

Make sure all the above are in check and you should be well on the road to constant muscle growth in size and strength. STAY STRONG!

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The Garry Bodybuilding Workout Program: The Most Intense Muscle Building Program Ever

This is the most intense workout that I have ever tried out myself. Due to its high intensity, this program is not recommended for people are just starting out or who are relatively new to training. These people should start off with these programs instead. Newcomers should start off with the first program to get their bodies into the idea of breaking down and rebuilding muscle. Once you are ready, you can progress to the second program in the above link, which is similar to what most bodybuilders do.

The Garry workout program was supposedly designed for advanced bodybuilders whose muscles are already used to intense training. It is used to boost muscle growth and blast through a plateau for a limited period of 2 months for accelerated muscle growth. The high intensity of this program lends itself to the fact that it can't be sustained for too long. Since you are working till failure on every set, for many sets, it takes a toll on your nerves and central nervous system.

Since this is a great shocking technique, muscle growth is boosted through this period as the body tries to adapt to the extreme stimulus. As a result of the strain it places on the joints, energy systems and metabolic system, the program should only be followed for a very short time before switching back to normal training.

You should only do this program when on your bulking phase. Restricting calories on a program of this intensity could lead to muscle breakdown. Make sure that you are getting enough calories from a good bulking diet (click here to build your own).

How the program works

The program incorporates German volume training (high reps, high sets), limited recovery time per set and repeatedly forcing muscles to failure, driving them to complete exhaustion with each workout. The goal of this program is to enforce rapid hypertrophy by shocking the body into accelerated growth. This takes its toll on the central nervous system as well as the metabolic system over time, which is why it is advised that beginners, people with injuries or other medical conditions and people who have already overtrained do not try this type of program. The body starts showing a negative response (over-training) if the program is followed for longer than 2 months.

Program rules

The program runs for 6 days a week

The program is in a 6-day split, focusing on one muscle group per day. All major muscle groups are worked in the program, but through only one exercise. The only rest day is day 7. You need to follow the program fully, not cutting out a single day.

Perform only one exercise per day

Do only one exercise per day, excluding a warm up and cool down. This is shown below. You can only add warm-up and cool-down exercises but do not stress the body more than what is described below. I would personally recommend a cardio-style warm-up and an exercise-specific warm-up, depending on the exercise for that day. Don't do any other weighted exercises as a warm up and make sure that your muscles aren't fatigued at all before the exercise. The point is to exert the most out of the muscle in the shortest amount of time. 

Resist the temptation to do any isolate or additional exercises. Try this out for a few weeks and you will see that the exercises here are more than enough for growth.

  Perform every set till failure

You need to work until complete failure with every set. Forced reps are allowed. I did mine until I couldn't move the weight at all. If you can do another rep, you're not done.

You must follow the prescribed times

Every set has a resting period of exactly 30 seconds before the next one, with the exception of squats and dead lifts having 1 minute rest intervals. Do not rest longer or shorter than this between sets. This maximizes short-term fatigue.

Keep doing more sets until failure until you cannot perform a single full rep 

This blasts your muscles and will test your muscular endurance, but keep on performing sets of the exercise until you cannot do a proper repetition with the right form. As you can see below, it might take a loooot of sets before you fail to do a single rep.

The program

Day 1: Squats
(60 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 15-7-6-4-4-4-4-2-1)

Day 2: Standing Calve Raises
(30 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 15-15-15-14-14-1-1-1-10-9-8-5-5-5-3-2-2-2-2-1) 

Day 3: Russian Twists
(30 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 20-20-20-18-16-14-10-7-7-7-6-5-4-2-2-2-1-1-1)

Day 4: Deadlifts
(60 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 12-11-10-10-10-9-8-7-6-6-5-5-5-5-4-2-1-1)

Day 5: Dumbbell Bench Press
(30 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 12-10-8-6-4-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-1)

Day 6: Pull Ups
(30 second rest in between sets) (Until failure) (E.g. 25-25-25-23-20-19-27-17-14-12-11-9-6-5-4-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-1)

Day 7: Rest

Additional notes

• Use dumbbells for the bench press exercise because the intensity of this program could easily get a bar stuck on your chest.
• The workout goes very quickly (It took me less than half of my usual workout routine to complete).
• I struggled to do the squats till failure. On most occasions I ended up resting for longer in the middle of my sets.
• My calves exploded on this routine. I use this kind of principle for my calves often because of that.

Give this program a try and tell us about your experience in the comments below. STAY STRONG!

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Get Bigger Calve Muscles Right Now - You're Doing it Wrong

Calves are what I call a 'gene-muscle'. Some people can grow their calves into mini boulders while others can't, even though both could be working just as hard on them every week. Unfortunately, the size that your calves can grow in proportion to the rest of your body is largely predetermined to luck-of-the-draw genetics. Don't lose hope though, there are still ways to get them show-ready and larger than life with smart lifting and a few changes to your work-out routine. Check out these smart tips that will turn your puppies into bull dogs.

How to get bigger calf muscles

Treat your calves like any other muscle group

Firstly, the calves should be treated like any other muscle group. They differ from the other muscle groups in a variety of ways. They were made to take more heat before failing. In the wild, you died if your calves gave out when running away from Mr. Lion (not Luscious) and other tribes. They are made up of more slow-twitch muscle fibers and less fast-twitch muscle fibers. The abdominal muscles are another example of muscle types that are mainly composed of slow twitch muscle fibers.

This is why most people think that you should train them differently. You should, however, train them the same as other muscle groups. If you train them using higher reps (but lower weights) and at higher frequencies (more times a week than other muscle groups), you are appealing to their slow-twitch nature. By doing this, their slow twitch nature will be stimulated, instead of the few fast twitch fibers that have the most potential for massive size.

Instead, you want to increase the fast-twitch part of the muscle (therefore increasing the potential for increased size). You do this by appealing to the fast twitch part of the calf muscles. By training them according to their slow twitch nature, you are enforcing the fact that they don't grow like the other muscles. If your calves are trained like they are just as fast-twitched as other muscles, they will adapt and change.

Lower the rep range

Would you train your chest at 20 reps for 4 sets? Decrease your rep range and increase the intensity by raising the amount of weight that you put on them. This will appeal to their fast twitch fibers and you calves will grow bigger.

Work to failure

Your calves burn because they would rather work with oxygen energy instead of glycogen energy (lactic acid is released when we exercise at energetic rates higher than what oxygen can replenish). Work them to failure in the same way that you would push your bicep muscles. The burn is their way of telling you that they are uncomfortable. Let them get so uncomfortable that they are forced to change.

Rest times

If you are working on your calves every day, you are not working them hard enough per session (not enough to cause delayed onset muscle soreness). You might not be giving them enough rest to grow and improve for the next workout. You should try to grow the size of your calves in the same way that you do with chest and back muscles, even though they will give you more resistance when you try to do so. Your body prioritizes calf function over other muscles, since they are so important for you to escape danger. If they don't have enough rest, they would rather decrease size in order to be ready for the next time you need to run away. Just like how training chest muscles too often won't give it them the time that they need to recover, training the calf muscles too often won't give the fast twitch muscles enough time to recover and grow. 

For those who don't know the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers

Fast twitch muscle fibers are the fibers in the muscle that are used for short periods, but at higher intensities. They rely on glucose instead of oxygen for energy because oxygen will take too long to add up in the fiber for the amount of power that the muscle needs right now. They grow a lot bigger than slow twitch muscle fibers.

Slow twitch muscle fibers are the muscle fibers that are used at low intensities for longer periods of time. They reply on oxygen for energy. Since they don't need to store glycogen, they grow a lot smaller than fast twitch muscle fibers.

For a good example of the size potential differences between fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, think about the muscle differences between sprinters and marathon runners. Sprinters use fast twitch muscle fibers, since they need a lot of energy in a short space of time. Conversely, marathon runners rely on slow twitch muscles because they use less energy, but for longer periods of time. 

Are you working them hard enough?

If you train your chest to failure, why are you not training your calves to failure? Calves are harder to train to failure because you will initially have a larger portion of slow twitch muscle fibers. Their slow twitch nature is reinforced by being repetitively used in low-intensity, high endurance movements like walking and running - which we all do a lot of in life.

This means that when you do exercises that recruit fast twitch fibers like calve raises, your higher percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers release more lactic acid as a response (you feel a burn in your calves before you reach failure). Every time you work your calves, work past the burn until they start to fail and you can't move the weight anymore. Once you are failing to execute full reps on them, you are reaching failure. In order to start increasing the fast twitch fibers in your calves, you need to get used to working your calves to failure every time you work on them. This will take some time to get used to, because your calves are naturally inclined to burn and make you stop BEFORE they fail as a survival mechanism. As a rule in survival, your calves are programmed to never fail, because reaching failure means that you would not be able to get away from dangers (like animals in the wild).

Once you have reached failure, try to do a few forced reps (with as much of the full rep movement as you can) because calve muscles are also programmed to recover as quickly as possible to ensure your natural mobility and survival.

From the beginning of your movement, make sure that you complete the full movement of each rep. Start with your heels as low as what feels naturally possible and lift them as high as you can. You should be struggling to get your heels as high up as possible with each rep, meaning that you almost pause for a second at the top of each movement by trying to reach the highest point possible. Pause here and let those puppies suffer.

Don't rush through your movements. This would be your natural instinct to recruit slow twitch fibers by turning it into a semi-cardio activity. Yes, doing this will burn. The burn is a good indication that you are challenging them more than what is naturally expected.

But just like when you work your other muscle groups; it is about increasing strength and size, not speed. The slower you go, the more it should burn. The more you work through the burn, the closer you get to failure. The more you cause your calves to fail, the more that they are forced to grow those fast twitch muscle fibers.

Use a lower rep range

You bench at a range of 8-12 reps, right? Then why are you doing calf raises in the 15-20 rep range? It is easier to use the fast twitch muscles in our chest but easier to use the slow twitch fibers on your calves. Using heavier weight and failing on lower reps just feels wrong on your calves because they are not designed to do so - but the whole point of this is to grow your calves past what they are naturally inclined to grow and have their size proportional to the rest of your muscle profile.

 To do this, put them on the same regimen as the rest of your body, whether if feels 'comfortable' or not. Make sure to reach a point of failure and do a few forced reps. Get used to using a lower rep range, and then alternate between rep ranges every few weeks to keep them on their toes (pun intended). Switching to high reps every now and then benefits muscle growth in all muscle types.

Muscle confusion

Your calves will get used to their exercises very quickly, because they are naturally essential to our primal survival. Do you need a good counter measure? Use calve exercises until they reach a plateau and then change the exercise to keep them growing. The change could be something as simple as swapping the standard standing calve raise machine for standing dumbbell raises on a step, or using a barbell on your shoulders, or doing raises on the flat ground, or changing rep ranges (and rest times in between sets). You should be changing your calf exercises more regularly then other muscle groups because of the fact that they adapt so quickly.

Different exercises for different goals

Different calf exercises will affect the calf muscles differently, so be sure to do a mixture of exercises to grow the different parts of the calf evenly.

Standing calve exercises (on a straightened knee) will stimulate the gastrocnemius more. This is the part of the calve that looks like a tennis ball at the back of your calve and gives the calve the shape and definition which looks very aesthetic.

Seated calve exercises (bent knee) help to widen your calves and add bulk, which is important to keep your calves in proportion with the rest of your body.

Lifting you toes while keeping your heels on the ground under a weight will increase the size and strength of the front part of the lower leg. These are the muscles that are the closest to your shin. You can do this by holding a dumbbell or kettlebell on your toes and balancing them with your hands. Lift your toes while balancing your heels on the ground. You can pivot your heels on a step for a greater range of motion.

The usual stuff

Your calves need nutrition just like all the other muscle groups

They require a good bulking diet to grow in size. Make sure that your diet includes enough natural food to keep your immune system strong. Supplements are a great way to make sure that you reach your daily macro nutrient targets. An energizing pre workout can increase calf performance and recovery.

Avoid catabolism

Make sure to follow these tips to make sure that your muscles are not breaking down and undoing all of your hard work.

Was this article helpful? Let us know in the comments below. STAY STRONG!

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