There seems to be a new trend coming around in the strength training community, or more specifically…RAW powerlifting.
It seems that everyone’s answer for improving one’s bench press is to simply “bench more”.
Sounds like common sense, right?
But guess what, if all one needed to do was bench, then everyone in the gym would be doing over 315lbs.
Yet, we rarely see this even though everyone already benches.
So what’s the real problem then?
Well, there’s a lot of factors that go into this such as poor sleep and nutrition, but more specifically it has to do with accommodation.
Accommodation is a biological LAW that prevents one from pursuing new adaptions.
The only way to get past this is through a) changing the parameters of the exercise (sets, reps, tempo, etc) or b) changing the exercise completely.
Most people choose option a.
But here’s the problem. You can only do so much with option a.
Just like the nerd who requires reading multiple books for knowledge, so must you use different exercises for newer muscle and strength gains.
Now in terms of triceps extensions (skullcrushers) they can accomplish what the flat barbell bench press sometimes fails to address.
That is, it develops the medial head of the triceps, which is what’s responsible for benching power and strength.
Once the medial head is thoroughly developed, it aids in the lockout portion of the bench press, and prevents one from developing elbow pain or triceps fatigue. It also ensures that the triceps take over in the bench press, which means less rottator cuff injuries and pec tears.
In simplest terms, triceps extensions acts as an active form of recovery.
This is extremely important for developing a raw bench press.
Therefore, to simply stop doing extensions would not be a wise investment.
There’s no point in doing that unless you want to short-change yourself.
And doing BS exercises like triceps kickbacks and pushdowns aren’t going to do much for your bench press either.
You need to hammer the hell out of those tris with multiple variations of extensions.
Elbows out extensions, skullcrushers to the throat, overhead extensions, JM presses, the whole nine yards.
By the way, don’t take my word for it.
Take the words of world record holders of the bench press. They all do some form of extensions, whether they are geared or raw.
Seems like the only people who don’t do em’ are the chumps on the internet that claim to be experts at everything.
The same guys who never broke a record, and who always say “bench press more to get better at benching”.
As if their words mean anything.
If you can’t walk the talk, keep that damn mouth shut.
I, on the other hand, walk the talk. (not a world record holder, but I can hit 345lbs raw at 180lbs)
And so do the world record holders of the bench press.
Start doing triceps extensions, and don’t look back.
You’ll thank me later.
-Alex
PS: Here’s a video on the topic since this was a short post.
Hey Alex great article man
I recently purchased the alpha body and man I gotta say it’s probably one of the best exercise books I’ve read. However, I have a couple of questions that I’m kinda confused about.
First, the PR table, do I use it for all my lifts or only my main. As far as I can tell its PR table for my main while, supplementary lifts and the accessory lifts ( triceps/biceps/delts) are just straight sets ( for example, 3×3-8 or 3×8-30 ) . So I was hoping you could clear that up for me.
Also, I noticed that the main movements that your are building up to a Max ( 4-10 or 1-3 ) on using the PR table are mainly pushing movements. Do you think that just doing straight sets aka 3×8-30 will be enough for back or is it useful to maybe focus on heavier weights sometimes ? Maybe for back between 5-15 reps while maybe sticking to the same exercise for a little longer ( 2-3 weeks ) but still rotating exercises and building general back strength ?
Also, would it be useful to also occasionally build up to a 4-10 rep max and use the back of sets on back training aka treating it like a main lift ?
Lastly, if I’m happy more or less with my legs would it be more beneficial to instead build up to sets for my main lift ( pushing movement ) and my main back movement aka build up to bench Max and pendlay row max using the PR table and just use straight sets for legs on both my main and supplementary movements ( treat them like accessories ), or would 2 max sets for upper body be too much to recover from.
Thanks for the awesome content and sorry if the question ended up being overwhelmingly long.
Ps, still waiting for the next entry in the best bodies series. Hoping for lu Xiaojun myself ( but then again he is my goal physique so I might be biased lol )
Hey Abdul,
Since I answered some of those questions on the youtube comment, I’ll address the other ones.
Yes, you can definitely do lower reps for back. It doesn’t always have to be high reps, and as a matter of fact if you look at the sample programs I often provide low rep setups.
Also, yes, you can do back-off sets for your back if you want to.
Finally, I don’t understand your leg question at all. Just train like a leg minimizer and you’ll be fine.
Regards,
-Alex
Thanks for the replies alex, and sorry about the leg questions being somwwhat convoluted. Basically what I meant was can I replace maxing out and doing back of sets for legs with back and just train legs like an accessory since I feel that 3 max sets would probably be too taxing but you already answered that so I’m pretty much good.
Thanks again and keep up the awesone content.
Thanks for that video on connective tissue, helped my elbows a lot