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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

More bench press tips

Bench improvement. How do I increase my bench? If I had a dollar for every time…nevermind. Here’s a great way to increase your bench, or any lift for that matter. Speed is power, we all know that. We need to move weights quickly, with perfect form, in order to move more weight. This is proven by the ‘all or none’ law in science. The ‘all or none’ law states that a muscle fiber contracts 100% or not at all. This means that only the minimum amount of muscle fibers will fire to move a given amount of weight. So what you say? So, in order to move a given weight more efficiently, or lift more weight, you need to stimulate more muscle fibers to fire. This is done by moving the weight faster. If you move “x” amount of weight at 5 mph, you activate “y” amount of fibers. To move the same amount of weight, you need to move it faster to activate more muscle fibers. This holds true when trying to lift more weight. You need to apply more power against the weight, which means you need to apply more speed. Remember to apply the speed with perfect form. Never sacrifice technique for weight or speed.



Vincent DiZenzo benching an assload of weight at TPS.
How does this relate to a bigger bench? Simple, apply maximum force against the weight, and you will move more weight.
Set up for your bench, lower the weight quickly, but under control (don’t bounce it off of your chest) and drive it back up as fast as you can. This will recruit a maximum amount of tension in the muscles and a maximum amount of muscle fibers to move the weight. This translates into a bigger bench!

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