If you want to dramatically improve your bench performance, build upper body strength and boost overall muscle size,
then here’s a secret exercise that most modern day trainers ignore.
Everyone knows that the bench press is a good exercise for building upper body strength. But many old time trainers performed this exercise in a different manner.
And as a result, they took an already brutally effective exercise and made it every tougher.
Walk into any gym in America and you’ll see guys flailing away on the bench press. But you probably WON’T see too many people using great form.
Far too many guys “bounce” the bar off the chest. This makes the exercise easier, and therefore, less effective.
But many old-time trainers would purposefully make the exercise more difficult by making it impossible to bounce the bar off the chest.
How?
By starting the exercise from the bottom. By starting the exericse at chest level, you eliminate the stretch reflex that occurs when you bounce
the bar off your chest.
Let me show you:
Here’s Soviet weight trainer Yuri Vlasov bench pressing 405 lbs from the bottom position — and making it look damn easy.
Russian old-timer benching 405 pounds with ease – VIDEO
If you’d like to build massive strength like Yuri, then start performing your bench presses from the bottom position.
Here’s a couple ways to make that work:
First, if you’ve got a couple of spotters available you can simply have them lower the bar to your chest as in the video above.
Or, if you’ve got access to a power rack, you can adjust the pins to a point slightly above the level of your chest when expanded. Then you simply slide under the bar and inhale deeply to begin the set. If you can’t complete a rep, simply exhale and deflate your chest to get out from under the bar.
Start training the bench press from the bottom up and watch how fast your size and strength increases.
