What's up, guys? I'm Jake Hutton, this is Steve Cook here. I got you guys. I'm Steve Cook,
this is Jake Hutton. I'm gonna go over today one of the most asked about
questions we get all the time, and that's how to improve bench press. So I was
strong growing up, Jake was legendary strong growing up, I hit my senior year
370 on benchpress, but I was benching wrong at the time, and I didn't even
realize it until I started working out with Jake how to properly bench press
for strength, and one of the things we started doing was board press. So today
we're gonna go over how to improve your bench press by
implementing board press. So some of the things that it allows us to do is train
heavier because we're using partial reps, getting that central nervous system used
to a heavier load, as well as extending the set when you're benching. So we're
gonna jump into it. So I pretty much just stole everything Jake told me say.
All right, the first thing we're gonna talk about today is just how we set the board up,
because it's a pretty convenient way to set up your board. So we just took one
2x4, cut it up, and we use velcro, so that way you can go basically one board all
the way to a four board press just in one little setup. And it
allows you to have more variation, and it's really cheap to set up. So that's
how, we have a few of these in the gym, and it's easy to use with large groups
of people too. So if you're a college strength coach, when I was a coach, I made
this for every rack, and it cost not very much, like 30 bucks maybe.
So today what we're gonna talk about first is gonna be going over how we're gonna
utilize the board for heavier weights. So like Steve said, it's gonna
allow you to put heavier, really, if you do a three board press, let's say
we're gonna go three board today, it's gonna allow you to do more than your
one rep max for most people, as long as you have strong triceps, and what that's
going to do is basically stimulate your central nervous system. You're getting
used to that weight, so when you go actually off your chest, it's going to
feel lighter when it's in your hands. And number two, it's gonna increase your
lockout. And the next thing that you can work on too with the board is gonna be a
sticking point. So for a lot of people, the two to three board right off your
chest is gonna be your sticking point, and so it allows you to work that
partial range of motion right at your sticking point. All right, so the board
that I use the most is probably going to be the three board, because it's really
close to my sticking point, but it's still
a small enough partial rep that I can still use really, really heavy weight,
so more than my one rep max. So we're gonna use a three board today,
and really, we just wanted to show you guys how you're gonna utilize this.
So you're gonna grab the board like this, you're gonna have the partner,
you can have a spotter, and the partner holding it, but the biggest mistake that
people make is people lie the board flat, and then some will hit
the board and it comes down like that. So basically you're
gonna lose a little bit of force right off the chest, and it's gonna make it a lot
harder for the person doing the exercise. So what you want to do when you
set up the board is really follow right down the line of their chest, so it's
nice and tight to their chest. They can touch it and explode right off the board,
good, just like that. If you're strong enough, a lot of people can do about 110%
or even more, but usually 110% on a close grip or even
more than that on a wide grip bench, compared to your one rep max. So the next
way that we like to utilize boards is to extend the set and work muscular
endurance. So this is great for your combine training guys that need to hit 225.
So that's one reason that I love the velcro setup as well, because
you can just pop the boards off like this, and you're set up to go
for this set. So what we're gonna do is, Steve is gonna burn out to his chest first,
he's gonna set up, so basically all the way to burn out, he's gonna
lock it out, he's gonna sit up, rest for 10 seconds, and then we're gonna go burn
out to a two board, he's gonna sit back up, rest 10, burn out to a three board,
then sit back up, and then finish his last set, burning out to a four board,
which seems almost ridiculous for some people, because it's barely any
movement. But one of the first things to go when you're doing a 225 test is
gonna be your tricep lockout strength, and so this is a great way to work your
lockout when you're already 100% fatigued. All right, so we're
gonna show you guys an example of what that's gonna look like. So Steve's gonna
set up, he's got 225 on, and he's gonna unrack it and just burn
out all the way to his chest.
Alright, so Steve just hit 52 reps, now we're gonna go 10 second break.
He's gonna sit back up, two board, and really on
this you can hit it just like you would your chest, so you don't have to
control it to the board too much. He's burnt out,
he racks it, we're gonna grab the three board, set it up.
Gonna burn out to that three board, burned out.
And then finally we're gonna throw on the four board, he's rested ten seconds,
and then we're gonna lay back down.
And just finish to that four board.
So that would just be one set, and
usually this would be basically something that we would do at the end of
a chest training day. So we'd probably do a little bit of volume work
first, and right at the end of your bench session, then we would
finish with one more final set, and go all the way through that whole progression.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed that video on how to get a
stronger bench press. You guys want to see how we would program this in an
actual workout, click the link in the description, make sure you also hit that
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like button, like this, just smash it. No chest bump? Okay, yeah, redo.
That's a lot of man-boob up in there. Thanks guys.