 Ladies and gentlemen silent mic back with another video today We're going to talk about bench press how to increase your bench press and more importantly Maybe the variations or accessories to help you get further bigger Stronger faster better looking and big pecs because that's what we're here for if you like the video Be sure to give this thing a thumbs up subscribe for future videos We're dropping three a week my friends. You can find me on twitch every single night. We're streaming We're hanging out live streaming twitch.tv slash silent mic with two K's. Let's hop in The bench press in particular. I think is actually a great place to really throw in a bunch of good variations Now when why and how should we throw in? Variations and maybe what's the difference between a variation and an accessory to me sometimes it can break down to Semantics, but when you're talking about a variation, I'm thinking something. That's very very similar to the main movement With a couple obviously variances rather than an accessory might be like an isolation movement building your shoulders to help the bench Building your tricep to help the bench or even building your back to help the bench There was a weird era in powerlifting where everyone's trying to figure things out for the raw Lifter and what's best to build muscle and build strength over time. Maybe five Ten years ago the last ten to five years now people agree a lot more on what the basics are and what can really help People because there's this era of big back big bench big back Big squat big back big deadlift and bench with your back bench with your lats bench with your triceps all these type of cues and all These information being thrown around and I'm not going to say the back isn't play a role in every movement We do I think having big lats big rhomboids big traps is a great thing for power lifters or any strength athlete maybe any athlete ever For symmetry injury prevention in general stability in all of the lifts You know where you hold the bar on the squad it helps a lot pulling the bar in And being a huge stabilizer in the deadlift and also controlling your shoulders and being a stabilizer in the bench press But it's not a main mover if we want to get better at the bench We probably just have to bench more as a beginner you can bench two to three times a week Probably make a lot of progress weekly adding a little bit of weight or a couple reps a week as you get more advanced You might have to bench three four maybe even five times a week and vary the reps the sets as you want to get better the time to throw in variances are There's a layer of them how you choose a Exercise variance or an accessory one is to an address a problem in your lift Whether that be a weak point whether that be musclarly or in your bar path Even though those things can also potentially be fixed with technique or just a bench press Another reason is is so you don't plateau if your bench in four times a week and all you're doing is competition bench press We don't want our progress to slow. So what we can do is find other lifts that are very similar Changing your grip. That's one of my favorite and the most basic especially with the bench press a closer grip for a longer range of motion You have to use more muscle moving the bar further puts a little bit more on the triceps a wider grip Sometimes is a little bit more difficult for people to get a lot of power out of but still Handling decent amount of weights. Both of those are easy variances. You can throw in a couple times a week Again, if you progress in the closed grip and the competition simultaneously not eliminating one for the other It's not if and there's another way to progress and then the last I Guess is to work around any kind of injuries or issues that we have one of the big differences between Really power lifting in any any other sport is your mandatory to do these three lifts squat bench deadlift And although everyone lifts slightly different and looks slightly different different musculature different limb length, etc We may not all be perfectly built to do those three lifts. So Sometimes you might have to work around an injury or an ache or something like that And that's another great time to throw in a variance if you're you know pecs are hurting a lot Hopefully not injured, but just hurting you might be able to do a little bit more closed grip Reduce the range of motion use a reverse band or some chains something like that talking about Changing these variances to avoid injury or to avoid pain if you have tendonitis something like that And they're basically workarounds and that's a great other option in time to add in the variances now What's the best exercise variance to increase your bench? There isn't one you all know it hopefully by now And if you don't the best is getting better at the movement of the bench press with a good progression and a program to Get you better over time Again, hopefully the more advanced you get the more knowledge you gain or the coach you have or the program you have and there will be different variances Added in again to avoid those plateaus if we were making progress multiple variances, then hopefully the variations Will add up to a bigger bench over time Now the closer we get to a meat if we want to peak for one rep max just like everything else in life We have to get more specific getting more specific using just the bench press is probably the best option You can still you know There's a there's a spectrum of how many variances or excuse me the variations to the lift itself, right? If we're talking about the bench press in particular the close grip is a pretty close Variations so to use that during a peaking prep as your fourth day of bench isn't the worst idea It's potentially usable Using a reverse band one day chains the other day close grip one day and floor press the other day as you're trying to Peak for the competition bench press probably not your best option because we need to practice the movement of the bench press We need to build the musculature that's involved with our technique in that lift as well as using The tools and the practice just like a basketball player shoots free throws and a golfer goes to the driving range We need to work on the mechanics and the specificity of that skill now What are some of my favorite variations? Well, those are just that the close grip the ultra wide grip and both of those just depend on where your normal grip is Just move it two to three inches in move it an inch or two out from normal extra long pauses if you plan to compete in powerlifting the Spoto press which was by Eric Spoto where you're basically really being as tight as you can and hovering just off your chest Think about doing a board press except there is no board and you have to control yourself Board presses are a pretty decent option I actually really enjoy bands and chains not only are they fun mentally for the lifter if you're coaching them or yourself to Change up and still progress But it allows you to be a little bit more explosive sometimes handle less overall load and sometimes using bands or something like that is a Little bit easier on your shoulders and elbows if you choose the proper band strength There's tons of variations that can help There's tons that you can maybe practice with again If you're benching three to four times a week and you want to throw one in to test it for a training cycle Doing them in blocks is a great idea if you do a variation You know say your bench in three times a week You have one close grip day one competition day and one variation day Changing that variation every four eight or twelve weeks is a great way to gauge your progress If you're doing a band you could do it for eight weeks Slowly progress up and sets reps or weight and then Rotate back around and try a different variation. These are great off-season builders and that's basically why I made the free Kaizen training Infinite off-season totally free program. It's just four weeks, but it's made so you can throw in variations So you can start to build up different musculature have fun and continue to make progress number one goal is always to make progress Let's not just use variations for the sake of using variations for quote-unquote muscle confusion But there is a time and place to not plateau to continue to build them And to work around different injuries or address weak points that you may have Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video give this thing a thumbs up I appreciate you guys new video coming every Monday Wednesday and Saturday Catch you guys the next one