| "How much do you bench?" | | | | stable; hypertrophy focused workouts with heavy, |
| If you are a man that works out in the gym, you will | | | | maximum effort power lifting workouts. |
| hear this question a lot. Gone are the days when the | | | | Week 1: You do your bench press. After your |
| overhead press was the measure of a man's strength. | | | | warm-up sets, you do heavy sets of 3, working up to |
| Now it's the bench press. When you are a novice | | | | your 1 rep maximum. |
| weight lifter, gains come easy. After a couple of years | | | | Week 2: No bench press. Let your CNS rest. Workout |
| increasing the weights become more difficult, Inevitably, | | | | your chest with stable platforms such as hammer |
| you reach the dreaded plateau. What do you do? You | | | | smith machines. Use stabilization exercises such as |
| have to be smart about it. It's is one of the most | | | | dumbbell bench press and dumbbell flys, using the |
| common ways a man can injure himself in the gym. | | | | incline and flat bench. I do the exercises in the higher |
| Since there is such a strong drive to have a big bench, | | | | rep range, anywhere from 8 to 12 reps. |
| most men push too hard, too fast. Many times, these | | | | Week 3: Go back to bench press working up to your 1 |
| injuries are severe, rotator cuff tears, pectoral tears, | | | | rep maximum. |
| and other major injuries. These injuries require surgery | | | | I would never preach something I have not done on |
| with a long recovery time. All your gains are gone and | | | | my own. Using my new program, I increased my |
| then some. We don't want that to happen. | | | | bench considerably. I suffered a labrum tear on my left |
| So what's the secret Otis? The secret to getting a | | | | shoulder and a dislocation on my right shoulder due to |
| bigger bench is reducing the CNS load. CNS is an | | | | boxing and BJJ training. As you can imagine, my bench |
| acronym for central nervous system. Many workout | | | | press was impeded by a large margin. I was only able |
| programs have you do the bench press two to three | | | | to bench press 225lbs for 1 rep. By using my new |
| times a week. This is in addition to doing deadlifts and | | | | program, I can now bench press 265lbs for 3 reps. Not |
| squats, which also place an enormous load on your | | | | only that, I'm getting stronger. All this with two bad |
| CNS. When the CNS is overloaded, you start to get | | | | shoulders. |
| weaker. You must alternate your weekly workout with | | | | |