The Super Bench Program

Robb Rogers, M.Ed., CSCS

This bench training program I was first exposed to by the coaches at the University of Washington Huskies back when they were winning the national championship in football.  Rick Huegli and Bill Gillespie were the coaches that were so gracious as to teach me this training cycle and it proved to be wonderful at creating gains as well as providing enough bench press sets and reps for even the most ardent bencher.  It was designed to set you up on a four week cycle at the end of which you would either max or add 2.5% to your old max and continue to train. 

The sets and reps below were to be executed on the first workout of the week.  On the backside of the workout (typically a four day split routine) the athletes would do a lot of alternate type exercises for the pressing workout.  Things such as incline press, dips, floor press (where you lay on the floor and only press from elbows from the floor to lockout) dumbbells, etc would be prescribed for training on the alternate pressing day. The warm – up sets are listed and the rep scheme is set up on a 2.5% equals one rep type of periodization scale.

Week 1                        Week 2                        Week 3                        Week 4

w5 @ 47.5%               w5 @ 47.5%               w5 @ 47.5%               max out

w5 @ 60%                  w4 @ 60%                  w4 @ 60%                  or

w5 @ 70%                  w3 @ 72.5%               w3 @ 72.5%               add 2.5% to the old

5 @ 80%                     w3 @ 82.5%               w3 @ 82.5%               1 rep max

4 @ 82.5%                  2 x 3 @ 87.5%            3 @ 87.5%

2 x 3 @ 85%               2 x 90%                       2 @ 90%

2 x 8 @ 70%               1 @ 95%                     2 x 1 @ 95%  

*16 @ 70%                 3 x 6 @ 80%               3 x 4 @ 85%

                                    *12 @ 80%                 *8 @ 85%

Training Tips

-Each of these sets and reps can be adjusted down up to 2.5% or even 5%.

-W denotes a warm – up or work – up set before the actual training set begins.

-Do not skip general warm – up and the work – up sets.

-The * denotes the “burn out” sets in which the athlete can “cheat” and lift  the butt and get as much bounce as needed (using common sense) to get as many reps as possible. 

-You should not be able to complete all the reps of the burnout set. 

-The first time through this program may prove to be a bit too much for some lifters

-This is a bench program for athletes that have been benching for 4+ years.

-Do not neglect the pulling exercises for the backside of the shoulder musculature.

-I always made the reps for pushing and the reps for pulling equal at minimum.

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