Tweaking My Bench Programming

I've been speed benching for around 6 months now, and I think it's time to try something else. I know from reading and listening to a lot of the best powerlifters that speed work is often a great way to train your bench and help you break through plateaus. However, the truth is that personally, speed benching has never felt great. While speed squats and deadlifts are always hard, they still feel like they are doing SOMETHING to make me better at squatting and deadlifting. I notice, over a period of weeks, that the heavier weights feel like they're moving faster, and I'm less tired after the 10 or so sets. However, I can honestly say I've never really felt that sort of growth or benefit from speed benching. And furthermore, it's been really killing my elbows the last few times I've speed benched.

Basically, after months of speed benching, I don't see any real benefit, and it hurts my fucked up elbows really bad. So fuck that. 

If you've never tried speed benching, check it out. It works great for a lot of people - 

just doesn't do shit for me. 

Starting next week, I'm going to experiment with something a little different. Jaime Lewis, this one is for you. 

Instead of doing light, fast reps, on the minute, for 9 sets, I'm going to switch speed bench days to "Chaos and Pain" style days. I'm going to still do 9 sets, on the minute, but I'm gonna go fuckin heavy instead of going light. So fridays will look like this:

Week 1: 9 sets of 3, on the minute, with 85% or working 1 rep

Week 2: 9 sets of 2 with 90%

Week 3: 9 sets of 1 with 95%

Jaime says "Go for it. fucker." Also, he wants you to look at naked women. 

Basically, whatever weight I'm repping out on tuesday for my 5/3/1 heavy set, I'll be doing for triples, double or singles with minimum rest. Why? Because I've tried a bunch of other shit to make my bench go up, and none of it has really worked. I've recently fixed my form, so I'm hoping to FINALLY see some progress, and I think it's about time to cut the speed bench (which has never really worked for me), and try something new. Jaime's Chaos and Pain is simple and straight-forward: you're gonna get stronger by going really heavy on a movement, for a lot of reps. And you're gonna get leaner by doing those heavy reps with minimal rest. More conventional shit hasn't done me much good, so I think it's time to give Jaime's approach a shot. I may have to feel it out: I'm not sure if I'll be able to hit all 9 triples at that weight, with such little rest. But I'm going to give it a shot, and adjust if I need to. 

And in the end, it's a relatively small tweak to my programming. At the worst, it won't help at all - but I don't think speed bench did either, so I would just be back where I started. And, with the help of Jesus, Thor,  Jehova and Captain Planet, maybe going heavy for a shitload of reps will FINALLY make me stronger. 

Who the fuck thought this up? Seriously. 

Fuck Captain Planet. And benching. (But only for now).