Constantly, people are looking for ways to have a bigger bench. I mean, I get it, who doesn’t want a big, fuck off bench? The problem is, people repeatedly overlook the best and most efficient way to increase their bench press. I’ll get to what that is in a moment, but what I can tell you is what isn’t the best way to build your bench, and that is by doing isolated arm training. Having big arms looks sick, don’t get me wrong, but is it the best way to increase your bench press? Definitely not.
What is seemingly always overlooked the most, is technique, and I can say I’ve made the foolish mistake of sweeping my bullshit technique under the rug, convincing myself it was ok because I saw a couple of ‘kinda’ strong guys doing it. Who the fuck wants to be just ‘kinda’ strong anyway? I just thought if I trained my arms more and got bigger arms that my bench would keep growing. But let me tell you, that didn’t fucking work at all. My bench was essentially stagnant for over a year, hovering around 225kg-230kg for that length of time. What a god damned waste of time that was. Luckily around 18 months ago, I humbled myself and I chose to seek advice from someone smarter than me, who taught me how to actually bench press properly, with safe and efficient technique. Can you imagine what happened? That’s god damn right, my bench increased, and quite quickly may I add. I am now a 260kg bencher, and thats only going to keep growing. Guess what else? I stopped getting Pectoral strains every other month. So, my technique improved, my bench increased and I was under a barbell more because I wasn’t continually getting injured.
Now, I am not saying that training arms is a big no-no. What I’m saying is that it shouldn’t be your ‘go to’ for building your bench press. Spend more time actually bench pressing and improving the quality of the movement.
For your accessory work, do full range of motion dumbbell pressing and use multiple angles when and don’t forget to hit the same amount of rows and lat pulldowns. These are all excellent compound movements that will still make your arms grow. I promise you that.
One more thing to really think about, is what was mentioned earlier. “I was under a barbell more because I wasn’t constantly getting injured’. This carries a lot of weight, excuse the pun. But really think about it, how can we improve if we can not consistently train? Its almost impossible. There are so many upsides to prioritising technique. If you’re serious about this, this must be your priority. If you still want to train arms, thats cool, just don’t pretend its for a bigger bench. Own it, you’re just another vanity riddled motherfucker like me, I’m just cooler than you, because I don’t train arms.
If you read this, and you think I’m full of shit, get the fuck off my page and continue your life of mediocrity, ain’t got no time for that around here girlfriend.
XOXO Gossip Girl