Weekly Wisdom – A Little Secret For Extra Oomph!

The most common chest exercise, with weights, is the bench press. There are different “experts” that say to do 3 sets of 10 reps, 3 sets of 6 reps, do pyramids, upside down pyramids, etc. For every expert, there seems to be varying opinions on the best option.

We have found that the option you use is really dependent upon the result you seek. Whether that is to have big muscles, well defined muscles, gain strength or just maintain what you have.

However, there is one fairly universal truth in regards to your muscle growth or maintenance in general. And that is that for your muscles to trigger growth, they need to stay under load for at least 45 seconds.

So, loading the bar with super heavy weight and doing 2 or 3 reps will begin to tear the muscle apart. But triggering growth requires more time under load (meaning you have to hold or press the weight longer).

At the same time, having no weight on the bar and lifting it 10 times puts the muscle under load for a longer period of time but does not have the weight needed to tear the muscle apart.

One of the most ideal ways to solve this is to place heavy enough weight on the bar to really put the muscles under stress and do 8 to 10 reps slowly, lowering the bar down and pressing it back up. We have noticed that doing slow reps begins to be a challenge for guys because they get stuck on the rep count rather than doing the exercise correctly.

So, we use a little trick that is easier for guys to incorporate into their routines. It is called Push Ups Until Failure. It’s fairly simple to do. When you do your flat bench workout, immediately after the last rep of each set, drop to the floor and do pushups until you can’t do anymore, with good form…no cheating because you are only cheating yourself.

After you do your sets of flat bench, move on to incline bench and do the same thing, with one small twist. Inclined bench focuses on the upper chest. In order to maintain the same focus, you need to do decline pushups. So, after you do a set of incline pushups, immediately drop to the floor, put your feet on the bench and do pushups until you can’t do them anymore.

Remember, if you do 3 sets of flat bench exercises you will do 3 sets of pushups. You need to match the pushup sets to the bench press sets for both flat and incline bench.

This little trick will allow the weights to help tear the muscles apart and the pushups will keep the muscles under load for over 45 seconds. Just be sure not to rush through them and keep

good form.

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