Many years ago, Jim Wendler and I made a trip out to ASU to see Joe Kenn and his staff. Joe is the strength coach at ASU and has done a tremendous job over the years. He's also one of the most educated coaches I know. While Joe was in some meeting, Jim and I decided to raid his video collection to see what he had. We popped in Power B’s Bench Video.
I'd sent this to Joe a couple years earlier and hadn't seen it in a very long time. Jim hadn't seen it yet so we decided to check it out to see what we could find. It's always a great idea to review your educational sources because you forget about a lot of stuff. In this case I'd forgotten about a lot of things shown in this tape.
This is a hardcore training tape put together by Glen Buechlein (over 700 pound bench press at 242). Glen takes you through several of his team's training sessions in 100% hardcore fashion. He trains in a very small private gym and has had to come up with different ways to attack the bench press. One of these is what I call "Power B’s Jack Me Ups."
To perform this movement, set up any way you can to perform your standard push-up. I like to use hex dumbbells or a power bar lying at the bottom of the power rack to do this. This keeps the wrists in the same position we bench press in.
Next, select a set number of reps and add one chain per rep group. For example, you'll do three reps, add one chain, three more reps, add one more chain and so on. Work up to the point where you can do the prescribed number of reps, then go back down by removing one chain and doing three more reps and so on.
The trick is to make sure you load the chains across the back so one end falls over the shoulder and the other end over the opposite lat muscle. Each chain will cross over the next forming an X across the mid back.
Training Mistakes:
Placing the chains across your neck.
Doing too many reps per group. Start with 3-5 and see how high you can go.
Arching your back. Just use good push-up technique.