I came up with this particular cycle for a client of mine who has been doing really well when benching lighter sets and higher rep sets but just keeps falling apart like a little bitch with higher percentage sets and max singles. I assessed whether his problem was mental, physical, or mechanical — or if he was just being an uncoordinated spaz. Turns out it was merely a mental issue (with a little spaz thrown in). And rather than letting him keep coming in here and leaving with the stench of defeat smeared all over him, I came up with this cycle. I tried to address two things here:

  1. Building his confidence by backing him down and performing low rep sets with lower percentage weights; and then
  2. Giving him practice performing higher percentage singles.

Below are the exact sets, reps, and weights that I gave him. He has touch-and-go benched 320 in the gym but has had some trouble recapturing that glory for a few months. I made him do all these reps with a pause as well to get him contest-ready. We overloaded our assistance work a lot more during the training phase as well.

Give it a try!

potm february 2019

Iron Sport Gym: Where Training Reigns Supreme

Steve Pulcinella is the owner of Iron Sport Gym, located just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is also a former powerlifter, pro Strongman, and professional Highland Games athlete.

custom-built-ft