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Ending the Year with a Strong Bench
We heard you, and this week we're including a bunch of resources to help strengthen bench performance.
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Finishing the year strong means evaluating your goals, making adjustments, and putting in the effort. We’ll include several resources to help. As usual, we are including a survey to ask what you want us to cover in next week’s newsletter. In the past few weeks, most of the survey responses asked for more information about bench press. We are including those below.
Resources
How Many People Can Bench 225?
Before we get into the weeds on how to bench more, let’s talk about a common goal. So many people ask us where they rank. This guide (from last fall) gives a pretty good estimation of how many people can bench 225.
Looking for the short answer?
Approximately 1.3 million Americans can bench press 225 lbs, or about 0.4% of the population. To be able to bench press 225 lbs, you’d probably need to be an intermediate male lifter (trained for a couple of years) who weighs more than 220 lbs. You’d need to be an advanced or elite lifter if you weigh less. Only the most elite women would be able to bench 225 lbs.
The Bench Press Pyramid
A common approach to building volume on your bench press is to perform bench press pyramids. While the name is somewhat descriptive of what the program looks like, it’s not totally self-explanatory.
So what is a bench press pyramid?
The bench press pyramid is a series of sets and reps for a single exercise that increases in weight while decreasing reps or decreases in weight while increasing reps in each set. This model puts the lifter through more volume than the standard warm up/working set model.
The bottom line is that a pyramid set is a group of working sets where the weight increases and the reps decrease with each progressing set, the weight decreases as the reps increase, or a combination of both.
As you might guess, this model can be applied to any lift.
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How to Break through a Bench Press Plateau
A bench press plateau is beyond frustrating. You've been stuck at the same numbers for several months and no matter what you do nothing seems to be working.
This is the experience for many lifters after training for a couple years. They see a huge increase in their bench press numbers quite rapidly and then hit a roadblock that seems unbreakable. So how do you get through a bench press plateau?
Here’s one tip from our guide to breaking through a bench press plateau:
As you bring the bar down to your chest, think about “meeting the bar with your chest”, which will help you push your chest up high. So rather than thinking “I'm bringing the bar down to my chest”, think about “I'm bringing my chest up to the bar”.
This is a great cue if you feel like you're weak off the chest in the bench press.
Activating Various Muscles During Bench
Our ultimate bench press guide talks about how to train the chest and shoulders more when you train. Here’s the short version:
Train on a flat or incline bench (at 45 degrees) in a wide grip. Additionally, because the chest is activated 2X more on the descent, you could perform a slow bench press variation, bringing the bar down with a 3-5-second tempo.
And since the chest is activated more in the bottom range of motion, perform exercises that extend the time under tension, such as a long pause bench press (3-sec hold on the chest) or a dead stop bench press.
The shoulders (anterior delt) will largely be activated during the mid-range of the bench press. Regardless of the grip you choose, the shoulders will activate similarly across different widths. Furthermore, the shoulders are most activated using a high incline bench (55 degrees +) compared to other bench angles).
Only the anterior deltoid is a prime mover in the bench press. And if you get stuck in the mid-range of the bench press, it might mean you have weak anterior delt muscles. If you want to train these muscles, focus on the incline bench press.
Pro-Tier Deadlift Progressions and Variations
The deadlift is often revered as the king of lifts. It’s raw, powerful, and incredibly demanding. For many lifters, however, the journey to mastering the deadlift isn’t easy, especially if your anatomy isn’t naturally suited for the movement. Short arms? Long torso? That’s a recipe for struggle—but also for determination and triumph.
Whether you’re just starting or battling a plateau, the key to deadlift progression lies in a thoughtful, structured approach. Let’s break down a progression plan that can transform your pull, improve your mechanics, and help you set new personal records.
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