How I benched 315 by first time benching (it's not genetics)

The first time I ever benched properly a few months ago, I was messing around with 225lbs and a thought i may as well try doing 315, with a spotter of course. And I got the rep! It looked ugly as hell. My arch collapsed, no scapular retraction, no leg drive, who knows what I could have done if my technique and tension was on point.

But keep this in mind it wasn't the first time I had worked out. Before this, all my upper pushing work consisted of push up and dip variations. When it comes to calisthenics and gymnastics, I have barely entered the intermediate level relative to some of those monster gymnasts out there, who knows what they can do.

What I am trying to say is there it is possible to climb through the open window into the house of great pressing strength. If you want a big bench, benching is important, but here are a few reasons why I think you should add high volume calisthenics into your program:

• Most pressing exercises can be done anywhere, so when traveling or can't get to the gym, you can still work on your pressing strength
• It will build up your work capacity so you can train harder, for longer.
• If done smartly, it won't impede your recovery.
• If you pick your exercises correctly, it will make you hella strong. 

One program I recommend would be the 100 push up program for any level of strength, it teaches you to follow a program through and be patient which is so important if you want to get anywhere in life, it will improve elbow conditioning and give you great endurance and work capacity.

Here are a bunch of exercises that you can use to increase your bench:

Beginner exercises 

• Push ups and it's variations
• Tricep dips
• Straight bar dips
• Handstand holds against a wall
• Planche leans
• Plyometric push ups

'Advanced' exercises

• Planche variation holds
• Planche variation push ups
• Freestanding handstand holds
• Handstand push ups, freestanding and against a wall
• Handstand push ups with a close grip
• Handstand push ups with one hand elevated
• Full ROM handstand push ups
• Tricep blasters
• Ring dips
• One arm handstand holds against wall
• Weighted dips

Hope this helps
Enjoy the gains
Alex

How to get your first pull up

Pull ups are an awesome exercise, they work the arms, back, shoulders and core, as well as blasting your grip. But sometimes people can find it difficult to get that first pull up,  they are a difficult exercise. If you go through the following steps, you'll be doing pull ups before you know it, and you'll be able to see the difference in the mirror also.

For each of these progressions, I will be giving a progression level, once you get to this progression level, you are strong enough to move onto the next exercise. If you are having trouble increasing your repetitions have a look at this blog post for a simple way to increase your reps on an exercise.

Step 1 - High recline row.

Find something you can throw around a surface, rings are preferable, but you can use anything that can hold your weight will work, I am using a karate belt here. Stand with your feet directly underneath the anchor point with your feet shoulder width apart. Lean back, (bottom left) and pull your arms in until you are standing upright (bottom right). Lower down to the starting position and repeat.

Progression level: 3 sets of 25

 

Step 2 - Recline row.
Over time, slowly move your feet further forward (6 inches at a time works well, work up to 3 sets of 25 each time). Continue moving your feet forward until your shoulders are directly under the anchor point, row up until your hands are as close to your chest as your flexibility allows you to, lower down and repeat. At first, reach the progression level with your legs bent at 90 degrees, then straighten your legs out and work up to the progression level again.

Progression level: 3 sets of 25

Step 3 - Chin up hold

Jump up so that your chin is over the bar, and hold it.

Progression level:  3 sets of 20 seconds

Step 4 - Half pull up
Jump up so that your chin is over the bar, lower yourself down until your arms are at 90 degrees, come back up until your chin is still over the bar, repeat. If you cannot go down to half way, only go quarter way down, reach the progression level, then go to half pull ups.

Progression level: 3 sets of 10

Step 5 - full pull up
Hang from the bar, so that your arms are slightly bent, pull up until your chin is over the bar, lower down to the beginning position, repeat.

Target level: 1 set of 20

Hope this article helps
Enjoy the gains
Alex

A simple way to increase number of push ups

Here, I will cover a simple way you can use to increase your number of push ups. This works for pull ups, dips, squats and pretty much any other exercise you can think of. This can be split up into 4 steps.

Step 1 - find your max: Do as many push ups as you can with good form, this is your max

Step 2: Multiply your max by 4, then for the next 10 days, do a total of 4 times your max throughout each day, in multiple sets. Don't go anywhere near failure, stay at least 2-3 reps away from your max per set.

Step 3: Rest 3 days, do not do any push ups during this time, eat well, sleep loads and drink a lot of water.

Step 4: test your new max, and start from step 2 again.

Example:

Step 1: I test my max and can do 20 push ups

Step 2: 20 x 4 = 80. So throughout the day, I will do 80 total push ups. One day I might do 8 sets of 10, the next 16 sets of 5 etc. Stay creative, and listen to your body, if you are feeling weak, do more total sets and less reps per set.

Step 3: I take 3 days rest, eat well, drink milk and play Tekken.

Step 4:  I re-test my max and get 30 push ups, and start from step 2.

This is perfect for beginners, but will work for any level of strength. Remember, you have the whole day to complete the reps, don't be intimidated by the total number of reps, you can just do a set every hour, or 10 minutes, be creative and clever with it and you will find it a lot easier than it seems.

Hope this helps
Enjoy the gains.
Alex  

jumping pistols - effective exercise, easy to get wrong

I have a squat set up outside, but since it has been raining heavily, I cannot use it. So I have been looking for ways to maintain/ improve my explosive leg strength. I tried to use jumping pistols a while a go, but realized, when looking at videos online, people just did a pistol with a hop at the end, not very effective.

Although it may seem like an ineffective exercise, if you really try to explode up from the bottom of the pistol, for a set of 5, you will feel your legs working. I guess it's similar to speed training.

At first, you will push with all your strength, and still be really slow through the bottom half and explode on the top, but with practice, you will get better at it. The idea is, if your max squat is 400 lbs, you push up from the bottom, like you are squatting 400 lbs.

I am going to experiment with this and see how it effects my leg strength and my vertical jump.

Hope this helps,
enjoy the gains
Alex

Get a Freestanding Handstand

The handstand is an awesome exercise for anybody, it helps your jerk if you are a weightlifter, your bench if you are a power lifter. It also puts a lot of stress on the deltoids and the triceps. There are so many benefits to this exercise, so I will make an article soon on the full list of things it can help you out with, they also look really cool.

A lot of keyboard idiots will say that the wall assisted handstand (hs) and handstand push up (hspu) will give you just as much of a strength benefit as the freestanding variations, this could not be farther from the truth, if you have ever tried a freestanding hspu you will know what I am talking about, it will challenge the grip, core, back, as well as hit the arms and shoulders that much harder. Also, imagine having to find a wall every time you want to show off your sweet handstand, I've been there, it's not as cool.

If I am going to be completely honest, the hs is a grinding exercise, you will have to do 100s, and eventually it will click and you will have it. But there are some exercises that you can try out to monitor your progress, these are listed below. If you want you can work towards each progression in order until you can hold it for 10-20 seconds, then move onto the next. Alternatively, you can just use them to see how you are doing.

1. Frog stand
2. Chest to wall handstand
3. Kick up to handstand against wall
4. Back to wall handstand
5. Forearm stand against wall (make sure you have flexible lats)
6. Forearm handstand free standing
7. Handstand with one leg against wall
8. Kick off wall for 6, 5 second handstands (hands about 1ft away from the wall)
9. Kick up to freestanding handstand

The most important thing to learn when it comes to getting a hs is learning to kick up, I read a book that will explain it much better then I ever could, so I will put a screenshot down below,

The overall key points are:

• lean forward
• first leg goes up in an arc, second leg comes in to your body and straight up, it does not go in an arc like he first

After a long time of grinding, I have found some cues that will help you hold a handstand, the idea is to over do it on the kick up, then balance out with muscular effort. Important things to remember.

• Brace your abs
• Keep your fingers spread out and 'dig' them into the ground 
• put your lats in your front pockets/ round your shoulders forward and spread your lats (protract the scapular)
• keep feet together and legs straight
• Once you have found your balance, shift your shoulders forward slightly, as if you are about to drop into a planche. (this will give you more control).

Hope this helps,

Enjoy the gains

Alex

get bigger arms with no weights (poor mans arm blast)

A year ago, I tried an 8 hour arm workout I got from a video I saw on youtube. The whole video looked like a supplement ad, but I was sick of having 16 inch arms and wanted to get out of the plateau. I looked up reviews online and everyone said that it was rubbish and would not work. I now realize that these keyboard twerps had never tried it before because I gave it a go and added half an inch on my arms!! in one day! obviously I measured them after a couple of days of healing, crying and therapy sessions. One reason why you have to try something before you make a decision on whether it works or not. Our knowledge on hypertrophy and strength is a lot more limited than people think, we know nothing really.

This is all good if you have ~50kg of plates to be using, but what if you do not have a gym set up at home? or don't want to spend 8 hours in the gym? I am going to give you a few ideas on how to have this effect at home with little or no equipment.

Resistance bands

This is an obvious choice, resistance bands are cheap, cheaper than plates and can be used inside if needs be, or you can bring them out to a field somewhere and be one with nature while you blast your arms. I bought the bodylastics strongman set, which set me back £75. But that's only because I have issues saving up money. Before I bought them, I owned a cheaper set I got from eBay, and they worked fine. I would buy a couple of sets, so the total tension of all the bands is about 200 lbs, just so you can set up the triceps and biceps exercise and do not have to fiddle around with bands. You will have to adjust the exercises to make it work. I would recommend a standing band curl and tricep pushdown for both work out 1 and 2.

Body-weight variations
There are 2 body-weight arm exercises that I would recommend using for this workout. They are both illustrated below, to make the variation harder, for both exercises, just raise the feet up on something. It may take some experimentation to work out what heights are your 10 and 12 rep max before hand.

Tricep blaster:

From this position, push up a bit like a pushup, but keep the upper arm around the same angle as the starting position, it should feel like a reverse skull crusher.

Body-weight curl

 It should look a little bit like this, but you should be directly under the rings, so that the webbing is vertical, if you do not have a pair of rings or a TRX (don't get one, their a waste of money) just use a hanging rope or karate belt and do a hammer curl.

This work out is brutal, give it a go, and you will be rewarded.

Enjoy the gains,
Alex

 

Tips on how to increase arm size

This post will give you some ideas on how to increase arm size. If you want big arms, but it is still your dirty little secret and your scared people are going to disapprove of you, check this article out. It will give you some arguments that you can use to understanding your noble quest 

Arms under 15 inches?
This depends on height and over all skeletal size, but the general rule is, if your arms are under 15 inches, you will not benefit as much from isolation exercises as you will from the heavy compound lifts. I built 15 inch arms a couple of years a go using heavy chins and dips, I never did curls. So if your arms are under 15 inches, spend most of your time doing heavy rows, chins, dips, bench press and all those compound movements that you can put a lot of weight on. Just get crazy strong, and your arms will grow

Jed Johnson's August of arms
Click here to see Jed's video on his 'august of arms' experiment. Basically the idea is, you train arms specifically every day, for one month, towards the end you will feel terrible and tired, but if you push through it. After the month, Jed went from 18s to 19s, which is incredible! It doesn't have to be august, if you have the heart, and train hard, you will be rewarded for this crazy program.

Low intensity, high frequency
This is what I am currently doing to train arms. On top of my regular training, I am doing one set of biceps and one set of triceps when I wake up and before I go to bed. That equates to 14 sets a week, and it has no effect on my regular work outs. Remember to pick a weight that will still give you some stress on the muscle, but will allow you to recover easily from it.

8 hour arm workout
It works! Before I gave this a go I did a looked at reviews and everyone said it doesn't work. But after I realized that these where just keyboard bodybuilders that are afraid of trying something difficult. I tried it and added half an inch on my arm in a day!! Which is a lot when you have been training for a while. My opinion is that it will work best if you train heavy, the change in stimulus will help build hypertrophy and the fact that you are stronger means that you will be able to curl and french press more. Click here to see the work out I used. It may look like a supplement ad, but I didn't use them, just make sure your eating and drinking enough calories, have plenty of milk and lucozade. 

Adjusting your compound lifts
Another idea is to simply adjust your compound lifts, to add more stress on the arms, your lifts may go down a little, but if you work on it, you will soon be back to your normal weights. For example, change your bench press and military press to close grip, switch to underhand pull ups and pull downs. You will still be working your back and chest, I get annoyed by twerps on the internet that tell you under hand chin ups do not work your back, EXTENSION OF THE SHOULDER WORKS YOUR BACK no matter what your hand position is.

Thanks, hope this helps.
Enjoy the gains,
Alex