Today I have a review for you on a new report called, Bench Press Explosion, by Mike Westerdal, which is only $7 until tonight at Midnight.

Bench Press Explosion, just $7 until midnight tonight – get your credit card out!

This is in ebook format, so in a matter of minutes you can be reading it and sampling from the routines of some of the strongest benchers that have ever lived.

Review: Bench Press Explosion

This ebook is heavy loaded on two things: Technique and even moreso on Sample Routines.

Technique: It starts and ends with emphasis on the importance of proper technique in order to accomplish your maximum strength and muscle gains.

Routines: In many cases, the routines shows are the exact routines that the monsters of the bench would follow themselves.

Keep in mind something as you read through this sampling of routines from the ebook:

These programs are coming from the best in the world. It only makes sense to follow what the best in the world have done – why try to reinvent the wheel? And with so many different routines to choose from, you could be set for about the next full year for bench press routines. If you document and track your results the right way, you should easily be able to understand which ones work best for you. So go to the store, but a notebook for $1 and track your progress.

Now, let’s look at some of the routines featured in this ebook. Take note, this is by no means the exhaustive list of routines. These are just a few of the ones that struckme in particular when I reviewed the manual.

Pat Casey’s Routine

Pat Casey broke the 600-lb Bench Barrier with 617 and he used no ergogenic aids like equipment, substances or techniques. His routine focuses on weight, technique, and volume. In fact, in some cases, to spawn gains, he would go through periods of TREMENDOUS VOLUME. Wait until you read the kinds of volume numbers he would hit with his “Binge Workouts” on the Dip Stand. Other Worldly!

Ted Arcidi’s Blueprint for Benching

Ted Arcidi is someone I have been researching quite a bit lately, both due his success as a powerlifter, and because he spent some time competing in the Wrestling Ring during the 1980′s. If you haven’t heard of him, he was billed as the World’s Strongest Man, as he was the first man to bench 700 in a recognized competition. What is awesome is Bench Press Explosion outlines his exact routine he used, which he refers to as his Bench Press Blueprint for building chest strength and size.

Ken Lain’s Program Matrix
Ken Lain has benched 721 and 740 and Bench Press Explosion shows you exactly what he did to get to the 740 mark. What else is awesome is that this routine can be used for other multi-joint exercises, so if you want to transition into a period where you emphasize a different exercise, then you can use this program to build your other big movements, such as Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Press and more.

Bench the Chuck Sipes Way

Chuck Sipes was just plain a bad-ass. In his hey day, not only was he stacked with rock solid muscle, but this crazy bastard used to bend nails and bars, often with the bar in his teeth, as shown to the right, so you know this guy was cool. In adddition to his steel bending prowess, this strongman trained up to a bench of 570 and even a set of 6 at 520 – AWESOME! This routine is specifically indicated for thos who are “stuck in a standstill” on the bench press.

John Carl Mese
This is another dude I am not familiar with, but what I liked about this section is that it gave some indications to look for as far as specific weaknesses you might have in your bench, depending on the spots you fail at, so you can work on your weaknesses, another big part of bench press success. Mese’s program also emphasizes balance between the upper, middle, and lower chest.

DIESELS, this is only scratching the surface of what is included in this ebook. There are actually over 15 Bench Press programs included in this report.

One word to the wise, however – don’t be jumping back and forth between programs. If you are not seeing results after just two weeks on a given program, don’t abandon it and move on to another one. That is a recipe for sure failure. Instead, pick one program out of the many listed here and use it as your guide from beginning to end. Track your results, including the prescribed sets and reps, but also take note of how the sets felt. You may be surprised as you look back how a certain percentage of your Max early on may feel tough and then a few weeks later it is a breeze. It is nice to have indicators like that written down in your work logs.

Then, when the program is complete, assess the results. You may try going through it again, or switching completely. With this ultra-cheap $7 report, you are going to be able to enjoy a great deal of flexibility in your training for months and even years to come.

OK, guys. That’s it for my review.

Take note, this ebook is on sale for a maniacally low price of just $7, but you have to pick it up before tonight at Midnight or else the price will go up.

You can get your copy here = > Bench Press Explosion

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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Many people have written me over the years about wrist pain when benching. After all, everyone loves a big bench press.

It’s one thing if you are stalled in the bench due to a technique issue or because you are having trouble deciding on a bench press program.

It’s something different altogether when your bench press is suffering because of pain in the wrist, so annoying and distracting.

So, what I have done is put together a video for you that is what I call a Diesel Work-around.

What is a Work-around, you might ask?

Well, in industrial settings, when a part of a process breaks or is faulty, but the work still needs to be done, alternative measures can be put into action in order to get the same finished product or desired result.

These alternative measures are called Work-arounds. For instance, if a conveyor belt is shut down, the items being moved can be placed into a cart and moved by hand to the next location, successfully “working around the problem” until it can be fixed.

In the case of the Bench Press, when there is pain in the wrist, we can perform a slight Work-around in order to still get the work done, in order to not miss a workout.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I have to stress this point: If you are injured, you need to address the injury with professional help.

So, if you strained your wrist in a bar fight or because you fell down a flight of stairs in a drunken stupor, you need to go to the doctor, get the problem professionally assessed and follow the doctor’s or therapist’s suggestions in order to completely address the injury.

However, wrist pain does not always mean that there is a break or soft tissue damage, such as that which can occur when you try to touch the stripper on stage and the Eric the Bouncer grabs you and tosses you out the back door into a dumpster.

Sometimes the root of the pain in the wrist is actually something simple such as the misalignment of the carpal bones in the wrist.

The bones of the hand and wrist are supposed to be arranged in a specific order. However, if we are training out of balance or if we have some light trauma to the wrist, these bones can be thrown out of whack, causing noticeable pain and loss of range of motion.

To see what I mean, check out the above picture. It may seem as though the bones seem to be randomly stacked on top of one another, but that is not the case – they are placed exactly how they need to be for optimal performance of the hands and lower arms, and if they get out of whack from trauma or imbalanced strength ratios as a result of your training, you can have some problems.

In cases such as these where the pain might just be a bone slightly misaligned, the following Diesel Work-arounds fit in nicely. They take pressure off of the wrist and allow you to perform work on the Bench without having to miss a bench workout.

Work-around #1 – Use a Thicker Bar

A thicker bar, such as an axle or fat pipe, can be used on the bench press instead of the normal Powerlifting bar. This will feel different to you, but you should notice that there is not quite as much pain when performing the pressing movement.

The force will be spread out over more of the hand and not so much directly on the point of pain within the wrist. If you do not have an axle or thick pipe that is set up for pressing movements, then you might also try a set of Fat Gripz placed on the bar to accomplish the same general objective.

Diesel Work-around #2 – Wrist Straps

Another suggestion to try is wrist straps. These can help cradle the wrist as you press can be very helpful for reducing pain.

A lot of people think I am completely against wrist wraps, but that isn’t really true. I think they are great for preventing injury and for helping to recover from injury, like if something is “out” in your wrist.

The most important thing to know here is exactly how to wrap the wrists in order to get the right support, which I show you in the video, below.

I hope this has been helpful for you. If so, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks and all the best in your training!

Jedd

P.S. I just got interviewed by Andres Gonzalez of Strongermen.Blogspot.com. Andres seems like a very nice guy who has decided to improve his lifestyle and has been doing a lot to better his health and well-being. In addition to that, he has been interviewing people he has been following who have made strength training a part of their lives. He found my site and said it is something that has helped him out with his journey to become stronger and I really appreciate him seeking me out.

Also, last week, Andres put together this cool video of the Top Nail Benders in the World. Check it out:

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• Why You Should Train Your Grip
• Massive Thumb Pain
• Bird Calls, Burning Red Eyes and Insomnia
• How to Bench Press

With this post, I want to list a few principles I follow in my training. Next week, I will cover some how to select the right movements and how to program them.

3 Keys to Building Muscle

These are the three main keys I follow in my training when it comes to exercise selection. Now, of course there are other things that go into it, but these are the main three things.

1. Multi-Joint Movements

If you want to put on muscle and develop strength, then you have got to get lots of muscle involved in order to do so. The best way to get lots of muscle involved is to select exercises that involve movement over more than one joint. Examples are Bench Press, Overhead Press, Squat, Deadlift, Bent Over Rows, Clean, Snatch, and other movements that are similar in movements to these.

Now, if you take a look at the exercises I listed, you will see that there is often movement taking place at two or more joints. For instance, with the Bench, there is movement at the shoulder and at the elbow, plus if you approach the movement like a Powerlifter does, you are using even more muscle across other joints as well.

Movements such as the Squat, Deadlift, Cleans, and many Olympic lift breakdown drills involve even more joints. With these we are working over the knee, hip, back and possibly the ankle, shoulder and elbow, meaning even more muscle is being involved.

In other words, select movements that are working larger portions of your body and keep isolation movements to a minimum.

2. Train for Power and Speed

I like to incorporate exercises of increased speed in my training. What I am referring to is explosive movements that produce an increased power output, such as Cleans, Jerks, Snatches, Stone Lifting, and other movements where virtually the entire body is working together in order to move large loads very quickly.

Another way I like to accomplish this is with Accommodating Resistance using exercise bands. I have bands of many different strength levels in order to be able to use this concept on different movements.

The Bench Press is a good example of how to employ bands in your training. Remember when using bands that the purpose is to move the bar quickly against the resistance in order to train the fast-twitch muscle fibers to fire quickly. These muscle fibers need to be stimulated like this, but most guys are missing this aspect. I say this, because when I ask people who email me about this they say they have either never heard of this type of training or haven’t bought into it. I am a firm believer in it and have been experimenting with how to incorporate it in different ways aside from just with barbells in my training and with my clients (these guys kick ass).

3. Work in Balance

One of the recent times someone wrote in, they wanted to know how to put muscle on their chest and shoulders and I asked them what they were currently doing. Their answer? Bench Pressing two days a week and Shoulder work on another day. Essentially three Upper Body Pushing days and each one was balls to the walls intensity.

One of the things I always tell people is that if you are trying to fill out your shirt, you’ve got to remember there are two sides of it to fill. You don’t want to be like Tom Cruise in the movie Knight and Day and look like your back muscles are non-existent.

There needs to be a balance between your pushing and pulling exercises in order to pack on muscle on the upper body, and do it safely. Remember, we are doing something that is supposed to be good for us, not something in order to set ourselves up for imbalances, poor posture and pain down the road.

What I suggest people do is for every movement where you are pushing something, try to also incorporate a movement where you are pulling. If you can pick out complementary or contra-specific movement patterns, that is a bonus as well. For instance, a complimentary movement pattern for the Bench Press would be Bent Over Rows or Seated Cable Rows (although, I’d suggest the Bent-Over variety in order to have a Ground Based Movement – another post for another day).

One other thing to think about with Balanced Training, keep in mind that if you are going all out for maxes on the Bench every time you do it and then you do Bent Over Rows with a fraction of the weight, that doesn’t count as balanced. The loading and effort need to be similar in order to realize benefits.

One good way to do this is to perform your Upper Body Push and Upper Body Pulling movements on the same day and match up the loading and effort that way. If you do it like this, it is easier to monitor than if you do it on different days.

Do You Have Muscle Imbalances, Currently?

If you have been following traditional programs and have not taken things such as antagonistic balance into account with your program, you could be headed for some issues. Unfortunately, imbalances can develop from more than just the way you program you workouts and your exercise selection.

Time seated in a car, time at your desk, time at home in chairs, and other considerations that affect posture can really do a number on you.

If you think you run the risk of having imbalances because you slouched in your seat in high school for years (like me), spend a lot of time at a desk at your work (like me), or have muscular imbalances due to an injury or something else, you should consider checking out Rick Kaselj’s Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body Edition.

I recently made Rick’s acquaintance on-line and began following some of his work and he has an impressive background. A few months ago he came out with a 2.0 Program for lower body and now he has updated his Upper Body Edition as well.

The sizable clientele he has worked with and the expert backing he has gotten is unbelievable. I strongly suggest you give his program a look if you are a candidate for imbalances. Here is my link: Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj.

All the best in your training and look for Part II coming next week.

Jedd

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Hey everybody.

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week. I am working on a new clothing line. Included are leather head and chest hoods, body chains, and nut-hugging-tight pants, like the image to the right…

Just kidding.

Actually, I have been working my ass off this whole week finishing a product off that I started in 2009.

I’ve had some people asking about it recently, saying it was a logical “next step,” so I figured it was about time for me to get serious and get it done. This should be out next week…

Unforch, I’ve been working so hard that I neglected you and I apologize. I have lots to tell you, so let’s get to it.

Napalm’s Nightmare

First off, if you picked up Home Made Strength II like many other strength enthusiasts, personal trainers, strength coaches, and athletes did, during the introductory sale, then you may have won one of the prizes, a Napalm’s Nightmare device from StrongerGrip Enterprises.

I did the drawing out of my bad ass Diesel Beanie, the last one in stock (claim it here => Diesel Crew Beanie Hat. If you want it, you better hurry. Check out the drawing to see if you won…

Congratulations to the winners. The Napalm’s Nightmare is an AWESOME device when home made by your own hands, but to get one from Ryan Pitts and Stronger Grip, as awesome as his stuff is, that is going to be extraordinary.

Grapple Grips

As you know I have the opportunity to review many products, both informational and equipment products. One of the recent reviews I got to do was for the Grapple Grips, and I must say that I like them. I have done plenty of training with them since getting them and they work great.

Below is the review video. I would have liked to have included some training footage for you guys, but unfortunately it hurts my finger injuries and I didn’t want to push it. I promise when my injuries are resolved I will shoot another video and post it for you guys.

Here are some of the exercises I have done with the Grapple Grips: Pull-ups, Pull-downs, One-Arm Swings (I have done tons of these), Hammer Curls, Waddles, and Flexed Arm Hangs. All of them were awesome. Like I said in the video, I got one of the biggest sizes to work my hands hard. You will probably want to get smaller ones if you do not have porno thumbs and banana fingers like me…

AJ Roberts Interview

On Monday, I interviewed AJ Roberts, who is probable the strongest guy I have ever sat down and had a cup of coffee with. He recently competed in the SPF (Southern Powerlifting Federation) and broke a World Record for Total (Squat + Deadlift + Bench Press).

The thing I grilled him on in particular is the mental side of his training and how he approaches it all so that he can perform at an Elite Level. The stuff he passed on to me was awesome. One thing in particular that he told me I was instantly able to implement and it helped me accomplish a substantial PR in my training.

If you want this interview, all I am asking is that you sign up for me new newsletter. You HAVE to be signed up for this newsletter in order to get this interview. If you signed up for the recent Home Made Strength II release or the Muscle Building Giveaway at the top of the page, that won’t work. You HAVE to fill out the boxes below.

I really want to keep in contact with you all when I dump this old email system, so please sign up.

The information in this interview will help you out in your strength training, your job, and any other facet of your life in which you want to perform at a high level so don’t miss out.

That’s about it for right now guys. Like I said, I am sorry for leaving the site so stagnant this week. I can ensure you that I have been plugging away!

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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Powerful Pressing Power AND Core Strength With an Important Lesson

In this new article I am going to discuss something that is of great importance.

But first, something really cool.

One Arm Dumbbell Press on Swiss Ball

This movement is awesome for:

• increasing pressing power
• improving core strength (anti-rotation, statics / dynamic isometrics)
• improving shoulder stability

We cycle in this variation once in a while after the lifter / athlete demonstrates proficiency with horizontal and vertical pressing AND horizontal and vertical pulling (*Remember, we must create a balance in the volume of movements).

As the lifter goes through the range of motion of the press there is a torque across their torso that is very significant and this must be stabilized.  Once stabilized and braced and with the shoulder retracted and packed back, the lifter will begin their set.

MOST IMPORTANT LESSON #37

In the video you’ll hear me instruct John (the second athlete in the video) to switch hands on the press.  During his set I am always observing, instructing and providing lifting cues for form.  I saw his rep was slow and he was losing stability.  Once I see this, I must immediately jump in and instruct him to switch hands or end the set if he has already lifted with both arms.

This is the key.

NO GRINDING REPS.  There is no need.  In a fatigued set where the reps are grinded out, that is when injuries occur.  Also, if every set is taken to this “failure”, overtraining is much more likely.  We want to see quality reps and complete focus by the athlete.  They must be “in” the set the entire time.  As my good friend Rob Pilger says, “Fatigue makes cowards of men” and fatigue also puts the athlete into a compromising position.  Do you let them grind the rep out in a bad movement pattern, or do you cut the set and get another rep on the next workout?

My 20 years in the trenches advice?  Cut the set.

Step 1:

Coaching Cues:

• Stabilize and Brace Core
• Retract Shoulder
• Drive Feet Down

Step 2:

Coaching Cues:

• Stabilize and Brace Core
• Retract Shoulder
• Drive Feet Down
• Drive Dumbbell to Lockout and Reset Your Air
• Slowly Return to the Starting Point*

* Key Note:  A neutral grip is preferred for athletes as this is the most advantageous and safest position.

One Arm Dumbbell Press on Swiss Ball

Cool Testimonial for AMPED

You have to see this testimonial for AMPED Warm-up.  It is from Nicolas Amp (yeah I love his last name!) and it is awesome.  Not only does he provide great feedback, he also sent me a picture of him watching AMPED in his car during a traffic jam!  Check it out!

“As a strength coach, it is my responsibility to make sure my athletes get the best from their workout and do not get injured. Every training programs, no matter how good they are, can not be performed well without a proper and well-designed warm up protocol. This is where AMPED comes in action! Everything you need to know about warming up is explained. Self-myofascial release methods, mobility training and activation… everythig is in here. I’ve been particulary interested in mobility training and what I’ve found in AMPED totally answered my questions. Thanks to AMPED, I’m confident I’m going to bring my athletes to the next level. If you are a serious strength coach, you have to get AMPED!” — Nicolas AMP

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