How I Went From 135lbs to 295lbs on the Bench Press

How I went from a 135lb to a 295lb bench in a year I am going to start by telling you that I do not like any fitness influencer, I think they all are just trying to sell you something, working out shouldn’t be too complicated, you put in real work, and you get real results, you do not need overpriced cookbooks, or an overpriced program from any influencer, they will try to sound smart or even scare you that you will never be able to lift “X” amount of weight, or have visible abs, unless you let them train you, or use their recipes, supplements, etc. pro-tip: they’re all on gear trying to sell you something, now I don’t know if my body is optimal for bench, I do not think, so I have fairly long arms for my height, which does make the range of motion of the bench longer.

So I started going to the gym on July 13th 2021, and like most of us, I started fairly weak, my max on the bench that day was 135lb for one, first couple of weeks I started by doing every compound movement (squat, bench, ohp and deadlifts), tested my max on each of them, I do not remember any of them but the bench and the squat, I remember my squat being one of the weakest though, then I began splitting the compounds through the week, but then I found myself missing the gym the days I needed to squat, so I quickly just dropped squatting completely, I would rather go to the gym and do something else than miss it entirely, so I just benched instead, then after some time, I started to bench every day, I really liked the bench, I wanted to go the gym just because I was benching, but I still wasn’t lifting crazy amounts, I was benching from Monday to Friday, sometimes Saturday too, I was doing a basic progressive overload, adding a bit of weight each session, but then I started to stagnate, at around 185lb progress started to go away, so I decided to drop every other compound movement, and ONLY FOCUS ON THE BENCH my goal was to hit 225lbs before 2021 ended, my good friend who is more experienced in the gym recommended me a program, it must have been around October that I started it, it was a simple peaking program, called Smolov Jr.

So as you can see I stopped going every day to the gym because the program called for 4 days, first thing I noticed is that now that the weight was heavier and the workouts more intense, I definitely needed the rest to recover and be able to complete the next day. My old style of training was basically every day trying to hit a new PR or 1RM on the bench, so I still craved knowing how much I could lift during this new program, and I noticed the workouts we’re way shorter, I was used to benching basically my entire workout session (1:30 to 2:00 hours), I used to bench pretty much till I couldn’t, So now I had spare time, I started to introduce variations (paused, larsen, spoto, and a combination of the 3 which I had seen my friend do), and started to focus on setting PRs on those but not necessarily a heavier weight, I started to just focus on rep PRs too, my goal every session was to do better than the last one, even if its just one more rep, I also would try to get above 10,000lbs total volume moved on my bench.

So my usual bench workout would be, I’d get my Smolov part done lets say 185x6x6, then I would do some paused back down sets I’d start 175x? (as many as I could leaving one or two in the tank) then 165x? And do the same, and I would go entirely by feel, if I felt that I could do another 175x? Before the next back down, I’d go for it, usually I’d start going down when I get one less rep so lets say my first back down I hit 175x5 paused, and then I think I can do another set, so I go for it, 175x4, that’s when I go down again now 165x? Etc. you get the point, it’s all about feeling it out.

Anyway, by December I was getting really excited I had been getting stronger and putting it all the workout, the day was getting close when I would test my strength, all the work I had been putting, I had originally chosen the last week of December, to be fully prepared however, the 24th came by, I was feeling strong, finished my work sets really fast I had just received my pair of wrist wraps that day, I was FIRED UP, so my friend tells me to just go for it that day, the 225lb, I contemplate it, I load the plates up, crank up the volume on my phone, play ‘Crooked by Dealer’, set up when the breakdown is about to come in, brace and go when the breakdown hits, BOOM, it was easy, all the work I’ve put paid off.

After that little pr, I was a little lost as to what to do with, should I keep running Smolov? Or should I find a new program?, should I focus on a different exercise, or focus on aesthetics now?, well I ended up deciding I wanted to hit a 315lb bench, by the end of 2022 I had no idea what program to run, I consulted my friend, and he said that I should try keeping it simple, and that as long as I put in the work results would come, So I took somewhat something from Smolov and did something of my own, started to run a Day ‘A’ Day ‘B’ kind of program this is what I came up with

Not so complicated eh, 3 days a week, so that was my new program one day, my work sets goal was 3x(as many as I could) or 6x(as many as I could) on Day A, after my work sets I would add some bench variations (paused, spoto, larsen) and do those until failure or when I had to leave, on Day B, I would just do my work sets, then I would do just random machines and stuff after, really just anything, it was sort of like a lighter session to recover, but still got 6 work sets, so there was plenty of good volume. The way I chose to progress on this program was by getting more repetitions, I would grab a weight and do this program until I could do 10-12 then go onto the next weight. So I started fairly low at around 165lb or so, so I took 165 to 12, and then 175, and then 185, and so on… Then I started to get more into paused bench, so I regressed a bit, and starting just working my paused bench it took a little while until I brought 185 to 12 paused, and then 205 was feeling really heavy, so I started touch n go again for 205, and what I was doing is I kept all my warm-up sets paused, and at this time I did a lot of warm up sets, I would do jumps of like 20lbs to warm up to my work-set, so 45(just the bar), 135x8, 155lbsx5, 175lbsx5, and so on.

Getting my 205 to 10 was one of the hardest, I think it most of been my sleep and eating habits at the time, I had poor sleep, and wasn’t eating as much, anyway, I met this person at the gym, who I started to ask to spot me since I was trying to rep 205 to 10 and had failed a couple of times now, this person really pushed me he kept telling me to go heavier while he was there, so the day I finally hit 205 for 10, twice then 205 for 8 I took his advice and tested my maxes, I was feeling fired up after finally hitting 205 for 10, and I had done it twice, so I loaded 250lb on the bar asked him to spot me, I play my music, get amped up, set up, brace and he unracks the bar for me, immediately the weight felt insane, it felt so heavy, but it felt nice I got two reps, he probably helped I thought, so I asked him to help me one more set, rested for about 4-5 minutes, then went for it this time I got 3, did he help? Probably, maybe on the last one? Maybe at a certain part of the rep he gave a little push, didn’t matter tho, I got the experience, and I put a lot of force into that pushing, then i did a 205 set for 7, a 185 for 9 a 165 for 8 and a 135 for 9 to end it.

So this guy kept helping me for a couple of weeks, next session after the 250 attempts, on Friday, May 20th I went to the gym decided to test how much I could push if he was there to spot me, I get to the gym, I see him, I hit 225x6 then I think “fuck it drop the work sets there lets test”, hit 255 for 1 but, I wasn’t done there I had already done 250 for a couple so, after that set he said that I had way more in me, so I loaded 275 same old ritual, play music, get amped up, AHHHHHHHHHHH 275 for 1 boom lock it in, I think “FUCK I SHOULD HAVE RECORDED THIS”, so I tell him let’s do it again I rest for a 3-4+ minutes, same ritual, get it again, on video, hit my biggest pr twice that day.

May 20th comes by, and I get to the gym thinking the same thing as last session, if buddy is there I’m going for another PR look at the bench and yeah he’s there, so I work up to a 255 for 5, then I hit 275 for 2, then I load a little more ask random person to record me, boom 285 for 2, yeah the second rep was a little messy, butt coming off the bench a little nonetheless I still put the effort and force, but those sessions left me thinking, was my spotter helping me?, so I basically redid last session next session, and boom I hit, different spotter that didn’t touch the bar, only difference is that first buddy spotter was unracking the bar for me, second spotter didn’t do that, I felt a lot stronger if I get a proper unrack by someone else, after those PR sessions I was done with ’em for a while, went back to focusing on my program, this time I still was feeling the rush from last two crazy sessions, so I loaded 225 and did my program with that, hit 225 for 5 x 3 times very easily, then next session for 4 sets, the 4th my performance went down, so I jumped on 205 instead, I was unhappy with that session, It didn’t make me feel strong, I was used again to the guy that was PRing I got caught up in the numbers, and that is a bad idea, next session June 3rd, I go into the gym hoping buddy is there, boom he is I’m poisoned by the numbers, I just want to set another pr, I’m so close to 315, anyway, end up working to 275 for 2 which I had done before, and after that last time I did 285, so this time I load up 295, do my usual ritualistic setup brace and hit it, 295 for one now it’s my max, it was only 10lbs more from 285, so I decided not to record it, but I did go for another one, so I hit 295 for 1 twice that day, after this session tragedy happened. I had an emergency, and couldn’t go to the gym for 8 days that meant missing a whole week, next time I hit the gym was June 11th, I wasn’t feeling all that well, or strong or energetic, tragedy… Worst workout session ever, tried 205 and was way too heavy only hit 3, tried 225 only hit 1, tried it again maybe I just needed a little warm up, no it just wasn’t there I had lost it all I thought, 1 week was all it took I thought, but I didn’t let it get to me, I started grinding back up again, little by little, friends told me it would come back and that I would get there faster so yeah, I regressed quite a bit, could have been many things combined, the missing 1 week, could have been my sleep, my diet, or the last couple sessions I had, maybe I peaked too hard and let the volume go down, so I maybe wasn’t used to it anymore, probably a combination of everything. It took me a bit to accept I had to start from 185 again but when I did, I started to get it back, and finally until just recently I started to add some more accessories (tricep cable exercises, dips, shoulder pressing) and as of today, just last session yesterday 30th July 2022 I’m feeling strong again, my last session was awesome.

A couple of heads up I would give is, to not get caught up in the numbers, work hard and try to progress, if you get stuck find a different kind of progress you can make (reps, paused time, sets, etc.), get some good accessories and extra work, hammering your triceps might seem like a bad idea if you’re benching again next session, but even if you bench less, you should get caught up at some point, eat well (meat, milk, eggs, potatoes) you know real food, sleep well, I recently acquired one of those sleeping eye masks, it has helped me fall asleep, specially if there’s daylight, drink enough water you gotta stay hydrated, do not work out with people that aren’t as serious as you, they will only set you back, buy some quality wrist wraps and elbow wraps, do not watch normie youtube fitness content or any at all, most of it is all trash, if you need guidance to learn how to lift, just get a very basic gist of it then try it and listen to your body and do what feels natural and oooptimize over it, if your shoulder ever hurt bad enough while benching, take it easy, it might be poor form, it was for me, revise it, try different grip widths, that took my shoulder pain away, took a couple of days off doing very low weight to revise my form and I made my grip wider and that seemed to do the trick, I’m fully painless now.

Another thing that I think a lot of people might be scared of, is failing in the bench, well I train almost to my maximum every time, so I fail quite often, I think as long as you’re not dropping the bar in your head it really isn’t too dangerous, what I do is whenever I fail, when the bar starts going back down I place it gently on my chest, then roll it down sit up and deadlift it, I do this quite often, push to those limits at your own risk, I think staying 1 to 2 reps away from failure might be optimal to avoid any injuries, but when that fire gets ignited, sometimes you can’t stop yourself and have to let it out, I think the entire point I’m trying to make is to not be scared of failing.