Commandment three. “Heavy” basic training is done according to the rule of 5 sets of 5-8 times. “Light” ones are done with a weight of 80% of “heavy” ones according to the rule of 5 sets of 4 times. Of course, you need to start from “5 to 8”, and then smoothly move to “5 to 5”. Eight repetitions are practiced

3.3. Deadlift. The deadlift is the most productive exercise of all. It is by doing deadlifts that athletes build enormous muscle mass. When performing a deadlift, the following muscles are primarily involved: back extensors, buttocks,

Don't train your abs more than once a week In conclusion of this chapter, I would like to give one recommendation: in no case should you train your abs more than once a week if you want them to really grow. Don't make the same mistake that most people make. Not

“Do I need to overeat once a week?” Drastically increasing your calorie intake once a week is important. At the same time, many hormonal changes occur that promote fat loss: from an increase in the level of cyclic adenosine monophosphate and guazine monophosphate

How much did you spend on food this week? – During the experiment with plant-based foods, I spent about $80 on food. This is about 20-30 dollars less than usual (that is, when I eat more varied and include animals in my diet

100 Miles a Week The training plan for running 100 miles a week, like other plans, can be varied depending on the individual runner. The ability to run 2 hours a day is not so difficult to master, and in a very short time, if

5. Assignment for each week We give basic recommendations in the first weeks so that by the end of the course you will see their effect. Every week we add something new to give you the skills you need for the future. For example, during 9 weeks we teach you how to take care of your skin,

Learn how to improve your bench press, lift new weights, get stronger, and build your gladiator pecs. Read 50 important tips!

2) Pain in the muscles after exercise is good, but if pain occurs during the exercise, stop doing it immediately. Don't risk your health, otherwise an injury can set you back many steps.

3) To increase strength indicators, it is necessary to reduce 3 times 10 minutes a week and no more, otherwise this will negatively affect the increase in bench press.

4) Do not use the old school, in which the barbell is lowered just below the solar plexus, this is dangerous for the body, at the lowest point the barbell should touch the bottom of the chest in the area of ​​the nipples. At the same time, the elbows do not spread to the sides, but fall closer to the body.

5) Do not use the Smith machine often; it disables the stabilizer muscles, which are very useful for a regular bench press.

6) When tormented by the question of how to improve the bench press, from time to time use the dumbbell bench press, in this case, each hand is responsible for itself and eliminates the possibility of the stronger hand stealing part of the load from the weaker one, as when using a barbell.

7) Do not rush headlong into using complex programs; change them when progress has stopped and a period of stagnation begins.

8) Don’t be afraid to increase the weight, many people talk themselves out of going under heavy weights, like it’s too much, I won’t be able to handle it. Believe in yourself, motivate, because the biggest obstacles lie in your psychological attitude.

9) In heavy cases, use wrist straps to protect yourself from spraining your wrists, especially at an older age, this will protect you from pain in your wrists from constant stress.

10) Train your legs, remember, when you lift the barbell up, you place great emphasis on the leg muscles, the stronger they are, the easier it will be to perform.

11) After pressing the barbell up for a second, hold it at the top, this will give the body the opportunity to prepare for the next approach and strengthen the muscles.

18) You should set small goals for yourself, be realistic, after achieving which, set a new goal, do not think that
immediately master 100, 120 or 150 kg.

19) Start it so you can clearly see your progress, don’t remember everything in your head.

20) Train in gyms, not at home. Seeing how others lift more weight will automatically turn on your spirit of rivalry and competition.

21) Don’t be lazy to watch educational videos and read interesting articles about fitness and bodybuilding.

22) Improve your movement technique every time, learn to feel the muscle under load, there is no limit to perfection.

23) When you come to training, do you already feel lethargic and tired?! So it’s time to take pre-workout complexes – , amino acids , , , .

24) To prevent the bar from slipping in your hands, use chalk or talc; it eliminates the possibility of your hands sweating during work, which improves your grip and makes it possible to finish the exercise efficiently.

25) If you feel unprepared for training, postpone it for 1-2 days, when you are ready to give it your all and catch up.

26) To improve your bench press, include heavy weights in your workout - , , , . They increase strength and mass and of course make it possible to lift more weight under the bar.

27) Give yourself enough time for rest and sleep; if you are tired and sleep-deprived, forget about the growth of your pectoral muscles. For some, I’ll say that it’s more important for you to race on the computer until 2 a.m. or to create an athletic figure.

28) You should not always work on strength in the 1-4 repetition range, use a variety of schemes for 1-4 repetitions, 5-10 and 12-15.

29) To accustom your body to heavy weights, periodically remove the barbell and hold it above you without bending it at the elbows, without lowering it to your chest. The weight is 110-120% of the one-repetition maximum, you need to hold it for 10-15 seconds.

30) Raise the barbell up quickly, even when the weight is heavy and the barbell is moving very slowly, the impulse should be burning in your head to lift the barbell as quickly as possible.

31) Perform the press with the help of, eliminate the open grip, this can simply lead to the barbell falling onto your chest.

32) When lifting the barbell up, keep your buttocks tightly pressed to the gymnastic bench; tearing them off means breaking the execution technique.

33) Also, when lifting, try not to arch your lower back; this, of course, shortens the distance from the chest to the barbell, but also leads to microtrauma in the lower back. Then, having received a sharp pain while performing a deadlift, you will attribute everything to it, not realizing that the primary source of origin is the incorrect technique on the bench press.

34) After completing the approach, give the body a good rest; if necessary, rest for up to 5-7 minutes, after all, you are working with a basic strength exercise.

35) All the time during the bench press, focus on a certain point on the ceiling and strive to press the barbell there, this will help maintain more or less the same trajectory of the barbell, targeting a specific area of ​​the chest.

36) Do not suddenly jump over the weights, gradually add weights preparing the muscles for the maximum weight, this is necessary for the body to warm up the muscles and set up all its functions for the final hard work.

37) Before training your chest, make sure your triceps are well rested. For those who train every day, eliminate the load on the triceps 1-2 days before the bench press, otherwise you will not be able to handle serious weights on the pectoral muscles.

38) The bench press should always be the first exercise in training until you are tired, fresh and full of energy, and your nervous system is not exhausted.

39) For a good chest workout, do not forget about the “” method and training.

40) Having removed the barbell from the racks, first allow it to fully stabilize, eliminate rocking and movement, and only then lower it to your chest.

41) Once under the barbell, concentrate on the exercise, your goal is to squeeze the barbell, close yourself off from all external factors, nothing and
no one should distract you.

42) When doing a classic bench press, do not allow the bar of the bar to fall to the very top of your chest; in this case, the front deltoids will experience a colossal load, the result will be sprains and tears of the ligaments, which will lead to sharp pain in the shoulders when lowering the bar.

43) Strong and powerful back muscles help with the power press, adding stability and confidence in the execution.

44) Before lowering the barbell to your chest, bend it slightly forward, making sure that your shoulder blades are retracted and resting firmly on the gymnastic bench.

45) Eat enough protein, at least 2 grams. per 1 kg. weight, for fuller and faster muscle fibers, after exercise.

46) If you want to develop truly large chest muscles, stop bouncing the bar off your chest, lift the barbell up, not by rebounding, but by muscle force, this will allow you to engage more muscles in the work and load them better.

47) Attend training regularly, the result likes stability and passion for physical activity from time to time and randomly will not lead to positive results.

48) Do not lift weights at any cost, do not look at those who do more, the main thing is to train your muscles well, and not to show off in front of others.

49) Periodically start your chest workout with , this allows you to tire out your chest muscles while keeping your triceps fresh and not tired. Next, by switching to the bench press, you will complete your chest 100%.

50) If you're working on mass in the 8-rep range and you're plateauing and you can't add any more weight to the bar, switch to a 2-6 rep strength program for about 4 weeks. After this, the muscles will increase their strength potential, which will help build on the success and take more weight for the same 8 repetitions. And the greater the weight, the more the muscle fibers are loaded, which means their volume increases.

I hope these tips will help reduce the relevance of the question of how to increase your bench press. Train and develop, become strong guys and charming girls.

The bench press is not only one of the triathlon disciplines, but also simply an indicator of human strength. Therefore, the question of how to increase the bench press is one of the most pressing for gym goers.

Press for different purposes

Each person, coming to the gym, sets different goals for himself. They change over time. But, in most cases, one thing remains the same - the weight in the bench press and other exercises increases up to a certain point.

Then a plateau occurs and progress stops, as if the body has run out of resources. Each athlete perceives stagnation in the bench press, squat, etc. differently.

Some athletes give up and return to their usual lifestyle. They quit training, convinced that sports are for someone else. Usually such people visit the gym for no more than six months or even a year.

Others vigorously increase the load until the first injury, and then also quit. But due to the physical impossibility of continuing training.

As a result, few calmly remain in training and continue to achieve their goal.

Everyone's goals for going to the gym are different, from gaining muscle to getting bigger in specific exercises. Some people are only interested in muscle volume, some constantly press, some pull, and some are preparing to participate in triathlons. Whatever the athlete’s goal, good performance is achieved only through patience, discipline and a lot of work.

Different pressing techniques also serve different purposes. Let's look at them. To make it clearer, in our case we will talk about wide-grip bench presses on a horizontal bench. And let’s look at the main thing that interests absolutely everyone involved: how to improve the bench press.

For muscle growth

To work the pectoral muscles in detail, you need to press the barbell so that it falls to the upper chest. With this technique, the muscles are stretched as much as possible and, when contracted, receive the required amount of load.

The technique of performing the exercise is described in detail in the article “bench press”, so we will not dwell on it here.

When working on weight, the exercise should be performed in 3-4 sets of 6-8 times. Choose the weight so that the last repetition is given with great difficulty. If you feel that after the eighth you are able to perform one more repetition, increase the load so that you return to six repetitions again.

There is no point in pressing for times in this way - this is not a lifting technique.

Work according to your feelings - you can do more - weigh a couple more kg, but do not increase the weight by breaking the technique!

To lift maximum weight

This is the second purpose for which you can bench press. Some people need to show results in competitions, others work for themselves. Naturally, the strength training program will be different in each case.

The bench press technique in powerlifting is very different from the bodybuilding versions that most people do in the gym. We'll look at this a little later. Now let's discuss weight gain strategies and precautions.

Let's go to the maximum: press one at a time

How to increase your bench press results: First of all, you need to practice regularly, experiment and be prepared to fail. You will also need a good program to increase strength. By defeat I mean “didn’t shake” or “pulled a muscle.” Such moments should not unsettle you.

When athletes prepare for strength competitions, they don't focus on working their muscles. They work for strength - and this is the main principle. What matters is how many kg you bench pressed, not what biceps you have. Body mass will follow the strength. You may not have the same muscle definition and definition as bodybuilders, but you will still stand out from the crowd.

One-time press technique

To ultimately lift maximum weight, you need to do bench press regularly, at least twice a week.

In powerlifting, the bench press is done from a position called the bridge. This position needs to be clearly worked out in order to feel stable and confident in it.

How to get into the starting position for the press:

1. We lie down on the bench. But! Instead of placing your feet on the floor, place them together at the other end of the bench.
2. Bend your belly up to stretch before pressing, holding onto a barbell or bar, the fulcrum being your heels and your shoulder blades. By the way, the shoulder blades need to be brought together as much as possible.
3. Now we lower the pelvis onto the bench, after that we put our feet on the floor and rest our heels.
4. This is the starting position.

You can, of course, make everything simpler and immediately bend over from a lying position, but then the bridge will not be so round.

The essence of the bridge is that the distance the bar travels is less than with the body in a straight position. And the bar touches the body faster, which greatly facilitates the bench press procedure. Without a bridge, it will be more difficult to lift heavy weights. Sometimes a bench press is performed with a pause.

The exercise can be performed with or without equipment. At the moment, the largest bench press with equipment, which is included in the book of records, is 486 kg, and without it – 335 (by the way, it belongs to a Russian athlete and was done in 2015). To this day, these are the most significant weights ever lifted on this planet (officially, at least).

At first, standing on the “bridge” will be unusual, but over time you will get used to it. If you are just doing it for yourself, you don’t need a bridge, lie quietly on the bench with your back, squeeze your shoulder blades together, maintain a slight arch in your lower back and place your feet on the floor.

Please note that if the surface of the bench is slippery, the shoulder blades will corrode. The same thing will happen if you train in poor quality clothing.

When you are not preparing for a competition, but are simply working on strength, to increase your bench press you also need to consistently train at least 2 times a week.

You need to bend until you feel comfortable. Your task is not to get into a bridge, but just to force the pectoral muscles to work, and not the shoulders and triceps. Then you can bench press more.

What will help you gain weight?

First of all, you should understand that when you train for strength, your task is to force the maximum number of muscle groups to work for results. When working on mass, you purposefully load a separate muscle group so that it grows as much as possible.

Golden rule number 1 – pump your whole body

In addition to bench presses, do other basic exercises. That is, be sure to pump the rest of your body, not just your chest. The coordinated work of a large array of muscles will help you lift more weight than just one muscle group.

It happens that squats cause discomfort in the lower back, but deadlifts go fine. Then you can replace squats with leg presses. This is also a good option that makes muscle mass grow.

Practice shows that it is impossible to achieve significant progress by doing just the bench press from workout to workout. The muscles get tired and stop responding to the load.

So when a bench press program goes beyond the bench press, the chest, triceps, and shoulders are given a rest while you train the other muscles. And this is very important.

Plus, heavy exercise (like a squat or leg press) spurs the production of testosterone, which will directly affect your strength.

Rule 2 - let your muscles rest

Overfatigue negatively affects training results. If you feel that you have not yet fully recovered from your previous session, it is better to reduce the intensity of the workout and give yourself time to rest.

Overworked muscles lose 10–15% of their strength. For example, if you bench press 100 kg for 3 reps, in a state of overtraining you will bench 85–90 for the same 3 reps.

It is believed that power benching should be done once a week. But you must focus on your body. Some people bench press not 2 times a week, but 3. Some – only 1 time. Each person has their own training regime.

Rule 3 – convenient schedule and good program

Choose the optimal training regimen for yourself. It should be in harmony with your lifestyle and daily routine. Competent trainers based on the peculiarities of the clients’ life rhythm.

Your bench press program should include a basic strength complex and, in fact, preparatory exercises for the bench press. To increase your strength, so that there is actually an improvement and not a regression of your muscles, you need to competently train both the whole body and specifically the working muscles (chest, triceps and shoulder).

Sometimes in programs the bench press is done either 8–10 times, or three to five. Once a week like this, the second like that.

Exercises for the chest muscles include dumbbell flyes, dips, pullovers, and more.

It is advisable to make changes to the program once every month or month and a half.

Rule 4 – don’t try to raise the maximum at once

As usual, do 5 repetitions, or at least 3. Maximum weight for one repetition is a competition point, and for strength training it is better and safer to do several repetitions.

By lifting as much weight as possible, you run the risk of pulling something or otherwise injuring yourself. After all, when you bench press weights 5 times or even 3 times, that’s one thing. But you don’t know your one-time maximum, you can easily guess wrong and get serious damage to your muscles or joints.

Indeed, in your case, it is more important to understand how to increase weight, albeit gradually, but reliably. And don’t squeeze it out, no matter how much at a time, risking your health. You're not at a competition.

If you really want to, once a month you can arrange test drives for yourself in increments of 5–2.5 kg and with insurance. But warm up very well before doing this.

Rule 5 – Eat and sleep well

No comments here. Enough has already been said about nutrition and sleep. Let's better talk about the plateau or the state when weight does not increase.

Overcoming the plateau

What to do when the bench press doesn't work? He may not go for long. As a result, either you will give up, or the muscle will ache from overload.

• Alternatively, you can forget about the bench press for a couple of weeks and do other exercises, for example, doing a chest workout on an incline bench and parallel bars. And then, return to the bench press.
• You can also increase the weights on other exercises that improve your bench. As mentioned above, the maximum result comes from complex work of the muscles of the whole body.
• Change your bench press training program periodically. Then the muscles will not have time to get used to or become overtired, and one day you will lift the heaviest weight for yourself.

That is, for a while, in general, stop wondering about how to increase your bench press. Just train, pay attention to other exercises and don't quit the gym.

• There is another approach - do not stop pressing. You can temporarily reduce your working weight. This will give some setback, but in the end, after returning to your schedule and old scales, you will be able to exceed the previously obtained result.
• Try going for 10 rep sets with lighter weight. You need to be able to do these 10 times not with ease, but through work. Gradually increase the weights in this mode. And then go back to low-repetition training.

The point of the above is that the bench press program should be varied. When results stall, you need to temporarily change the training vector. In order to finally break through the bench press and overcome your barriers, you need to work hard and patiently. Try different options. Some will be effective just for you.

By the way, the option of achieving some natural physiological maximum is not excluded. You can talk about this if you have been practicing for a long time and have already achieved significant results. Think about whether you need to increase weight at all? How often have you been injured lately? Maybe this is the same physiological barrier after which your body will begin to “break down”? If you don’t compete, you have absolutely no need to set records at any cost.

After all, weight gain always has two sides, one of which is pride in the result obtained, and the other is stress for the body. Balance is important here.

So, be careful: warm up well and train smart!

If your goal is to conquer weights in the bench press? Then be sure to familiarize yourself with the training methodology, which will increase your current performance by 20 kg.

Before we move on to discussing the training methodology itself, we should talk about the exercise itself, or rather, some of the subtleties that will help you improve your personal performance. Let's start with grip width, as this is a highly debated topic. As many athletes know, the grip can be medium narrow or wide.

Now you are faced with the task of choosing the optimal one for yourself, for which you should perform a small exercise. Sit on the floor and find a comfortable position for you to perform the press. Ask a friend to measure the distance between your hands. This will be your optimal grip, which you should use in the future. You may think this isn't scientific, but your body knows best how it feels comfortable doing the press.

The second secret lies in the direction of the movement. Most often, athletes squeeze the sports equipment straight and upward. However, if you look at professional powerlifters, they perform this movement differently - up and at a slight angle to the head.

And the last nuance of performing a bench press is to arch your back. Of course, this allows you to use more working weight, but this happens only by reducing the distance between the chest and the sports equipment. But this will not affect the increase in strength indicators in any way. In turn, to progress, you need to develop strength.

Bench training method

The technique was created to develop muscles throughout the body and you will not need to make major adjustments to the training program. The technique is based on the “pull-pull” principle, which implies simultaneous training of all muscles performing pushing movements on one day, and pulling on the other. The first group includes the muscles of the chest, shoulder girdle and triceps. The back and biceps belong to the second group, as do the legs.

This is due to the fact that the duration of training for the back and biceps is shorter compared to the pushing muscles group. You should train your legs once a week. The leg muscles are large and are quite difficult to train, requiring a lot of energy. If you train your legs more often, you may not achieve the desired result in the bench press.

Most training systems involve maximum load on the muscles, followed by rest to restore the body. The technique described today is based on a gradual increase in working weight. You don't have to increase the weight every session, but do it gradually, thereby creating a more realistic increase in strength and muscle mass.

At the first stage, this technique involves a two-day split, and you have no choice. The training schedule is rigid and must be followed. Unless, of course, you want to achieve your bench press goal.

The training program is quite simple. Basic exercises should be performed for each muscle group. At the same time, there will be auxiliary exercises for the development of the back, deltas, biceps and triceps.

On the contrary, after the transition to normal training they will begin to increase. When training your chest there will be some nuances that we will talk about later. For example, in one session you need to perform three sets of 1, 2 and 3 repetitions, and in another - 4, 5 and 6 repetitions.

If you haven't done sets of fewer than four sets before, you should now. Such approaches lead to an increase in strength indicators, and this is exactly what we are trying to achieve.

The same can be said about the intensity of classes. When performing sets with a small number of repetitions, it is necessary to work with almost maximum weights, which also increases the intensity of the training. You should remember that the closer the working weight is to the repeated maximum, the higher the intensity of the training will be. At the same time, muscle volume will not increase so quickly, but strength indicators will increase perfectly.

In addition to training your legs once a week, you will have to slightly reduce the load on the shoulder girdle. The training program includes several types of overhead presses and the anterior deltas do not require further load. Shoulder girdle training is devoted to Monday and Friday.

On the first day of classes, you should perform swing movements with dumbbells to the sides, and on the second day the muscles that rotate the shoulder joint will develop. To improve your bench press performance, you need to have strong shoulder joints. Each training session will last about an hour. Its duration should not be increased. And now about the exercises themselves.

Monday

• Bench press;
• Dumbbell bench press;
• Side swings with dumbbells;
• French press.

Wednesday

• Pull the block in the direction of the chest, narrow grip;
• Bent-over barbell rows;
• Barbell curl for biceps.

Friday

• Exercises for rotator cuff muscles;
• Bench press;
• Dips.

Saturday

• Squats;
• Leg press;
• Leg bending;
• Block pull in the direction of the chest, reverse grip;
• Bent-over dumbbell row;
• Seated dumbbell curls.

Russian press training

A runner cannot be a sprinter and a marathon runner at the same time. For the same reasons, it is impossible to perform equally successfully in heavy and light nominations. Therefore, the athlete must choose one maximum two competitive nominations (adjacent) and build the training process based on the specifics of these nominations.

If an athlete has chosen 200 kg as the main heroic category, then his training will differ little from the classic training for the strength of a powerlifter or bench press. A month before the competition, you should reach the maximum one-time bench press, after which 3-4 weeks should be devoted to working with weights of 90-110% of 200 kg. No special work should be performed in the aerobic mode.

The most difficult part is preparing for the most popular category – 150 kg, which combines the athlete’s extraordinary strength qualities and a high level of strength endurance.

I myself love this nomination most of all and have a competitive result of 18 times and a training result of 20 times, which corresponds to the standard for a candidate for master of sports. Without undue modesty, I will add that at over forty years old and without the use of speakers, this is not so bad.

Therefore, I am sure that there is a rational grain in my preparation. Naturally, each athlete must plan the training process taking into account his own characteristics, and my recommendations are only a possible option.

So, in order to gain strength you need to choose a competent system for increasing strength. The first two months of preparation are spent precisely on gaining this most important quality. I perform the bench press once every 4-5 days, with weights of 170-190 kg, once every two weeks I reach 200-205 kg. Reps from 10-6 to 4-2, respectively. In addition, I additionally train my triceps and deltoids by doing dips, 45-degree bench presses, and close-grip presses. In the utility room I use 12-6 reps.

I am convinced that you should not go out for a single bench press. Firstly, this is traumatic, and secondly, it wears out the nervous system, and thirdly, it is useless for increasing the result in the chosen category.

After completing a strength cycle, accompanied by taking protein and creatine, I reach the following strength indicators - 205 * 3, 190 * 6.

With the 2 months left before the competition, I'm working mostly on strength endurance. I do 2 workouts a week. Weight from 130 to 170 kg, once every two weeks 180-190 kg. From the utility room I leave only the close-grip bench press for 20-12 repetitions. I move from two to one serving of protein per day, leaving creatine at the same level, but significantly increasing carbohydrates.

To build strength endurance I use the following training methods:
Holding press. (For example – 150 * 12 reps + 90 sec lying under the bar + 4 reps + 90 sec lying under the bar + 2 reps).
Interval press for 5 minutes. (For example – 150*6 + 40 sec barbell on racks + 150*6 + 40 sec barbell on racks + 150*6+ 40 sec barbell on racks + 150*4+ 40 sec barbell on racks + 150*2).
Standing press with decreasing weight.
Interval press with decreasing weight.
Combination bench press - using medium, extremely wide and narrow grips and reducing weight.
Press with pauses on the chest for 5-10 seconds.
Press with fixation on straightened arms for 5-10 seconds.
Medium-grip push-ups in a power rack for 10 or more reps.

Once a week I train my thighs. I do squats, squats, and leg presses. I don’t work to the limit, but with enough load to nourish the muscles with blood. I also do deadlifts once a week, for high reps and not to the limit. I believe that without training such large muscle groups as the legs and back, the athlete will not be able to fully realize his potential for strength and endurance in the Russian bench press.

The 125 rating is similar to the 150, but more emphasis should be placed on training strength endurance rather than absolute strength.

But the light categories of 100 and especially 75 kg require a fundamentally different approach.

Speaking at competitions, I became convinced that the result in easy categories correlates very weakly with a one-time bench press. Often, a 90-kilogram kid with a one-time bench press of 170 and a 140-kilogram guy with a one-time bench press of 230 perform 40 repetitions per hundredweight. So, strength in easy categories is not an end in itself, and certainly not the key to victory.

In easy categories, when the result approaches 100 times, general endurance begins to play a decisive role. And as we were taught at the good old Institute of Physical Education, overall endurance is determined by the maximum amount of oxygen consumption!!! That is, the body leaves the anaerobic zone and works either in an aerobic-anaerobic mode or in a pure aerobic mode.

Therefore, working at an elevated heart rate (about 160-170 beats per minute) should be included in the preparation. In my opinion, these could be breathing squats, squat/press supersets or press/upright rows, and the like. In the off-season it is worth running cross-country. But with endurance work, you need to know when to stop so as not to burn the muscle mass necessary for the bench press.