Written by Eric Lilliebridge
For benching, I’ve always made sure to have a good amount of accessory exercises included in my training basically so that I can work on any weak points I think I need to work extra hard on to make my bench better.
1. Pec Flies-Either with dumbells or on a cable machine. I personally like the cable machine better for Pec Flie because I feel like I get a better stretch with them. For Pec Flies I will normally do 5 total sets, the first 2 sets I’ll do for 15 reps then the 3rd I’ll add weight and do it to failure. Then I will do 2 drop sets of 15 reps
2. Tricep Extensions-On a machine using different accessory pieces to attach to it and also switching by doing both arms at the same time together or one at a time individually. When I’m doing both arms together I’ll do the same as my sets of Pec Flies for the first 3 sets and I will follow that by doing reverse grip single arm extensions for 2 sets of 15 reps for 5 total sets on triceps
3. Lateral Shoulder Raises-Either with Dumbells or on a machine, I feel like those work my shoulders really well. I don’t like to go that heavy on these, I mainly just do them to work my shoulders extra and get a good pump in them. I will do 5 total sets of 15 reps each and add weight each set
4. Board Work-Usually with a 2 or 3 boards. These have helped out my bench a lot, especially my lock outs. After benching heavy to my chest with pauses, I will do 2 sets of board work after. The first set is to a 2 board anywhere from a single to a triple, and the 2nd set will be to a 3 board, normally for a double or triple.
5. Closegrip Bench-I’m a better narrow grip bencher (hands inside the rings) so the close grips really help out my normal grip bench. After my warm ups I usually like to do 3 sets of 3 reps adding weight each set or I’ll single up to a heavy single and do a drop set of max reps to failure.
