Life legitimately gets better when you switch deadlifts for RDL's and flat bench for incline, dogmatic powerlifters in shambles, I actually heard rumours Ed Coan used to spend most of his training on these variations and switch to the comp lifts close to his meets..
@Superaltern8 I could honestly believe this. Stimulus to fatigue is also an important factor. Plain and simple u will just never be as strong in those lifts as flat bench and regular deadlifts and they are close enough to the actual lift in mechanics that they have solid carry over
Dude it’s soooo fun! Feels like a full body lift that you aren’t cheating lol. Bench with a huge arch always feels cool but in a niche way. Incline feels like a man lift
Finally someone! I am a bit tired of the very specific guys saying "for a bigger bench, bench 16 times a week with varying intensities" (mind you, the same specific guys have a dedicated deadlift day starting with pulls - dude, when on earth in competition will you deadlift without swuatting first?). Not surprisingly, the most common upper body injury in powerlifters is in the shoulders. What Brendan suggest here, will mitigate that. Also for a big bench, I tend to say you have to be stable (scapular stability) and effing strong. And guess what? These exercises in the top tiers build exactly those. This video should be pinned to the top of the internet or somethin'.
I agree with close grip bench. I heard it’s for your triceps, and I do feel it when I’m hitting amraps, but usually the next day my chest is what is most sore.
Great video. I love push ups man. Not just for the benefits you detailed but also I'll do bouts of really disturbing volume to condition my pushing muscles. How do you feel about HEAVY dips?
Love dips! I responded to a few others and would put them A tier. I used to go crazy heavy too, can’t wait to get back to them now that my shoulder is healed
Love the content. I agree mostly with you, specialy on overhead and incline bench press. Too many people look at them as crap but there are not. Also what you said about close grip is so real. A real close grip destroy your chest. I push in a close grip way in my meets and I struggle in the middle of the path. I did not know about the triceps and the side thing. I just need to find a way to improve that. I would just disagree on 2 variations: Larsen and overload. I think that overload is S tier if you struggle at the top and B if you struggle at the begining. Why? You must produce more power when you reach the point where it becomes harder. You overload your weak point. It's also a work for your brain. When you are under the barbell and you must keep pushing and you achieve it, it builds that confidence to know that you can do this. Then it teaches you to stay tight all the exercice long. You lose tension, you are crushed by the weight and the bands that want to cut you in half. Lastly, I found that with the bands, as you slow down your brain will find a way to make it easier. How? By pushing in the good way. With this cercle that makes a good bench press. Without the bands, sometimes you will push but not with the good patern. With the bands, the natural selection will force you to do so. I would put the Larsen in A if you have an arch like a IPF lifter and you struggle at the bottom, B tier if you just struggle at the bottom and D if you don't. The reason why is because if you have no problem at the begining of the movement, doing Larsen won't bring you anything. The stability work is here but if you do DB press you will have to stabilize too and it will bring you more. And even for stability. Your feet don't touch the ground ok. Do you do bosu squat to improve your squat? Why? In competition, your feet touch the ground. Floor press is better as your legs stay on the floor but you can't use them to leg drive.
My bench launches on about a 4 month cycle, moving up 30 lbs, so these cycle methods could be argued are just waiting around for the next cycle moving up in weight lift ability.
Bro, u just blew my mind. U were talkinb about lockout problems and u said it has nothing to do with triceps. Every time i miss a rep its only on the right side and 2" before lockout. I've been hammering close grip and pin press. Now idk what to do.
Think about what you just said, it’s only the right side. Do you only train your left tricep? Ever done extra reps on the right? I doubt it thus this can’t be a tricep problem. Remover whatever narrative you’ve created to fit this problem. “I’m left handed”. “I broke my right arm once”. These are all just narratives. If one side is missing you have a balance and technique problem. And force transfer issue.
@@BrendanTietz 🤯🤯🤯 I tore my left shoulder so i keep my left elbow more tucked. I once saw a guy miss a 605 bench. He said he flared his elbows too soon. My right elbow is definitely more flared than my left.
Lol everyone’s elbows have misaligned flaring especially when fatigue is high. And big lifters are always the worst educators. Your issue has nothing to do with some old imbalance/tear. It’s a technical one and probably slightly programming too which can exacerbate technical issues.
Dips would be A tier! Only didn’t Include those because I don’t see them as a main variation where I push load much but I prob should have included them if I included push-ups. They’re like the push-up, train so much more than just strength!
Missing dips (weighted) on this lift. Whenever i ran a program with this included, my bench made rapid progressions. And i notice doing your group programming you often add the dips yourself. Seems to work for me as a 400+ bencher .
The only thing that keeps me from dumbbell pressing is that my gym’s dumbbells only go up to 110lbs. I have no idea if I can press those already, but I want to at least have the option of going past that at some point.
Spoto-and I did it very strict seemed to do absolutely nothing for me. And I stuck w it for months. Also most people i see doing spoto don’t even do it correctly
yeah, dumbbell press is etremly beneficial for me as well. It has the same neutral grip or rather angled neutral grip than a football bar but has more advantages over it so I use it instead of a footbal bar. Yeah Floorpress is like a "Dead Press" so we have to be as explosive as with deadlifts. I love that most, because I am extremly good at exploviness, much better than at static strength stuff. For chest hypertrophy this style served me a lot ^^ most of the time single dumbbell floor press ^^ push ups: It increases my bench press even if I am not benching for months ^^
Hey Brendan, relatively new subscriber here. Great video as usual! I have one question unrelated to the video. I notice that you don't really jam your elbows under on squats nearly as much as you used to and taught in the videos in the past. Did you change your mind about it? Keep up with the high quality useful content!
Great question and thank you! Yes I have, so I still cue elbows down (aka shoulders up because it’s really about the shoulders) but I never lose the lats. Before I underestimated how much the lats can help and too much elbows down will lose the lats!
@@BrendanTietz thanks a lot for the answer, keep up the good work! I especially enjoyed your slack pull tutorial btw, I'd say it's the best one that exists.
I prefer a moderate grip so if my lifter is a pinky bencher than yes but if they’re wide like pointer finger I’ll usually bring them in to pinky or so!
Candito had me doing neutral grip db bench. I think he loves those. Now u love DBs but don't like neutral grip benching. So ig these wouldn't be something u would recommend. Am i wrong?
Neutral grip is highly overrated but useful. Idk why but somehow it became pretty popular in mainstream circles. How coaches think to recommend neutral pressing but not upper back works blows my mind. Go back to the basics dude. You’re def over complicating stuff and focusing on the minutia. Do your rows (like I mentioned in other comment) and do your bread and butter. Get fucking strong on them!
Any thoughts on the guillotine press? I know with your history of shoulder issues maybe it's something you've stayed away from, but would you program it for others?
Hard to compare someone doing 4 inch range of motion calling that a bench lift when I am 6'5", 27 inch arms and do almost a two foot range of motion. How do you ever relate the two training programs? I don't see how it is possible or worth trying. I do 205 lbs now, and see how I could do 315 tomorrow pushing 4 inches. That type of lifting is just learning how to coil your back.
It’s very commonly hated by women lol I think because it’s just so much harder but I promiseeeee if you get it hella strong, you’ll not only be even more jacked but your comp will go crazy! Learn the technique though, it requires a lot of practice
What does ‘S’ stand for? A, B, C, D I can understand but I’ve been so caught up on what ‘S’ means, It’s messing with my head trying to get through the video. Edit: “Staple" is the word I heard you used during close grip bench, so I’m guessing “S" stands for "staple."
It’s from Japanese culture that influenced American video games. It was generally the rank higher than A for achieving secret levels, characters, options etc. somehow it became culturally synonymous with tier rankings on UA-cam so I followed the trend.
My bench is easily my weakest lift, my ohp is probs my strongest really strange, at 90kg bw i can strict form pause ohp 90kg yet my bench is probably only 130 max, tried everything over years and it barely moves. My best ever is 145kg but i was a bit heavier. Even more strange is, my close grip is probably just as strong if not stronger than my normal bench😑😕 ever run into this Brendan? Presumably this means my shoulders and tris are out of check with my Chest strength/mass or something Also, id have thought you'd have included dips in this list? Do you not rate them?
You're going to put push-ups on the list but not dips?!? Don't dips accomplish many of the same things as push-ups, but better (e.g. mobility, serratus anterior work)?
I actually just forgot dips but would put them A tier. However pushups are hugely undervalued. Julius Maddox even used bodyweight pushups to help his bench and has talked about this. However loaded properly it can be deadly. It’s actually far better on horizontal extension and serratus work than a dip because of the angle. The serratus functions primarily in protraction and upward rotation of the scapula which is in the horizontal and vertical plane. Dips angle towards a decline. But dips are great!
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Ranking criteria
4:18 - Incline bench
6:42 - OHP
8:14 - Overload work (bands, chains, etc.)
9:16 - Grip rotation (NOT grip width)
10:08 - Larsen variants
10:53 - Dumbbell Bench
12:21 - Floor press
13:33 - Long pause work
14:55 - Close grip variants
16:49 - Tempo work
17:27 - Spoto variants
18:10 - Touch and go
18:36 - Soft touch/Ballistic work
19:10 - Push-ups
21:13 - Closing thoughts
Bro so weird I typed it into the description which usually populated it out but it didn’t for some reason, not sure why? Thank you though!
Incline is my favorite tool to teach leg drive ! Very underrated lift. Mine fucking sucks but I’m gonna get around to beefing it up one of these days
Life legitimately gets better when you switch deadlifts for RDL's and flat bench for incline, dogmatic powerlifters in shambles, I actually heard rumours Ed Coan used to spend most of his training on these variations and switch to the comp lifts close to his meets..
@Superaltern8 I could honestly believe this. Stimulus to fatigue is also an important factor. Plain and simple u will just never be as strong in those lifts as flat bench and regular deadlifts and they are close enough to the actual lift in mechanics that they have solid carry over
Dude it’s soooo fun! Feels like a full body lift that you aren’t cheating lol. Bench with a huge arch always feels cool but in a niche way. Incline feels like a man lift
@@dcvg1241 Yes bro SFR is king
Obligatory do this for the Squat and Deadlift
I got you!! Will definitely do those asap
Thank you for giving incline bench the respect it deserves
My bench was stalling until I added incline. Definitely underrated even for powerlifting goals.
It is indeed! Such a great movement
Really useful how you have related these movements , be good to do for other lifts in the future
I got you! I’ll make a squat and deadlift one soon!!
Somebody give him a trophy, he just dove deeper into the world of strength training, providing valuable insights 💪💪💪💪
Finally someone! I am a bit tired of the very specific guys saying "for a bigger bench, bench 16 times a week with varying intensities" (mind you, the same specific guys have a dedicated deadlift day starting with pulls - dude, when on earth in competition will you deadlift without swuatting first?). Not surprisingly, the most common upper body injury in powerlifters is in the shoulders. What Brendan suggest here, will mitigate that. Also for a big bench, I tend to say you have to be stable (scapular stability) and effing strong. And guess what? These exercises in the top tiers build exactly those. This video should be pinned to the top of the internet or somethin'.
Hahahaha agreed!! Much love fam. Those guys are just in a eco chamber mimicking each other.
@@BrendanTietz Let's be fair, dude: they are in a different echo chamber than we are.
I agree with close grip bench. I heard it’s for your triceps, and I do feel it when I’m hitting amraps, but usually the next day my chest is what is most sore.
Great video. I love push ups man. Not just for the benefits you detailed but also I'll do bouts of really disturbing volume to condition my pushing muscles.
How do you feel about HEAVY dips?
Love dips! I responded to a few others and would put them A tier. I used to go crazy heavy too, can’t wait to get back to them now that my shoulder is healed
Love the content. I agree mostly with you, specialy on overhead and incline bench press. Too many people look at them as crap but there are not.
Also what you said about close grip is so real. A real close grip destroy your chest. I push in a close grip way in my meets and I struggle in the middle of the path. I did not know about the triceps and the side thing. I just need to find a way to improve that.
I would just disagree on 2 variations: Larsen and overload. I think that overload is S tier if you struggle at the top and B if you struggle at the begining. Why? You must produce more power when you reach the point where it becomes harder. You overload your weak point. It's also a work for your brain. When you are under the barbell and you must keep pushing and you achieve it, it builds that confidence to know that you can do this. Then it teaches you to stay tight all the exercice long. You lose tension, you are crushed by the weight and the bands that want to cut you in half. Lastly, I found that with the bands, as you slow down your brain will find a way to make it easier. How? By pushing in the good way. With this cercle that makes a good bench press. Without the bands, sometimes you will push but not with the good patern. With the bands, the natural selection will force you to do so.
I would put the Larsen in A if you have an arch like a IPF lifter and you struggle at the bottom, B tier if you just struggle at the bottom and D if you don't. The reason why is because if you have no problem at the begining of the movement, doing Larsen won't bring you anything. The stability work is here but if you do DB press you will have to stabilize too and it will bring you more. And even for stability. Your feet don't touch the ground ok. Do you do bosu squat to improve your squat? Why? In competition, your feet touch the ground. Floor press is better as your legs stay on the floor but you can't use them to leg drive.
My bench launches on about a 4 month cycle, moving up 30 lbs, so these cycle methods could be argued are just waiting around for the next cycle moving up in weight lift ability.
Hey Brendan, I really enjoyed this one ! I’d be curious to see the same for squats especially
Bro, u just blew my mind. U were talkinb about lockout problems and u said it has nothing to do with triceps. Every time i miss a rep its only on the right side and 2" before lockout. I've been hammering close grip and pin press. Now idk what to do.
Think about what you just said, it’s only the right side. Do you only train your left tricep? Ever done extra reps on the right? I doubt it thus this can’t be a tricep problem. Remover whatever narrative you’ve created to fit this problem. “I’m left handed”. “I broke my right arm once”. These are all just narratives. If one side is missing you have a balance and technique problem. And force transfer issue.
@@BrendanTietz 🤯🤯🤯 I tore my left shoulder so i keep my left elbow more tucked. I once saw a guy miss a 605 bench. He said he flared his elbows too soon. My right elbow is definitely more flared than my left.
Lol everyone’s elbows have misaligned flaring especially when fatigue is high. And big lifters are always the worst educators. Your issue has nothing to do with some old imbalance/tear. It’s a technical one and probably slightly programming too which can exacerbate technical issues.
Nice my two favorite UA-cam guys.
🤙🏼💪🏼
How do dips (bodyweight or weighted) fit into this? Similar to pushups?
I was just gonna say he missed dips!
Dips would be A tier! Only didn’t Include those because I don’t see them as a main variation where I push load much but I prob should have included them if I included push-ups. They’re like the push-up, train so much more than just strength!
very good video!
Missing dips (weighted) on this lift. Whenever i ran a program with this included, my bench made rapid progressions. And i notice doing your group programming you often add the dips yourself. Seems to work for me as a 400+ bencher .
Brandon, this stuff is amazing. What about dips? I always had a lot of carryover from weighted dips and comp bench.
Dips to me are accessory but I’d put them A tier!
The only thing that keeps me from dumbbell pressing is that my gym’s dumbbells only go up to 110lbs. I have no idea if I can press those already, but I want to at least have the option of going past that at some point.
Spoto-and I did it very strict seemed to do absolutely nothing for me. And I stuck w it for months. Also most people i see doing spoto don’t even do it correctly
Squat tier list too please! 🙏🏾
I got you!
@@BrendanTietz Yessir!. This is Sid btw. keep separating yourself from the rest of the industry
Underrated channel tbh;
Eventual goal of mine is to be coach by you 😮💨
Hit me up any time fam! I always got a space for you
Amazing list Brendan!
- Dips with chest focus (leaning forward) where would you put these?
So I didn’t add dips because I never program them as a main press, they’re usually always later towards the bottom of a workout but they would a tier.
yeah, dumbbell press is etremly beneficial for me as well. It has the same neutral grip or rather angled neutral grip than a football bar but has more advantages over it so I use it instead of a footbal bar. Yeah Floorpress is like a "Dead Press" so we have to be as explosive as with deadlifts. I love that most, because I am extremly good at exploviness, much better than at static strength stuff. For chest hypertrophy this style served me a lot ^^ most of the time single dumbbell floor press ^^
push ups: It increases my bench press even if I am not benching for months ^^
Does weigthed dips strenght help with increasing bench?
Hey Brendan, relatively new subscriber here. Great video as usual! I have one question unrelated to the video. I notice that you don't really jam your elbows under on squats nearly as much as you used to and taught in the videos in the past. Did you change your mind about it? Keep up with the high quality useful content!
Great question and thank you! Yes I have, so I still cue elbows down (aka shoulders up because it’s really about the shoulders) but I never lose the lats. Before I underestimated how much the lats can help and too much elbows down will lose the lats!
@@BrendanTietz thanks a lot for the answer, keep up the good work! I especially enjoyed your slack pull tutorial btw, I'd say it's the best one that exists.
The db bench is so true I am 13 and I hit a platue at 170 pounds then db benched and got to 200 pounds. I have long arms and deadlift build
Thank you for this video!! For the incline bench, do we keep the same grip as our competition bench? I bench with large grip 😊
I prefer a moderate grip so if my lifter is a pinky bencher than yes but if they’re wide like pointer finger I’ll usually bring them in to pinky or so!
Candito had me doing neutral grip db bench. I think he loves those. Now u love DBs but don't like neutral grip benching. So ig these wouldn't be something u would recommend. Am i wrong?
Neutral grip is highly overrated but useful. Idk why but somehow it became pretty popular in mainstream circles. How coaches think to recommend neutral pressing but not upper back works blows my mind. Go back to the basics dude. You’re def over complicating stuff and focusing on the minutia. Do your rows (like I mentioned in other comment) and do your bread and butter. Get fucking strong on them!
@@BrendanTietz amen
Any thoughts on the guillotine press? I know with your history of shoulder issues maybe it's something you've stayed away from, but would you program it for others?
Hard to compare someone doing 4 inch range of motion calling that a bench lift when I am 6'5", 27 inch arms and do almost a two foot range of motion. How do you ever relate the two training programs? I don't see how it is possible or worth trying. I do 205 lbs now, and see how I could do 315 tomorrow pushing 4 inches. That type of lifting is just learning how to coil your back.
please do this with squat and deads
I got you!!
You stated "SABCD" but I have no idea what the letters mean, particularly "S".
aahhhhhh I guess I’m doing incline bench. My least favorite solely bc I’m bad at it LOL… I now feel inspired to get better at it😌
It’s very commonly hated by women lol I think because it’s just so much harder but I promiseeeee if you get it hella strong, you’ll not only be even more jacked but your comp will go crazy! Learn the technique though, it requires a lot of practice
@@BrendanTietz It is so god damn hard but i'm deff gonna give it a go. Anything to comp bench 225 !
Incline with long arms all the way down to chest is almost a 3 ft lift.
Decline bench?
Should i master the push up first?
What does ‘S’ stand for? A, B, C, D I can understand but I’ve been so caught up on what ‘S’ means, It’s messing with my head trying to get through the video.
Edit: “Staple" is the word I heard you used during close grip bench, so I’m guessing “S" stands for "staple."
It’s from Japanese culture that influenced American video games. It was generally the rank higher than A for achieving secret levels, characters, options etc. somehow it became culturally synonymous with tier rankings on UA-cam so I followed the trend.
@@BrendanTietz … Thanks. Clarifies it. Maybe not accurate, but I think I’m going to simply consider the letter ‘S’ as ‘Staple’ from now on.
Never heard of "spoto".
what do you mean "only 4 inches" ? 4 inches is really impressive, right
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA it’s so impressive baby… don’t listen to your friends
@@BrendanTietz when it's bigger it hurts so
My bench is easily my weakest lift, my ohp is probs my strongest really strange, at 90kg bw i can strict form pause ohp 90kg yet my bench is probably only 130 max, tried everything over years and it barely moves. My best ever is 145kg but i was a bit heavier. Even more strange is, my close grip is probably just as strong if not stronger than my normal bench😑😕 ever run into this Brendan? Presumably this means my shoulders and tris are out of check with my Chest strength/mass or something
Also, id have thought you'd have included dips in this list? Do you not rate them?
What about pin bench press?
I rarely program them. Honestly would put them D tier however I know some coaches love them. They mess my form up hugely
I think long pause bench should be in A tier. Other than that I agree.
Yeah I think others would put it higher, I just don’t use it much but It can have utility im sure
@@BrendanTietz Really helps lifters struggling with leg drive.
You're going to put push-ups on the list but not dips?!? Don't dips accomplish many of the same things as push-ups, but better (e.g. mobility, serratus anterior work)?
I actually just forgot dips but would put them A tier. However pushups are hugely undervalued. Julius Maddox even used bodyweight pushups to help his bench and has talked about this. However loaded properly it can be deadly. It’s actually far better on horizontal extension and serratus work than a dip because of the angle. The serratus functions primarily in protraction and upward rotation of the scapula which is in the horizontal and vertical plane. Dips angle towards a decline. But dips are great!
Dead press? These and weighted dips are money for me.
First! And favorite!
Tate was right about push ups I guess 😂😂😂
Lmfao what does tate say about them??