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zmcdole
04-08-2011, 11:30 PM
I'm 13 weeks out from a meet in July. I'm planning on running an Ed Coan bench routine since I like the way that it's set up and I've had some success with it already. However, I have yet to overload on the bench like I have with deadlifts and squats. I think not overloading has held me back. I wanted to know if adding some board presses as a way of overloading to my routine would work and if it is possible I also needed to know how I would go about progressing with my board presses and or where to start in regards to weight.

The Ed Coan routine calls for 2 sets of bb flat bench, 2 sets of cgbp, and 2 sets of bb incline bench press on Wednesday. Then on Saturday 2 sets of light bb flat bench, weighted dips, and 2-3 sets of additional tricep movements. The routine starts out with sets of 10 and the reps taper down and the weight tapers up as the weeks go by until the last 5 weeks where you're hitting triples, doubles, and then one single the last week. I plan on eliminating the incline bb press from day one because my shoulders don't really care for BB incline.

I'm wondering if it would be alright to replace Saturdays entire session with 2-4 sets of heavy board presses followed by one tricep movement (3 sets) and 2-3 shoulder movements coming from db lateral raises and rotator cuff work. I'm also unsure of where to start in regards to weight and how to progress with the board presses. I know I should start with a 3 board press and work my way down to one board.

Let me know what you guys think!!!

Diabetic Muscle
04-08-2011, 11:36 PM
No I'd replace the incline with board presses. Where is your sticking point?

zmcdole
04-08-2011, 11:58 PM
No I'd replace the incline with board presses. Where is your sticking point?

I don't have a sticking point at the moment. I'm looking for a way to overload.

Diabetic Muscle
04-09-2011, 12:15 AM
I don't have a sticking point at the moment. I'm looking for a way to overload.
? uh what? haha Everyone has a point where they miss lifts. When you miss a lift where do you miss it at? I would use a board for that range of motion. If its right off your chest use 1 board. If its the midway point then 2-3 board. You want to overload the point that is the weakest to make it stronger.

I do the westside template and when I trained raw I went in 3 week waves.
1st work up to 3RM 3board then drop and hit single with same weight at 2 board
2nd work up to 3RM 2 board drop to 1 board for single
3rd work up to double 1 board then hit full ROM for a single

Worked really well for me.

zmcdole
04-09-2011, 12:24 AM
? uh what? haha Everyone has a point where they miss lifts. When you miss a lift where do you miss it at? I would use a board for that range of motion. If its right off your chest use 1 board. If its the midway point then 2-3 board. You want to overload the point that is the weakest to make it stronger.

I do the westside template and when I trained raw I went in 3 week waves.
1st work up to 3RM 3board then drop and hit single with same weight at 2 board
2nd work up to 3RM 2 board drop to 1 board for single
3rd work up to double 1 board then hit full ROM for a single

Worked really well for me.

Ok I see what you're saying. My weakest point is probably off the bottom. I'm pretty strong once I get past the midway point. So 1 or 2 board presses would probably be my best bet. Thanks for the advice!!

crashcrew56
04-09-2011, 11:31 AM
Since you're training for powerlifting there's some things you are going to need to get used to. Overloading and missing reps isn't something that you should regularly do, I'm not sure in what way you have been overloading the squats and deadlifts. Boards should be used to train a sticking point, not necessarily a way to overload your bench.

zmcdole
04-09-2011, 12:29 PM
Since you're training for powerlifting there's some things you are going to need to get used to. Overloading and missing reps isn't something that you should regularly do, I'm not sure in what way you have been overloading the squats and deadlifts. Boards should be used to train a sticking point, not necessarily a way to overload your bench.

I understand that, and the overloads I've been doing with squats and deads aren't done very often. So I wouldn't be doing the board presses every Saturday like I made it sound like in my initial post. I realize now that would be pretty stupid. My sticking point is at the bottom/off of my chest.

My bench has progressed, but not as much as I would have liked. I hit 402 last July(2010), had some shoulder issues and hit that again last October(2010). I got over my shoulder issues and just recently hit 418. I'm thinking 424-429 is very realistic for this July. How is that for progress? In my mind it's not that great. I am drug free if that makes a difference.

crashcrew56
04-09-2011, 08:33 PM
That's some pretty good progress, especially since you are coming back from an injury. This might sound weird, but don't neglect training your upper back just as heavy as you're training your bench. Since your sticking point is off your chest I don't know if board presses will really help you much (if at all), my advice would be to just stick with the Coan bench program as is.

zmcdole
04-09-2011, 10:45 PM
That's some pretty good progress, especially since you are coming back from an injury. This might sound weird, but don't neglect training your upper back just as heavy as you're training your bench. Since your sticking point is off your chest I don't know if board presses will really help you much (if at all), my advice would be to just stick with the Coan bench program as is.

Cool. I'll keep training my upper back hard. Thanks for the input. It's greatly appreciated.