Westside's Top Benchers by Louie Simmons

I receive many calls asking how our top benchers train. We have 17 benching over 700, one has done 859 (Mike Wolf), in addition to two 198's who have done a 683 (George Halbert), a 655 (Jay Frye) and a 181 (Fred Bolt) who has done 628 and is an Arnold Classic winner. Then there is NIck Winters, who made 650 raw at the NERBS.
In 1993 I wrote an article entitles "Three of a kind". We had guys benching 600, one of whom (Ken Patterson) went on to become the youngest to bench 700 at 22. His actual lift was 728 a WR at 275.
Then along came Mike Brown, at 19 he made a 735 at 308 and totaled 2300.
1st, everyone does speed work. This is known as the dynamic method. This alone not make you strong, but rather build a fast rate of force develpment. Research shows that 154 pounds can develop 264 pounds of force with maximal acceleration. Nine sets are performed, 3 sets with the index finger on the smooth part of the bar, 3 sets with a 2 inch wider grip and 3 sets with the little finger on the power ring.
After speed bench, using about 40% of a 1rm on the floor press they do 2 sets to near failure with one of three dumbell weights. Fred uses either 155, 125 or 100 pound dumbells. Sometimes a barbell is used. Fred's weights are 365, 315, or 275. Remember, they go to near failure. Then it's triceps, lats, upper back and rear and side delts. Some hammer curls finish the workout.
Speed work can be waved by using 2 sets of 5/8 inch chains to accomodate resistance or minibands, which add 45 lbs at the bottom and 85lbs at the top of the lift. A monster mini provides 110 lbs at the top and 50lbs at the bottom. Speed benches can be done in the rack off of pins, off the floor or with a cambered bar.
Jay Fry has made incredible progress in a short time, going from 530 to 650 at 181 in less than 18 months, plus a 655 at 193. Jay has become quite a student of the game while working with George Halbert. To raise absolute strength, he uses heavy assistance work such as kettlebell triceps ext. and JM presses. This teaches him to fire the correct muscles at the right time. Using chains or bands or hanging kettlebells from the bar not only allows the muscles to become stronger, but develops muscle coordination for benching. Jay feels this is far more important than just throwing heavy weights around.
To test his strength, Jay uses full range band presses, floor presses with chains or bands or just weight. These records are dependent on the special exercises that were mentioned above. Jay does a lot of upper body sled work. This makes him stronger and raises his GPP. The sky is the limit for Jay.
Fred Boldt has been at Westside for close to 5 years. Fred's bench went from 400 at 165 to 556 at 165, placing him second to teh great Marcus Schick. He then won the 2005 WPO semifinals with 625 over Jay's 622. He went on to win the Arnold Classic in 2006 with 628. It's not easy to win the Arnold with all the chaos that goes along with it.
How does Fred do it? To test his bench max, he tries a max off the floor press with 5 sets of chains, weighing 200 lbs on the bar. His best is 345 with is little finger on the rings. A second strength test is a full range bench with light bands that add 100 lbs at the bottom, and 200 lbs at lock out. His best is 370, and this is also what Jay has done, their benches are very close.
Of course, like all Westsiders, Fred uses the conjugate method. He will rotate from 4 or 5 boards with bands toa steep incline with a barbell. Fred uses a cambered bar on boards to reduce the camber to 1 inch.
For hypertrophy work, Fred likes dumbell presses. His 1 set record is 34 reps with 100 pound db's. His best 3 set record is 14, 12, and 9 reps with 155's. He has also done 104 pushups with his feet elevated 12 inches.
Fred's speed work is done with 185 or 205 plus mini bands or 2 sets of chain that when locked out is roughly 60 pounds.
For special work, straight bar extensions and kettlebell ext are his mainstay. He does lots of lat and upper back work and rear and side delts.
Mike Wold made rapid progress after coming to Westside. His 585 soon became 825 and now 859. Mike is huge, about 400 pounds. George started working with Mike finding his weaknesses. First George had Mike push up the triceps work and board press with lots of bands, up to 400lbs of bands plus weight. Mike also did full range band presses, lfat incline and decline. At Westside, we do a lot of triceps ext. straight bar, db's with plams facing in, roll back style db with elbows out to the sides, JM presses and the kb ext. Mike also does alot of benches with kb's hanging from the bar with doubled mini bands. Mike found his floor press well below our average for his shirt bench, so he pushed it up to 515 plus 200lbs of chain and this raised his bench considerably. Lots of lat work, pulldowns, bar rows, and db rows have made it possible for Mike to control the bar placement on his chest.
George is our mopst decorated bencher, 11 all time world records in three different weight classes. George's views on benching are as follows. Speed work is most importand. George knows that if you miss a heavy lift it wasn't too heavy, but wasn't lifted fast enough. His speed work consists of bands, chains and kb's hanging from the bar.
His max effort work is heavy band presses at all angles. This sometimes includes benching almost upside down, reverse or lightened band presses flat, incline or decline, board presses raw and lots of dumbells. He also does the repetition method to near failure.
George is very innovative in his training. His bench methods are responsible for much of Westside's benching success. He does many workouts a week, just lats or delts or rehabv work. He is one of only a few men wo have made world recors in three different weight classes and he's got more up his sleeve than just triceps.