IMPROVE YOUR MAX BENCH PRESS
š„Ā Are you looking to maximize your bench press, or have been trying to and it just doesnāt seem to work? Well it might not be your pecs that are limiting you. If you look at the bottom graph it will make some sense to you. The Red line represents triceps activity during different stages of the concentric part of the lift off, while the green show the pec majors activity. There is two sets of lines for each muscle, one for 80% RM and a 1RM line. Think about what the graph is showing us.
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šš»The pec major activity is pretty consistent between 80%, and 100% rep max. Meaning the chest muscles seem to vary only a little bit in activation with the increase in weight. This is further confirmed by Pinto et al (2013) who found no difference in activation between 80,90% MVC. However we can see that going from 80% to 1RM, we have a very significant peak in triceps activation.
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Ā What does this mean, this tell us that at our 1RM max the triceps can potentially become the limiting factor in how much we can bench. This is even shown to cause the sticking point in the bench press which is the point where there is a switch from maximum pec major activation to max triceps activation.
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What we can take away from this is, if youāre goal is to bench press more weight you should add more accessory triceps work to your routine. Because that may be one of your limiting factors, give it a try in your routine and see how it makes a difference. Adding exercises like scull crushers would be good because they mimic the angle at which the humerus will be during some parts of the lift.
