This is a classic pyramid progression for chest that is great for beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels. Y’all know me, I always preach about sticking to the basics, and the following bench press progression is a great example of it.
I have two favorite movements, and they are bench press and squats. Today, I’ll be focusing on the bench press. By now, I feel like I’m somewhat of a specialist on the bench press. I mean, I did hit a double bodyweight max when I was 225 (that’s a 500-pound bench press).
Imma take you guys through my progression. This is what I do personally. It is the same progression I’ve refined over the years for optimal results. Listen, I’ve worked on this to gain strength, put on mass and size, and gain overall functionality.
The Ultimate Chest Program
I’ve personally put together the Colussus Chest Program with the same mix of conventional and unconventional tactics that got me to a 500-pound bench press. Listen, if you’re like me and want to look strong and be strong, this program is perfect for you.
This program is for men and women. It’ll take you out of your comfort zone from day 1—essential for quality muscle building. If you follow what I’ve prescribed, you’ll be impressed with your gains. You’ll have a new standard of how you should feel after this type of training. You can download it here.
Before We Get Started with The Chest Work Out
Today I’m not gonna break down how to do the bench press properly. If you wanna learn how to do so, check out my Bench Press For Beginners tutorial. We’re gonna start light and build up to a heavy set. I’ll let you know the details of the entire progression below (the reps, weight, and sets), alright?
Your progression should look like a graph that starts high and then starts to drop in terms of reps. But, as it starts to drop, the weight is going up, ok? Now, I don’t want you guys to rep out when you’re building on your way up because you’ll get burned out.
Your ascension in weight should be a dissension in weight, and once you hit your top set, it reverses. So, on the way down, your dissension in weight should be an ascension in reps.
This is because you wanna hit as heavy a weight as possible so that you can rep out as the weight drops. For instance, let’s say I max out at 500 pounds, that means I should be able to get a lot of reps in at 400 pounds, you know what I’m saying?
The more trauma you cause to your muscles, the stronger and bigger they will grow back when they repair—that’s your central nervous system priming you for that next potential threat.
Listen, your body doesn’t know that you’re working out. It doesn’t realize this is a novelty—it thinks that this is an attack. So, you’ll get into that fight or flight mode. That’s how you get stronger. But, it takes consistency, of course. You gotta do this over and over, so just follow along:
The Ultimate Bench Press Pyramid
Listen, you shouldn’t be off of the flat bench, or whichever is your day’s primary movement, in 4-5 sets. You haven’t done enough. Especially when you’re just getting started, and you’re trynna build that foundation.
I’ve been training for over 25 years, so I have the luxury of having a great foundation and strength that I’ve built up over the years that I can do a 5 set progression and call it a day.
But, I’m not with that. I prefer to do what I can do—to push myself to and past my limits so that I can keep getting stronger. And, that’s what I want y’all to do.
Avoid Making This Mistake
You wanna start out really light and without going crazy. I used to go all out on every set trynna get to the heavy set. But, what I didn’t realize at the time is that I was burning myself all the way out before I got as heavy as I could get.
You don’t wanna do that because the heavier you get at the top of your pyramid, the more reps you’ll knock out with heavier weight. This means that you’ll be able to cause more trauma to your muscles, which is great for getting stronger.
Progression Numbers On The Way Up
- Set 1: 135 pounds, 10 reps
- Set 2: 225 pounds, 5 reps
- Set 3: 275 pounds, 3 reps
- Set 4: 315 pounds, 2 reps
- Set 5: 365 pounds, 2 reps
- Set 6 (top set): 415 pounds, 2 reps
Ok, so I hit my top set at 415 pounds. You gotta be conservative on your reps on the way up because the top set is really heavy, and you need all your energy for that.
The more weight you press, the more trauma you cause to your muscles—and the more trauma you cause to your muscles, the bigger and stronger they grow back when the tissue repairs. Pretty simple, isn’t it?
Progression Numbers On The Way Down
On the way down, things change up a little. Now we don’t need to be conservative with our reps. In fact, we want to knock out as many reps as we can on every set. For this, we’ll use the same weight that we used on the way up.
- Set 1: 365 pounds, 5 reps
- Set 2: 315 pounds, 12 reps
- Set 3: 275 pounds, 13 reps
- Set 4: 225 pounds, 15 reps
Go try this out on your next chest day and let me know how it goes in the comments!