So I got my man Camden Cruz to come all the way from Florida to work out with me. Cam was one of the top 10 winners of the Alpha Shred Challenge season 3. And, he wanted to come down to train chest with me. So I put together a routine to get after it with him.
Cam lost a lot of weight, and before he did so, he was benching 315. Now that he is leaner, he is working his way up to a 315 bench again, so we worked on that.
Stretch & Warm-up
We started with what I usually do to get started, which is an odd-looking warm up. Trust me, this stretch feels really good, and it sets you up perfectly for a proper chest workout.
After stretching, go ahead and knock out several no-weight-added reps with proper technique. See how Cam does it. He goes all the way down and then explodes up. That’s how you wanna do it! Remember y’all, you gotta practice the way you intend to play.
To Build Chest Strength Focus On the Incline Press
Pyramid: On The Way Up
We got started with the incline press because this actually makes you stronger. People tend to think that the flat bench is the only way to go but what happens, in reality, is that when you’re on the flat bench, you have lots of leverage to go off of. On the other hand, with the incline press, you don’t have that much leverage, so the movement has to be all power.
We then got started with 25’s on each side just to get Cam warmed-up. I didn’t want him to go to something heavy since we were just getting started, and we wanted to move up progressively. We knocked out 10 reps here.
We took out the 25’s on each side for the next set and added 45 plates instead. We knocked out 10 reps too.
Cam got through these first two sets quite easily, but then I added a 25 plate to each side and wanted him to knock out 5 reps. Easy again.
I then took out the 25’s and added an extra 45 plate to each side. Cam was now lifting two 45’s on each side plus the bar. So, I wanted him to knock out 3 reps.
Cam said he felt he could’ve gotten a few more reps in the previous set, so I added a 25 to each side and got him to give me 2 strong reps.
That last one was hard, but I’m pretty good at gauging how much someone can do. So I added a 5 plate to each side, and with just a tiny bit of help, I got Cam to give me one rep. This was the top.
Pyramid: On The Way Down
Then, to start our descent, we took out the 25’s and the 5’s and put on two 10’s. Since this was a descent, the idea was to get as many reps as possible. This was a lot of weight, so I helped Cam a little, but he still got 3 reps—that’s how you build muscle endurance!
We then took out a 10 on each side. I explained to Cam that when you come down, you wanna make it slow—you wanna stay up there for a couple of sets or so! You’ll be surprised of how strong you are, but first, you gotta put yourself in a situation uncomfortable enough to find out!
Listen, this is not a perfect pyramid. You’re gonna do way more on the way down. And that’s what you want! Ideally, you even want to do more reps on the way down. Mind you that may be really hard to do because you’re taxed, but if you can only do three, you’ve done max reps, and that perfect!
Look, if you can only do three and you do three, and a guy next to you does 10, but he could’ve gotten 15 in, then you’ve gotten way more out of it than he has, you know what I’m saying? The key is going to failure, not how many reps.
We took out a dime on each side for the next set, and Cam knocked out 6 reps. This was Cam’s sweet spot for the day. This varies every day. But you gotta find it on the way down.
Once you do, you wanna stay there for another set or two. If you get as many reps in as you did the first time, then you do it again. You stay there until your reps drop, and then you drop weight again.
The Number of Reps Doesn’t Matter!
We then took a 45 off each side and added 35 to each side (25 + 10). Cam got 6 reps here, so we did one more set. And then I also explained to him why I don’t like to go in saying that we’re gonna do 6 sets of 10 or something like that.
You gotta adjust your training to the optimal sweet spot every day! Maybe 6 sets is too much, and maybe it could be too little! You gotta go by your instincts. What matters is going to fail. Read that again.
Next, we took out the tens and left a 45 and a 25 on each side. And the beauty of this is that we come down by little increments of weight. So your body is still putting in the same effort.
All we’re doing when we decrease weight is adjusting for the amount of strength that your body losses with every set so that it stays in that uncomfortable position.
Then, we left only the 45’s and a dime & nickel on each side. Cam got 6 reps here. But then I got him to go to the floor to give me max reps push-ups. And that motherfucker gave me 20! That was solid.
Now Onto The Flat Bench
We got started with max reps with a 45 and a 25 on each side. Obviously, Cam was already taxed by this point, but this is what it’s all about. Before starting the flat bench, he even said that he had already done more than twice the amount of reps that he usually does.
What we did here to finish up was 5 sets of max reps with short reps in between. This is to work on muscle endurance by feeling the fatigue and trying to explode on the way up on every single rep.
The Bottom Line
That’s it. That was Cam’s chest workout for the day. Only two exercises, and it was mainly just one. Many people like going in there and doing a ton of exercises but trust me, if you stick to the basics, and you do them the right way—going to failure and making yourself uncomfortable—you’ll see results.
I’m not gonna confuse you with random terms and shit. I’m all about being effective at teaching people how to train the right way on their own. I like to keep it stupid simple. You wanna get a strong chest? Then spend a lot of time on the incline bench.
The beauty of today’s workout is that we focused on the incline bench, which, even though it’s not the gold standard for strength (the flat bench is) it’s way harder, and it makes you way stronger for the flat bench. So I told Cam to take lead with the incline bench for the next couple of months to come back to the flat and lift heavier.
Go try this out for your next chest workout and let me know how it went in the comments!