Westside Barbell

Q. I’ve been training for bodybuilding for about five years now, and I want to get my bench up to help add some thickness and density. What’s a Westside bench press workout typically look like? Can you provide me with a four-week bench-press routine that might help me gain some power on my bench?

A. We typically don’t program much out in advance as we know that Wednesdays are max effort, where you pick a bench-press variation and work up to a one-rep maximum, and then Sunday is dynamic bench, where you use 50 percent of your raw max with some form of accommodating resistance like bands or chains.

So four weeks could break down like this:

Week 1

Wed. Floor press up to 1-rep max
Sun. Bench press against mini-bands with 50% bar weight

Week 2

Wed. Reverse band bench press up to 1-rep max
Sun. Fat-bar bench press with 2 chains + 50% bar weight

Week 3

Wed. Incline bench press up to 1-rep max
Sun. T-grip barbell with 2 chains + 50% bar weight

Week 4
Wed. Close-grip 3-board press up to 1-rep max
Sun. Bench press against mini-bands with 50% bar weight

Accessories are done on both days to build the triceps, shoulders, lats, and upper back. The difference is that one day you’ll do high intensity with a low volume, and then the other day, you’ll do low intensity with high volume.

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