Take Your Bench Press to New Heights
Checklist:
–Belt
–Wraps
–Lifting Shoes
The vast majority of lifters want a bigger bench and bigger arms. If this is you, then you’ve come to the right place.
Bench pressing can be hard on a number of lifters for a variety of reasons.
You could have long arms, dodgy shoulders, poor technique, etc–all limiting your potential.
Maybe if wielding massive weights around is your goal, bigger arms are still highly desirable.
Well, the triceps, being powerful muscles and covering around 60-70% of your upper arm, need to be well developed for a big bench and big arms.
Most publications will pump out either generic or overly sophisticated workouts; both of which take the reader nowhere.
But with this one exercise–and it isn’t a gimmick–can take your gains to new heights.
Seasoned lifters will be familiar with the JM Press, but I’ve never actually ever seen the JM Press be used in a commercial gym.
It is a hybrid of a close-grip bench press and a skullcrusher, but exceptionally powerful for developing strength and gaining size while being criminally underused.
I am not a naturally gifted bench presser: I have narrow wrists and long arms. Both traits make the bench a harder exercise. But I still managed to bench 4 plates for reps while natty.
Why?
Because of the JM Press.
When I first started keeping the JM Press in my regimen as a staple, I increased my bench press by around 40-50lb in 6 months–and I am an advanced lifter.
While there are several other movements in my accessory arsenal I could recommend; the JM Press is a movement both powerlifters and bodybuilder can program into their workouts to great effect.
The JM Press is a lot kinder on the wrists and shoulders than the skullcrusher if you have poor mobility. It is also a lot less technical than the skullcrusher.
By effectively performing a close-grip bench press over your mouth/nose area and pausing before making contact, you will also give your triceps a great stretch at the bottom phase of every rep.
The other benefit of the JM Press is that it can be performed with a variety of rep ranges.
My first few sets of JM Presses were of 10 reps at around 50% of my max bench. Within a few months, I was doing the JM Press at weights near my bench press working sets.
Of course, this isn’t something you can do all the time.
Eventually, fatigue will catch up to you. But you can break PRs on this exercise almost every week.
Even if you’re not increasing the weight, per se, your bench and triceps will grow if you attempt total rep PRs at certain weights.
I managed to JM Press 100kg for 35 reps after a few months of programming.
Powerlifters can choose to hit the JM Press for whatever rep range suits them, but I would recommend a minimum of 8 reps per set. You can even attempt to hit AMRAPs (As Many Reps As Possible) at lighter loads, say 40% of your one rep max.
Bodybuilders can incorporate them as a first tricep exercise on chest/tri days or a primary exercise on an arm day instead of close-grip bench press. They can even be used for drop sets on the bench–or whatever you can come up with.
Top bench pressers such as Julius Maddox sometimes use the JM Press as an accessory movement on the Smith Machine to really burn out the tris.
Anyway, whatever your goals might be, it would be prudent to try this potent exercise for size.
You might like it.
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