Overview: How to get your bench up FAST for football players
One of the biggest flexes in football, and athletics in general, is having a great bench press. The feeling when you know you can bench more than your teammates is truly an amazing one, however, I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum. I went from benching below average, to average, above average in strength. This simple trick is exactly how to get your bench press up for football players.
How I got my bench up:
When I just started lifting weights, everyone on my team could bench more than me. I wasn’t the weakest, but I certainly wasn’t strongest. When I had started lifting weights, I obviously wasn’t very happy that everyone could bench more than me. I decided to get my bench up the traditional way, by focusing on my triceps, chest, and just benching more. These certainly helped, but not to the extent that I would’ve liked it too. After four months of the traditional way, I had only increased my bench by 40 lbs. I got this up by the same amount in HALF THE TIME it took me.
How to get your bench up 40 lbs in two months
The simple answer… do 200 pushups a day. I learned this trick when I found the U.S. military pushup routine and modified it to fit my schedule. This is obviously way easier said than done, but it works really well. However, this will only work if you eat right, which means that you need to have a lot of protein and meet your caloric requirements. The way I did it was by splitting the sets up throughout the day. I would do 8 sets of 25. I’ve comprised a routine of when I did my pushups so you can too.
As soon as you wake up | 25 Pushups |
After you get out of a cold shower in the morning | 25 Pushups |
When you finish eating breakfast | 25 Pushups |
Before you leave for work or school | 25 Pushups |
In gym class, right after you get home, or before practice | 25 Pushups |
After gym class, 15-20 minutes after you get home, or after practice | 25 Pushups |
15-20 minutes after the last set | 25 Pushups |
Right before you go to bed | 25 Pushups |
Starting will be really hard, just like anything. A common investor saying is “the first million is the hardest.” This is the same with pushups. The first day will most likely be excruciating. The second will be about the same. After about a week, it will become easier but still challenging. After two to three weeks, it should become very easy. If this ever gets hard, I recommend watching Ray Lewis’s motivational “deck of cards” speech. Ray would flip a 6 and do 6, flip a 9 and do 9, and he would do this EVERY SINGLE DAY. He learned to ignore the pain because he knew that on the other side, there was greatness.
“Some people take certain things and they try to forget what that pain felt like. I don’t. I take that same pain and I chase it every time I walk in a weight room.”
Ray Lewis
The benefits of 200 pushups a day:
The main benefit to 200 pushups a day is obviously your bench going up. But what about the others? Another benefit to doing this is that your chance of cardiovascular disease is greatly reduced. A study by the U.S. National Library of Medicine confirmed this. Along with an improved cardiovascular system, a stronger, more stable core also comes with pushups. This is important to have because a strong core not only looks good, but it helps you be more balanced. Have you ever seen a guy without balance trying to play football? It’s not pretty.
The negative side effects of 200 pushups a day:
An unfortunate side to this is you’ll start plateauing once you’ve been doing it for a while. This is normal with any exercise, but with pushups, it’s magnified. Some people may struggle to do pushups because of wrist issues, but you can easily solve it with pushup handles. Another downside to 200 pushups a day, is that if you stop, your bench will go down. After I did 200 pushups a day for 2 months, I stopped because I was happy where my upper body strength was at. My bench went down over the next three weeks, and I went back to the traditional method of getting a stronger chest. I decided to add pushups into my routine in order to maintain the newfound strength. Doing this is how to get your bench press up fast for football players. It can also work for any other sport that requires upper body strength.
Conclusion: How to get your bench up fast
All in all, if you stick with the pushup plan, eat right, and don’t give up, you’ll be making gains on the bench press faster than you can imagine. I hope this article is helpful and will help you improve in the areas you so desire.
Then why do I bench more than you. 😉
Cause you’re a tank 😉