How To Bench BIG: 12 Week Bench Press Program and Technique Guide

Look, if you're a realist who is serious about transforming your body in a healthy sustainable way, this is a great guide. Most people fail because they don't see the results that appear in commercial publications. If your desire is to get stronger without using banned substances and to actually complete a program that will help you in your day to day life, give this a try. I've heard people say that Ryan's books are too short or that the internet can give you all the information you need to know, I disagree. Ryan breaks it down in simple concise terms that can lead to great results for the intermediate to experienced lifter with specific goals. I'm 41, three kids, and have read about every workout book out there; even if I'm not doing Ryan's workout on a particular day, I never stray from his principals and advice on form. Why do all but the most serious lifters fail? They have no direction other than what they read in a book with several hundred pages of how to(s) and unrealistic models demonstrating the movements. Give this book a shot and by all means email Ryan if you have any questions; he'll likely get back to you within 24 hours. FYI-I have never meet Ryan nor have I received anything for this review other than continued satisfaction with his books.

Second edit after finishing program. Results A+, what I learned A+.This book is great for bench progress and teaches and answers many questions. I bought both his power and bench books. This is great for detail and if you want to mainly focus on your bench while continuing in your non bench workouts on different days. Buy the power book if you want to improve on all three lifts. PS my muscles got huge, way bigger than standard body building even though I was focusing on strength gains. This is not a 1000 pages of confusion and options. This is medium short concise bad add instruction. Every important detail what to do is here. It's amazing. No long winded chapters, short, concise and brilliant. Check out the photo. I love this program and had an 18 percent increase. That is incredible. The price of the book is amazing for the results it offers. Love itSo I have lifted weights a while and recently watched a lot of bench videos. I bought this to reinforce what I know but I was pleased that many of the questions I wished to ask were answered right away by the front section of the book. Plus I learned a lot of new stuff that I never thought about before. So I am already making great results from Ryan's book FULL POWER. and some of what is in How to Bench Big is already touched on in Full power. But it was well worth the money because the tidbits specific on bench form and answering a lot of how too's was pretty darn good. I recommend Mr. Mathias books. I have had great results. He spells it all out for you so you don't have to think, you just have to do.

I decided to buy this book because of experience with my first book “ How to Deadlift 600lbs+” and it was amazing. I learned a lot, but the most wonderful experience was when I emailed the author because he said in his book “ if you have any questions regarding the book ask me and I’ll reply back to you”, and he always replied to me every time I had a question. I have been learning like never before. Many years in the gym and not everyone knows much about the topic. A lot of influencers on social media too !! I think it’s better to ask to a professional like Mathias, the author of this book who studied and truly knows. I can recommend all his books because there are a lot and trustable information, and the author always helps us make our dreams come true and he’s always available to help us.

This is a very short book. The information could easily be found on the internet for free. He uses filler material like how to pick a spotter to fill in the pages. If you want to increase your bench go online and research what experts say. He spends some time explaining that you need to develop you triceps. But doesn't give you a good tricep workout. I found it not well organized and not worth the money.

Awesome Book, I am I 57 year-old male, I cut my hand off and they put it back on, but having no feelingIs really frustrating but I accomplish many goals with the hand anyway, I can lift 100 pounds more than my weight I weigh 240, If you have a strong back shoulders and triceps you can accomplish anything, God bless you all in your accomplishments and read this book carefully because you will achieve your personal best on your benchBecause if I can do it anyone can so keep your head up and God bless

I ordered and read every one of Ryan’s books in a week time frame. Simple understanding of his methods. I implemented his methods on myself, then on to my strongman squad and we all executed everything with a clearer mind. Thank for taking time to put your thoughts on paper brother.Solid work!!! 🤜🏾🤛🏼👍🏾💪🏾

A valuable edition to our library. Filled with programming and very insightful accessory movements to bring the athlete to the next level in a solid and safe manner.

This book gets right to the basics of the bench press. I see too many people skip the proper set up and technique to benching. Just a few corrections after reading this book and my bench feels so much more comfortable. Ryan is also easily accessible if you have questions.

This book has the same positives as the author's "How to Deadlift 600 lbs Raw" - a focus on the main lift, regular deloads and sensible progression. It unfortunately suffers from the same faults. It needs to be better organised: - the main lifts appear in the programme chart, which does NOT tell you that you may do a set for "As Many Reps As Possible" (AMRAP) or build up to a max set. This information is elsewhere. This does mean you have to read the whole book to find all the information, including accessory work and warm-ups, etc. But some people will tend to assume that the programme chart is it.The programme begins with identical loads to the Deadlift version and then deviates in terms of percentage loads. However, the author never discusses the loads or volumes used and certainly never compares the two lifts in order to explain the differences. In other books, I have found some errors in workout charts, but assuming there are none, the differences in progression remain to be explained.In week 11 you work up to quite a high volume of singles with approx. 90% of your 1 rep max - this is one reason this isn't really for beginners or even early intermediates - the risk is that you might not work up high enough or that you might go too heavy and burn out a week before the end. This is going quite heavy at a point in the programme where you might normally expect a deload.Also, assuming that the load in week 11 is about 90% then the expected goal for the final max on week 12 is 110% of the load from week 11. If you calculate this, you will see the problem, 90% x110% = 99% - so your final max might actually be lower than your starting weight!In reality, you will probably be stronger than this by week 11, but this points out a problem or mistake within the book. The author's estimation seems too low. He may intend to suggest an improvement of 110% of your original max, but it is not what he says. Assuming his figures are correct, this would be a disappointing return for 12 weeks work.(With a different programme - Strong First's "Reload" - I recently got an 11% improvement on my deadlift, hitting 111.111% of my original max, after only 9 weeks, using a much simpler programme with much lower volume and I only lifted deadlifts once a week. This was just before my 64th birthday and I have cerebral palsy. This is not said in order to boast, but to point out that it is possible for someone who has been lifting for years to continue to progress and even get more than the 105% that the plan predicted.)Again, I think the book could benefit from a strict proof-read and a re-ordering of material. Even if the warm-up and accessory work should be kept apart from the main programme chart, I think the AMRAP/sort of max sets need to be listed with their appropriate lifts, so that the reader can see everything in one go.

All info you need. Easily explained. Plus author online to help with questions.