Pro Day Bench Press Program
225 Bench Test for NFL
We had 6 weeks. Day 1 this athlete struggled with 195lbs x 5 on barbell floor press. On the pro day, they hit 225lbs x 11. I did this by raising his max, not doing 20 reps each session.
- If your max is 315lbs, then 225lbs is around 70% of your max effort.
- If your max is 250lbs, then 225lbs is around 90% of your max effort.
You can certainly get more reps with 70% vs 90%. The goal is to make 225lbs a lesser percentage of your overall max.
Here’s the program I used:
We trained upper body 2x a week (two of the weeks we did 3, but it’s not necessary)
Day 1
- Floor Bench 195 – 4×5
- DE Flat bench 50% – 6×3 (.898 velocity, 897 power)
- DE Flat bench 55% – 6×3 (.87 velocity, 1127)
- DE Flat bench 60% – 6×3 (.85 velocity, 1,137)
- Flat 225 – 5×4
- 165 – 4×3 (deload)
*Accessory work – plyo push-ups/medball explosive throws/back/triceps/biceps
Day 2
- BB Close Grip – 70-72.5% 4×4 (+) (final 10)
- BB Incline – 75-77.5% 4×3 (+) (final 7)
- Board Press – 80-82.5% 3×2 (+) (final 7)
- Work up to non-emotional single (275)
- Off/DB deload
- BB Flat (80+%) – 3×2
*Accessory work – High rep DB press (10-20 reps), pull-ups, upper back, triceps, biceps
– DE stands for dynamic effort. We used bands for accommodating resistance and I used a velocity tracker to make sure we stayed in the desired ranges.
– The (+) refers to the final set where I would ask him to go for as many reps as possible
– I also tried to really build his triceps and upper back since both were lacking in my opinion.
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