How I Added >100kg to My Bench in One Year - And What I Learned from It
- Josh Hezza
- 6 days ago
- 19 min read
How I Added >100kg to My Bench in One Year - And What I Learned from It
Context - The Most Real Year of Bench Training I’ve Ever Had
This wasn’t some pristine, textbook training block. It wasn’t a run of perfect health, bulking, sleep, and textbook progression. It was messy. It was inconsistent. And it still worked - which is why it matters.
(I am not promising you these gains sorry - this was a very specific set of circumstances that came together - but I do have countless success stories like it)
This was 2018 into 2019. I’d just come off a long layoff - not just weeks, but months of disrupted training. I'd lost a chunk of weight. I’d been away on an 8-week trip. And while I was still coaching, still training here and there, I hadn’t pressed seriously in a long time.
Before that, I’d spent most of my career as a weightlifter and then strongman competitor who didn’t believe in bench press functionality at all. I treated it like accessory fluff - something to do when the log and axle were locked in. And when I did bench, I approached it with all the structural integrity of a half-warm-up, half-bodybuilding session. It was never something I respected.
But in 2018, something changed. I decided to run myself through what I’d have put a client on. Not to be perfect - but to be real. To see what the system could do for someone who was experienced, inconsistent, underweight, and still recovering from time off. I didn’t expect miracles. I just wanted to train properly again.
I trained bench seriously for the first time in years.
I didn’t inject any exogenous steroids during that year, and there was no anavar or anadrol etc either. I wasn’t claiming to be natty in a WADA-legal way, but I also wasn’t legit enhanced. I can tell you that I had previously and did fairly significantly from late 2019 onwards. However the period of time discussed here was a clean run. It was enough to make progress. It was enough to prove that the system worked without needing external support.
And it did work.
From 120kg to 230kg raw - and 270kg in a slingshot and a little bit more again in singleply - all in the same session, capping off a year of focused effort. That number wasn’t a fluke. It was built on weeks and weeks of real training, informed by a system I was refining on myself before refining it for others.
It ended - abruptly - with a sternal pec tear. One that didn’t happen because I trained too hard or programmed recklessly, but because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Even with solid preparation, EDS has the final say sometimes. Still, I managed it, trained around it, and was building back stronger when COVID lockdowns hit. I had a massive comp bench coming. Both raw and single-ply. The momentum was real. And then - like everyone else - the platform was taken away.
But that year of training gave me more than just a big bench. It gave me clarity.
It helped me with the blueprint I would later use to write Big Pecs, Big Paychecks. It gave me the coaching insight that would become Fix Your Weaknesses. It gave me the methodology I now use with every bench-only client I coach.
This wasn’t some perfect golden phase. It was the most real year of my benching life - full of errors, breakthroughs, and the system that later built everything I now coach.
You Want a Bigger Bench? Be Willing to Be a Bigger Lifter
It would be dishonest to talk about my bench press progress without acknowledging one of the biggest drivers behind it: I made a deliberate, concerted effort to gain weight.
This wasn’t accidental. It wasn’t just “eating more.” It was a focused push to increase bodyweight for the express purpose of improving my bench. Because when it comes to pressing big numbers, the truth is simple: heavier lifters press more.
Some of that is leverage — reduced range of motion, more upper back and chest mass to press from. But more than that, it’s about muscle. I needed more triceps. More shoulders. More pecs. And I wasn’t going to build that with sub-maintenance calories and wishful thinking.
The strength came faster because the size came. The recovery improved because the fuel was there. And my confidence under the bar changed because I finally had the body to match the numbers I wanted.
It’s not glamorous to say, and it’s not always comfortable — but if you’re chasing a big bench and terrified of the scale, you’re fighting yourself the whole way.
🧠Philosophy Shift - From “Bench Day” to “Pressing With Purpose”
One of the biggest reasons this bench surge worked - when nothing else ever had - is because I finally trained bench with the same seriousness I gave everything else.
I stopped calling it “bench day.” And I started calling it what it really was: “get stronger at pressing.”
That small shift said everything.
For years, I’d trained deadlift with structure. I’d approached yoke and overhead with intent. I understood how to build strength with movement variation, wave loading, and targeted accessory work. But I’d never applied that mindset to bench press. Not really.
Coming from an Olympic weightlifting and then into strongman background, I didn’t believe benching was functional. Why would I? I jerked all of my overhead lifts until at least 2017. Bench didn’t carry over to the log. It wasn’t judged in strongman comps. And culturally, it was dismissed - especially if you weren’t a massive, multiply-equipped powerlifter.
So even when I did use the Conjugate Method - which I’d been studying, applying, and coaching for years - I cherry-picked. I’d choose movements I liked. Movements I could overload. Variations I knew would move quickly. It looked like Conjugate on paper, but it wasn’t fully honest.
In 2018, that changed.
For the first time, I ran Conjugate bench work like I would for a real athlete. I wrote a weekly rotation. I chose variations I hated. I prioritised weak points instead of inflating strengths. I didn’t just max out for the sake of it. I rotated for data, not dopamine. I used DE work to build speed and stability, not just fill time.
I trained like I was building a comp press - not just “doing bench.”
This mindset shift laid the foundation for everything that followed. Because the truth is, most people don’t bench badly - they just bench casually. They might train hard, but not seriously. They repeat exercises, but don’t progress them. They choose familiar discomfort over productive struggle.
That was me, too. Until I started treating the bench press like a sport in itself - one with mechanics, milestones, and non-negotiables.
And once I did? The numbers finally moved. The system started working. And I never trained “just bench” again.
What I Actually Needed (And Why I’d Missed It for Years)
Before I made progress, I had to face a fairly brutal truth: I had never properly analysed what my bench press actually needed.
I could tell you all about leverages, bar path, and technical execution, and my technique was dialled in. But that had become a crutch. I’d leaned so heavily on precision and setup that I’d ignored the obvious: I was weak. Specifically, I had a clear weakness off the chest, but more broadly, all of my pressing muscles were underdeveloped compared to the rest of my lifts.
Part of that was down to my background. I came up in Olympic weightlifting systems that emphasised high-frequency, competition-priority work. There simply wasn’t time to build strict pressing strength or develop the kind of muscular base that raw benching demands. So while I could lock in perfect reps, I didn’t have the horsepower to grind through anything remotely challenging.
⚙️ Conjugate Theory Applied to the Bench
What It Looked Like When I Actually Ran It Properly
The breakthrough didn’t come from lifting more. It came from finally applying the system I already knew - but applying it with purpose, structure, and some hard self-honesty.
I didn’t do anything fancy. I just ran Conjugate. Properly. On the bench. And I treated it like it mattered.
🔒 Max Effort Work: Rotation, Range, and Grip Bias
I ran a true weekly rotation of max effort pressing variations - mostly 1RMs and 3RMs. I leaned heavily on close-grip movements, exaggerated ROM work, and overloaded variations that tested my known weak points. A rough 3:1 ratio of bench press to overhead press variations kept me focused on pec and tricep dominance without letting go of strongman-style movement pattern carryover.
Some of my most productive ME lifts from that phase:
Close-grip incline press
Spoto press (especially for mid-range control)
Buffalo bar + board combinations
Close grip vs bands
Axle bench from a dead stop (or pin press with an eccentric)
Floor press (great for pec re-engagement without full stretch)
This wasn’t random. I used rotation to find and attack what was failing - triceps, shoulder stability, scap control - then used repetition to confirm if I’d fixed it. If not? Rotate again.
Throughout the year, I typically rotated my max effort exercises in 9-week blocks. This gave me enough time to properly assess whether a movement was actually building anything, rather than just testing. Some lifts were clear builders, some were testers to track progress, and others were chosen specifically to analyse and expose weak points as they evolved. I kept what worked, binned what didn’t, and let results guide the rotation.
As an example, here are the nine max effort movements from my very first 9-week block and the ones I used in my final block a year later — a clear evolution in intent, focus, and specificity.
Cycle 1:
Overhead Press |
2 Board Press/ Slingshot |
Pin Press |
Seated Pin Press |
Doubled Mini Rev Band Press |
Floor Press |
Strict Press |
Bench Press |
Close Grip Bench |
Final Cycle:
Pin Press w/ Eccentric |
Paused Bow Bar |
Bench vs Doubled Minis |
Rev Double Mini Floor Press |
2 Board Press |
Incline Close Grip Bench Press |
Paused Close Grip |
Doubled Monster Mini Rev Band Press |
Floor Press |
The First Cycle vs. The Final Cycle: From Throwing (Educated) Darts to Targeted Precision
Looking back at my first 9-week block of max effort movements, it's clear I was still feeling things out. The selection was broad. It was a mix of overhead work, standard bench variations, and a few exercises I probably included more out of habit than based on what I actually needed. It wasn’t a bad cycle, but it definitely wasn’t focused.
That block included lifts like overhead press, strict press, and seated pin press. These are solid movements in general, but they weren’t attacking my main issue, which was weakness off the chest in a competition bench. I also doubled up on similar patterns, like running both board press and slingshot work, which leaned more toward lockout strength than chest drive. Including a standard bench press as a max effort movement showed I hadn’t fully committed to the Conjugate approach yet. At that point, I was still testing lifts rather than building them.
By the time I ran my final 9-week block, everything had changed.
Every lift had a purpose. I was using paused work, specialty bars like the bow bar, and different types of band tension to solve specific problems in my bench. I knew I needed to be strong through the chest, not just to it. Movements like the paused bow bar press and paused close grip became staples, not because they were novel, but because they worked. They exposed the right weaknesses and gave me a chance to fix them.
Even the pin press with a controlled eccentric showed how far I had come. That’s not something I would have programmed early on. But by then I understood where I was breaking down and I was willing to address it directly, even if it meant making sessions harder.
I kept some of the earlier movements, like the floor press and 2-board, but now they were used deliberately. They weren’t just filler. Close grip variations featured more heavily too, because I’d seen the carryover. And reverse bands weren’t just there to move big weights. They were used as a tool to build speed and confidence through my weakest range without thrashing my joints.
That first cycle was exploratory. I was guessing, testing, and figuring out what worked. The final cycle was intentional. I knew what I needed to do, and I did it.
⚡ Dynamic Effort Work: Not Just Fast - Productive
I used Dynamic Effort pressing every single week - and I didn’t overthink it. I did a lot of traditional speed work however a lot of sessions used a wave like this: (the bands look to add 5-10% to the lift. The percentage ranges will change depending on how much you bench and how much of a jump that is.
Week 1: 5×5 (50% + Bands), 5×3 (60% + Bands), 3×1 (70% + Bands)
Week 2: 5×5 (52.5-55% + Bands), 5×3 (62.5-65% + Bands), 3×1 (72.5-75% + Bands)
Week 3: 5×5 (55-60% + Bands), 5×3 (65-70% + Bands), 3×1 (75-80% + Bands), 1x1 (80-90% + Bands)
All submaximal, all focused on speed - but with intent. Some waves included:
Paused first reps for extra stability
Lighter-than-textbook loads (~45–60%) if I was recovering or chasing form
Straight weight instead of bands or chains (especially earlier in the year)
Overload slingshot sets after speed work to build confidence in top-end weight
I often ran rotating grips and bar choices - straight bar, axle, football bar - and always kept rest short. Most sessions were done inside 30–40 minutes, with 60–75s between sets. The goal was simple: move fast, get out.
And no, this didn’t just build speed. It built size, too. Pec thickness. Tricep density. Rep tolerance. Anyone who says DE bench doesn’t build muscle isn’t doing it properly.
🛠️ Accessory Work: Targeted, Rotated, Relentless
I didn’t fall into the trap of throwing 8 accessories at a session. I picked 2–4 that hit my actual problems - and hammered them for 2–3 weeks before rotating.
Dumbbell pressing (flat, incline, neutral grip) for raw pec and shoulder control
Rolling triceps extensions for lockout and elbow health
Rear delt and upper back volume to stay injury-resistant
Straight-arm pulldowns, scap drills, and tempos where needed
The best part? Once I got honest with myself, I didn’t need 90-minute bench sessions. I needed 3–4 lifts that worked - and I needed to do them better.
🏗️ Rough Template - What My Training Actually Looked Like
Let me be clear: this wasn’t a perfect program. It wasn’t built to be published, optimised, or copied blindly.
It was built to work for me - someone rebuilding after a long layoff, someone with a lot of coaching knowledge but a decade of self-sabotage when it came to bench press training.
What I did in 2018–2019 wasn’t a polished system… until it was.
Here’s the rough structure that shaped it:
🧰 Weekly Training Format (Upper-Body Focused)
Day | Focus | Details |
Monday | Max Effort Upper | 1RM/3RM bench press variation (close grip, boards, incline, Spoto, etc.) |
Thursday | Dynamic Effort Upper | 9×3 at 50–75% or 5×5 → 5×3 → 3×1 in one session (DE wave format) |
Optional | 3rd Pressing Day (Sat or Sun) | Accessory work, pump focus, stability/mobility, or light pressing variations |
Throughout | GPP / Assistance | Sleds, tempo push-ups, rows, banded triceps, dumbbell pressing |
If Missed | DE Lower (rare) | This was the first thing dropped if life got in the way |
💡 DE Progression & Wave Ideas
I didn’t just repeat the same thing every Thursday.
Some weeks were standard 9×3 setups. Others were big volume pushes like:
12×3, 15×3, even 20×3
Speed triples with rotating grips
Paused first rep each set for stability
Lighter waves (~50–60%) when I needed recovery
“Build-up” DE sessions: 5×5 @ 55% 5×3 @ 65% 3×1 @ 75% 1×1 @ 85%+ (optional) …all in one session
These waves weren’t just about moving the bar fast. They were about rebuilding coordination, accelerating through weak points, and building some pressing-specific size.
🔄 3-Week Cycles & 9-Week Reviews
Each DE wave ran in a 3-week cycle. Every week, the Max Effort lift changed. But every 9 weeks, I stopped to evaluate what actually worked:
Did the movement transfer to my main lift?
Did I feel stronger at lockout, off the chest, mid-range?
Was I improving… or just inflating numbers?
If a variation produced real progress - it stayed. If not - I rotated it out.
This review system became the foundation of the Fix Your Weaknesses philosophy later on.
🎯 Assistance Work - No Fluff, Just Function
Most sessions included:
Targeted tricep work (rolling extensions, JM presses, dips)
Dumbbell pressing (incline, flat, neutral grip - for shoulder control and pec volume)
Scapular stability and upper back (face pulls, band pulls, rows, reverse flyes)
Pec minor focus (tempo push-ups, pec deck, controlled negatives)
If it didn’t help the press or prevent injury, it got cut.
This was the closest I ever got to “perfectly imperfect” bench press training. It was raw. It was adaptive. And more than anything - it was structured around actual problems, not copy-paste plans.
If I missed anything that week, it was usually lower DE work. But I never skipped a press. Because in that year, for the first time ever… bench press was the priority.
💡Takeaways - What That Year of Bench Press Taught Me (and Everyone I’ve Coached Since)
That year didn’t just change my bench.
It changed the way I coach pressing. It changed how I diagnose lifters' weaknesses. And it gave me a filter I still use today - one that helped lifters go from frustrated to podium-finishing, record-setting, and finally consistent under the bar.
Here’s what that messy, painful, and wildly productive year taught me - and what you can steal from it, without needing to go through the same injury curve.
🔻 Benching Hard Without Purpose Is Still Pointless
You can max every week. You can hit crazy dumbbell PRs. You can build massive triceps.
But if none of it targets the reason your press is failing, it won’t matter.
Just pressing harder doesn’t fix the problem. Pressing smarter - with structure, variation, and data - is what builds a real bench.
⚡ Speed Work Isn’t Optional - Especially If You’re Not Elite
Most average benchers don’t fail because they’re too weak. They fail because they’re too slow.
DE bench taught me to move through the sticking point, not just up to it. It taught me to generate intent from rep one. And it built the rep tolerance and bar speed I never had when I just repped 5x10 on flat bench.
🧩 You Don’t Need Eight Pec Accessories
You need three to five that actually fix the press.
Not fluff. Not pump chasers. Targeted work for:
Upper back and scapular stability
Pec minor and shoulder control
Triceps and lockout
Tempo and control from the chest
That’s it. If you still think you need a full pec day, you don’t need volume. You need direction.
💉 “Natural” or Not - The System Still Runs the Show
I wasn’t genuinely enhanced during that year. No test. No exogenous help.
And while I’m not going to pretend I was WADA-legal or frame this as a “natty glory story,” the point is this:
Your system matters more than your stack. If you’re not running an effective plan, PEDs won’t save your press. If you are? You can make serious gains - enhanced or not.
🛑 Rehab Starts Before You’re Broken
My sternal pec tear didn’t come from ego lifting. It came from EDS - a structural vulnerability I can’t fully control (although could have done better).
But even so, I could have done more to manage fatigue, rotation, and soft tissue stress earlier. I could have listened sooner.
Don’t wait for injury to start training like you want to stay healthy. If you want to press long-term, your accessories aren’t optional. Your warm-ups aren’t fluff. And your peak weeks aren’t the time to throw caution out the window.
All of these lessons - every single one - are what shaped Big Pecs, Big Paychecks, Fix Your Weaknesses, and my entire bench-only coaching model.
They’re not theoretical. They’re tested. They were learned through trial, injury, and rebuilds. And if you want to build a better bench, faster - I wrote the path down for you.
Staying Healthy When I Should’ve Broken
Across this whole year, I never missed a training week due to injury. That’s not because I was lucky. It’s because I took my recovery seriously before anything broke.
I followed Donnie Thompson’s shoulder and elbow protocols religiously. I rotated exercises often. I auto-regulated where needed. If something didn’t feel right, say, a floor press on 9/6/19, I’d log it, adjust, and move on. I didn’t try to force progress through pain.
That said, this wasn’t a pain-free process.
I’ve dealt with significant discomfort in my left forearm and distal biceps for years. Not from training, but from a connective tissue disorder that simply is what it is. I managed it with a cocktail of ongoing manual therapy, voodoo flossing, carefully selected accessory movements, and, honestly, diclofenac and hot creams when needed.
It wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t glamorous. But it kept me in the game. And we do not relent.
🛠️ What Happened Next - From Injury to Blueprint
I wish I could tell you that year ended with a gold medal, a 300kg bench, and a big Instagram flex. But it didn’t.
It ended with a sternal pec tear - one I now know was inevitable because of poorly understood and managed Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Not a programming error. Not poor form. A structural vulnerability that finally gave out under the pressure of a press I’d built too well, too fast.
And then? COVID lockdowns hit.
The comps I’d planned to do - raw and single-ply - vanished. My own focus shifted. Life changed. But I kept rebuilding. I kept coaching. And I kept testing the system.
Because that year - the one that ended too soon - didn’t just give me a better bench.
It helped me add to my existing framework that hundreds add massive numbers to their bench press.
It gave me the bones of three of my most impactful resources:
💥 Big Pecs, Big Paychecks - the full 12-week press program born from this exact system
🧠 Fix Your Weaknesses: Bench Edition - where I break down every sticking point, failure, and fix I learned from this journey
🎯 Bench-Only Coaching - where I now help lifters worldwide attack their press with purpose, structure, and accountability
This wasn’t just a hot streak. It was a blueprint. One I’ve refined, scaled, and shared - from first-timers chasing 100kg, to lifters pressing at world-level comps.
"This wasn’t just a hot streak - it was a blueprint I’ve now used to help 50+ other lifters get their best-ever bench press.”
🛒 Wrapping Up - What This Year Taught Me, and Where You Go From Here
Not Every Week Was a Win — But Every Week Mattered
One of the most important things I learned that year was how to mentally handle flat weeks, stale sessions, and the kind of workouts that, on paper, don’t look like progress.
It’s easy to show up when the numbers are flying. It’s easy to post PBs and talk about “momentum.” What’s not easy is dragging yourself into the gym after three sessions in a row where your press feels glued to the chest. Where your triceps don’t fire. Where everything feels off — even though nothing’s technically wrong.
I had those weeks. Plenty of them.
The difference is that, for once, I didn’t panic. I didn’t scrap the plan, chase random volume, or throw in three extra sets “just to feel something.” I understood that real training isn’t about peak performance every time. It’s about collecting reps, solving problems, and trusting the process when it’s boring, frustrating, or silent.
When the bar moved slow, I paid attention to setup. When I felt off, I checked if I was overreaching or just tired. I used auto-regulation to shift intensity without skipping the movement. I logged what went wrong, moved on, and trusted that one bad session didn’t mean the system was broken.
If I hadn’t done that — if I’d freaked out every time a rep moved slow — I’d never have made it to the end of the year. I’d have spun my wheels, ditched what was working, and missed the real value of a long-term plan.
Flat weeks aren’t a failure. They’re part of the data.
And that year taught me how to train through them like a lifter, not react to them like a rookie.
This wasn’t a golden era of training. It wasn’t perfectly optimised. And it didn’t end with a clean PR and a medal around my neck.
But it did more for my bench - and my coaching - than anything I’ve done before or since.
That year taught me how to train pressing seriously, even when life wasn’t perfect. It taught me how to use Conjugate honestly, not just as a label. And it taught me the patterns, variations, and mistakes that actually matter when you’re trying to build a bench that lasts.
If you’ve ever been stuck, frustrated, or convinced benching “just doesn’t work for you” - trust me, I’ve been there. The good news? There’s a system that does.
🔍 Still not sure what will work for your bench?
Here’s a quick self-check:
Struggle to break the bar off your chest? → Start with Spoto press, dead-stop bench, or cambered bar pressing
Grind midway through the press? → Try floor press, bands, or 5–3–1 wave DE work
Lockout fails you? → You need triceps, rolling extensions, board press, and slingshot overloads
Can't feel your pecs? → Fix your scap control, dumbbell press, and tempo push-ups
These are the exact variations I used. The same ones I now assign to the lifters I coach - including IPF world champions, bench-only record holders, and lifters chasing 100kg for the first time.
🤔 Should strongmen bench?
Yes. Because it builds:
Pec strength and resilience for log and dumbbell
Raw pressing power for sandbags, shields, and overhead
Joint balance and recovery from all the abuse overhead pressing gives you
You don’t have to specialise in bench to benefit from it. But you do have to stop treating it like a waste of time.
👇 Want to build your best bench - without needing to tear a pec or take 8 months off?
I wrote the roadmap already. Now it’s your turn to run it.
📘 Big Pecs, Big Paychecks → The full 12-week bench press program, built from everything I learned in this article. 👉 Grab it here
🎯 Bench-Only Coaching → Work with me 1:1. Get your programming, video feedback, strategy, and mindset handled. 👉 Apply here
🧠 Fix Your Weaknesses: → A diagnostic toolkit to troubleshoot your press, beat plateaus, and stay injury-free. 👉 Get the guide
You don’t need to guess. You don’t need to run yourself into the ground. You just need a system that actually fits you - and the willingness to show up for it.
Let’s build your strongest bench yet.
Bench Press Weakness Diagnostic Quiz
Struggling with your bench? Let’s get specific.
Most lifters waste years attacking the wrong problem. They bench more, add volume, or chase gimmicks - but never actually fix what’s holding them back. That ends today.
Take 30 seconds and answer the Bench Press Weakness Diagnostic Quiz below. Your answers will point you directly toward the movement variations, accessories, and fixes most relevant to your bench.
Then, if you want to go deeper? I’ll show you exactly where to start - with a targeted plan or coaching offer designed to match your answers.
💥 3-Question Bench Press Weakness Diagnostic
1. Where do you usually miss your bench press?
☐ Right off the chest (0–2 inches)
☐ Midpoint (2–6 inches off the chest)
☐ Lockout (top third of the press)
☐ It varies - I lack consistency
2. Which of these breakdowns best describes your press?
☐ I lose tightness during the descent
☐ My elbows flare or the bar drifts mid-rep
☐ I can’t grind through the top
☐ My whole press feels unstable under load
3. What accessory work do you currently do for your press?
☐ I hit some arms or shoulders, but nothing structured
☐ I do lots of benching but no real supplemental work
☐ I’m not sure what to prioritise - I just follow templates
☐ I have no idea what actually helps
🔎 Your Diagnosis (Sample Results Preview):
If you answered mostly A:
You likely have pec weakness or poor bar path control off the chest.
✅ Start with: Spoto Press, Dead Press, Paused DB Press, Pec Flys
If you answered mostly B:
You may have triceps or scapular control issues, especially around the midpoint.
✅ Start with: Floor Press, 2-Board Press, JM Press, Band Triceps
If you answered mostly C:
Your lockout and full-body tightness under strain need work.
✅ Start with: Reverse Band Bench, Close Grip Bench, Dips, Seal Rows
If you answered mostly D:
You’re dealing with general instability, poor setup, or misfiring patterns.
✅ Start with: Incline Press, Heavy Rows, Lat/Upper Back Work, Pause Variants
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