speed days!

[thewicked]

after watching a Vincent D interview on EFS I'm having a better understanding of why speed benching days never worked for me before but could potentially now... I wasn't ever using LIGHT enough weight! TWO, I never understood wether or not the accessory work was supposed to be heavy or light and the whole day was just a "recovery" type day.

I also had a question on the actual benching. Is it all about just how fast you move the bar PERIOD or could you actually incorporate a pause (adjustable tempo) into your pressing and just focus on bar speed off the chest! I think form and technique could be compromised on my benching with overall speed. Doable or unless i'm comfortable with three presses in three seconds don't even bother?
travis..vinny...and all you other west siders..what you think?

[Jay1]

My understanding of it is that it's about a really fast bar speed. Fast down = Fast up. The weight is not as important, however you can increase weight as long as the bar speed remains high. This is how you work on the acceleration part of the physics problem - Force = mass x acceleration.

[MarcusWild]

You want to move it fast but under control. I've noticed it takes people that are new to speed work a little while to get enough control over the bar to move it fast enough. I think it's better to go a little slower but under control, then speed up as you get more comfortable.

[Pete22]

You want to move it fast but under control. I've noticed it takes people that are new to speed work a little while to get enough control over the bar to move it fast enough. I think it's better to go a little slower but under control, then speed up as you get more comfortable.

Good point. When I first started doing speed work, I'd be all over the place and touch in a different spot almost every rep. I'd focus on controlled speed, and save the pauses for your RE/ME days or accessory work.

[Adam]

Yeah, just like the above guys say work fast, but don't use half ass form to get more speed. That being said though, once you can control the weight fine 'I' find explosive reps much more beneficial. I have to use ~40% raw max doing the triples but I really focus on the explosion, rather then the speed. For a warning though, it is very very hard on your joints/muscles! On my reps I will usually tap my chest lightly on the bottom but seldom do I look out until the last one.

[Jay1]

Using some rolled up carpet to come down on will let you go down fast and take some of the strain off of the joints. I got this off of the Super Training Bench DVD. It works pretty well.

[Ermantroudt]

Gritter had me pause my dynamic work, saved my shoulders and elbows and lead to PR's too. Controlled on the way day, slight pause, then bust its ass on the way back up.