Thread: any one used the blast your bench program?

The Good News:
There was a member on another board (that I frequent) that started this program and made amazing gains...

The Bad News:
...for the first two weeks. And then he experienced a muscle tear due to the overtraining required by the program. This muscle tear caused a lot of serious pain and set him back a couple of months from being able to train his pecs at all.

It's an interesting program that could work in a steriod atmosphere. For the normal person, its simply over-training. You are better off focusing on a strength training routine that focuses on a day on- day off routine with a three day rest period every 4th or 6th day. Read up on strength exercise programs.

This is primarily a bodybuilding site which focuses on the 8-12 rep range to gather mass rather than the 1-5 rep range to gather strength.

what does this program look like?

Part of it is based on "being sore means nothing, its ok to train the body once a day or every 2 days", so long as you rest and eat properly etc

I first remember this from the "Serious Growth" program probably around 1995, which supposedly came from Bulgaria. I used that particular program which much success, but it is a serious ass beater, and eats alot of time.

I cant imagine that working too good. If you are always working the muscle, when is it resting in order to grow? That makes no sense

The Bulgarians claimed that recovery time is 3 hours, again IF you know what you are doing.

I have stretch marks from the program, it worked like a mother flunker, but other than a shocker I wouldn't use it all the time.

I'm not sure if I've tried the one your talking about but the one I did worked great for getting my 1rm up but really did nothing because it only focused on very low reps, i still couldn't do any more weight for 8 reps from when I started to when I finished.

The Bulgarian program (if it honestly is), cycled just about everything.

You start out week 1 (there are 3 different program levels for how much time you have on your hands), like so:

Day 1:
9-Back
9-Calf
--split
9-Chest
9-Biceps

Day 2:
5-Delts
3-Traps
9-Calf
--split
9-Quads

(Next week these sets are +1, and so on, other than the 4th week where sets are changed)

So, you do the body 3x a week with 1 day off. Days 1/2 are 13-15 reps, 3/4 10-12, then days 5/6 are 8-10 reps. 120 second rest periods. Week 2 is the same but 90 second rest, then 60 second the next week.

The fourth week is a heavy PL cycle, 4 minute rest periods for the most part, and some other stuff I don't recall as far as thier cycling stuff.

I've looked at the Blast Your Bench stuff and it seems more traditional, although for me it sure is alot of flat bench stuff. Right now I start with incline bench, then dips, and sometimes declines or something else. I mix my grip positioning up, but basically aiming for chest quality improvement, not strength.

Blast Your Bench for example might have 6 or 7 sets flat bench, starting at 12 reps and working your way down, and might be covered 4 times in a week, basically its just concentrating on that one aspect very much in the routine. Just like with some other, fad programs (or whatever you like to call it, plateu breaker program, etc), where you only do ARMS for a month and nothing else, and etc

With the Bulgarian program (supposedly partially endorsed by Tom Platz), alot of people did claim massive strength gains, but it was more intended for size.

Any Bulgarian program that might be out there most certainly wouldn't be oriented around bodybuilding.

The vast majority of Bulgarian training focused on Olympic Weightlifting, and more recently, powerlifting. They didn't have any typical bodybuilding programs, ie, "chest," "legs," or "arms."

They did train 6-7 times a week, usually with multiple sessions per day. However, they structured their loads and volumes at each session so as not to overstress themselves.

Also, lifting was *all* they did. Most of us can't claim that.

I'd say 6-7 sets of benching 4x a week is ridiculously stupid. You want a blast your bench routine? Try Westside.

Yes, it was a powerlifting and bodybuilding symposium, since they are spending thier time studying all effects of 'all' types of routines on the body, that is what they came up with. They said that with proper diet/training/rest (yes I agree, this is all they do all day long) you recover in 3 hours, and that being 'sore' means nothing.

6-7 sets of benching is not something I tried, that is the Blast Your Bench program, have read if not tried it.

What symposium was this?

I'm pretty familiar with most of the Bulgarian training techniques, but I can't say I've heard of anything (that's really Bulgarian anyway) that's bodybuilding-oriented.

Heck if I know, thats why I put in (supposedly). I think the guys name was Leo Costas? I remember that he brought in Tom Platz for "star" content, and then put it out in a book for $49.

I have the book and I have scans of the program at home.

The original Blast Your Bench program focused on working out your chest everyday for a period of time (I think three weeks), with only a few rest days available.

There is a Blast Your Bench II available that focuses more on the whole package: diet, form, intensity, proper rest, etc. They took the focus off of the bench gains and basically turned it into a bodybuilding program.

Here's an example of the one I mentioned

I hate those kinds of things simply because of the misinformation involved.

They differentiate 13-15 reps as "endurance" from 10-12 reps as "strength," which is as gross a misnomer as it gets.......except for denoting "power" as 8-10 reps..........power is properly described as "work required to move a weight a given distance in a given time;" in other words, power is weight moved over a distance in a short a time as possible. That, by nature, is defining low reps, with a moderate weight, moved quickly.

Beyond that, the volume is exceptionally high, and no mention is given to the lower body......I think anyone could do a LOT better to improve their bench, if its that important to them.