How to Gain Upper Body Mass AND Build a Big Bench Press I received an email question a couple days ago that went something like this: “Hey, C.S. I know you’ve probably written some articles about it already, but what is your advice right now for someone who wants to increase his bench press and build a lot of upper body muscle at the same time? I’ve struggled to both increase my bench press weights and gain muscle, so I could use some advice. Thanks a bunch!” (Emphasis added is mine.) Well, my questioner is correct. I do have a number of articles that I’ve already written on building a big bench press and I have a lot of articles for anyone who is looking to gain a lot of upper body muscle, but I figured, you know, what the heck, there’s no reason that I can’t write another one. Also, I would have to assume that there are still a lot of modern gym-goers who train for just those goals. I me...
Turn up the Volume for More Size and Strength Okay. Yeah. I know. If you’ve read even a smattering of my articles or essays, you’ve probably seen me say that squatting is king. Well, it is. If you give it your all on squats—whether it’s back squats or front squats, barbell squats, kettlebell squats, or just your bodyweight, really high-repetition squats or heavy-as-heck, low-rep squats—you will make gains. In fact, if you’re not going to squat, you might as well hang it up as far as gains are concerned. No squats. No gains. It’s that simple. (Okay, I did write THIS article on how to make gains without squatting, but that aside…) But let’s just go ahead and assume that squats are mandatory. Because the truth is also this: You can squat and not make any gains if you’re on a crappy program where you train infrequently or just do random “whatever” workouts. ...