Weightlifting: Ditillo Bench Program Results

I imagine this would be his Tinder profile pic today.

Six weeks ago I started an Anthony Ditillo bench program (click here for the details). It put fifteen pounds on my max bench, taking it from 300 to 315. Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed it took so long for me to bench 315 at 200 lbs, but hey, my arms hang down to my knees, and I had a shoulder injury that made benching uncomfortable for years. Excuses, excuses.

 

The sixth week of the program was pretty tough. On Saturday, I did 295 for five singles, followed by 270 for three sets of three, and finally 235 for three sets of five. Doing the five singles with 98 percent of my 1 rpm gave me plenty of confidence to max out at the conclusion of the program. For the light workout, I did 200 lbs for four sets of seven. The last workout was 255 for five sets of three. The program gives you the option of doing five to seven sets of three to five reps, and knowing that I was going to max out on Saturday, I choice the lighter option. For most the program, I tried to do as much volume as possible. I did a lot of assistance work, usually triceps/biceps/lats, in addition to 5/3/1 for my lower body. My bench press seems to require a lot of volume and intensity to progress, so the other lifts have to take a back seat. I think vanilla 5/3/1 is probably fine for the deadlift, but the squat needs more volume.

For maxing out, I did 135 for five, 185 for three, 225 for 2, 245 for one, and finally 275 for one. I went with 305 for my first attempt, since that would be a small five pound PR. It went up easily, so I continued with 315. I pressed it fine off my chest, but I hit a sticking point about a foot and a half up. Very slowly, I ground the bar up. Don't know if I have a triceps weakness; it's likely I just hit my true max. I'm going to have a deload week for bench press and then run the program again. I think I'll keep the rest of my training the same, except for adding a little more volume to my high bar squat day (I usually just do five sets of five). Anyways, if you're looking to add weight to your bench (and who isn't!) do this Ditillo program. I haven't hit a fifteen pound PR on the bench press in years.