YouTube tutorial/discussion (sociable-sophisticated, 2021-11-16) about using "special repetitions" on the bench press for athletes. Speakers contrast powerlifting-style single-outcome training with developing strength across joint angles via varied ranges of motion and pauses (dead pause, quarter, half, three-quarter, full), reversing the bar from multiple positions, emphasizing both short lockout and fully-stretched strength, sport-specific end positions, single-leg/step-up options, and progressions from muscle-dominant to tendon-dominant work for performance and rehab.
So if you're a powerlifter, then it makes sense to have these arbitrary ranges of motion. Did you complete the bench press or did you not complete the bench press? These are key outcomes. But for everybody else, we want to be strong in every position and we want to have amortization strength, the ability to reverse weight in each position. So have a look at this as a style of repetition.
So we can go from dead pause, accelerate the bar, pause a little higher, accelerate the bar higher. 3 quarter range, full range. Then we can try and reverse the bar from different positions. Quarter position, half position, top corner.
Each of these positions are valuable. Just as important, that end position may actually be more specific for different sports. Fighting off an opponent, punching down the bottom. Now we want strength through length and we want balance without bias. Balance without bias means we should be just as relatively strong in these extreme bottom positions as we are in the extreme top positions. So they're all useful and we should consider special repetitions. Now, you can do this with the knee ability, with the ATG system, using the step ups, those sort of single leg variations to get that heavy top piece. Whichever way you do it, know that the short range, just that last part of lockout, is really important. And so is are these fully, fully stretched positions. So consider taking the shackles off, break out of powerlifting and bodybuilding mentalities. If the goal is, you know, human strength and seeing how far you can take your potential and how well you can prepare yourself for the activities that you want to do. If you want to specialize in something, then this way of thinking about things is going to help you to be able to find the right exercise in the right movements. If you're coming back from an injury, then you understand how to make something more muscle dominant and then progress that to being more tendon dominant, where there's more stretch and more speed in reversing load. So hope this is helpful for you in considering other possibilities of how to get the most out of your strength training. Your time in the gym.
