Can Lee Hayward’s Blast Your Bench program really add 51 pounds to your bench press in only 3 weeks? I’m about to find out!
Why did I choose to purchase Blast Your Bench?
Well to be perfectly honest my max bench has always been … how should I put this … terrible! Now I know in other posts I have probably said that it’s not about how much weight you lift, it’s about how much muscle you build … and that’s absolutely true! But there’s this little thing I have called pride, and mine has been beat down lately. Honestly I’m just getting sick of having a bigger chest than all of the high school kids I teach (and most of the other guys at the gym) and not being able to show them up on chest day. I’m tired of having to strip off some of the weight after some 18 year old kid finishes his set! Now it is true that I dislocated my shoulder in a softball game a little less than a year ago and it hasn’t been quite right since (you better believe that I constantly remind my students about it!), but if I’m honest with myself the bench press is one area of my workout routine that needs drastic improvement. If I’m going to build the thick chest I have pictured in my mind, then I must be able to handle some heavier poundage.
What’s included in the program?
Blast Your Bench includes 10 pdf files and 10 wmv files that are immediately downloadable upon purchasing the program. Each item is listed below; however, if you would like to read more about them you may do so by clicking here.
- Blast Your Bench eBook (72 pages)
- Quick Start Guide (23 pages)
- Blast Your Squat eBook (23 pages)
- 12 Week Mass and Power Training Program (39 pages)
- Supplement Review Guide (33 pages)
- Nutrition Guide (10 pages)
- Rotator Cuff Exercise Routine (6 pages)
- 7 Week Deadlift Cycle (17 pages)
- Hand Gripper Manual (20 pages)
- Blast Your Bench for Reps Report (5 pages)
In addition, there are also 10 videos consisting of workouts and instructions for improving your muscular endurance and the number of reps you can do with a given weight.
Day 1 – My First Impression
Purchasing and downloading all of the material was very straightforward and easy. At first I was a little overwhelmed when I started digging through all of the material; however, the quick start guide alleviated all of these feelings by getting straight to the point. I found everything that I needed to know to get started on pages 2 and 3, and I was working out within a half hour of purchasing the material. One thing that I was a little disappointed about is that there is a 2 week pre- “Blast Your Bench” phase written into the program in which you don’t do any flat bench at all. My first instinct was to just skip it and move straight to the regular program, but due to my injured shoulder and the fact that I feel a little broken down from consistently lifting I decided against it.
The first workout consisted of 24 total sets, both heavy and light, but was fairly easy overall. I would definitely not recommend it to a beginner, but if you’ve been lifting consistently for a year or more then you should be able to handle it.
How do I feel?
I feel good. The workout was easier than what I am used to, but I am excited to recover a little from all the heavy lifting and really hit the weights hard in a couple of weeks. Also, the 2 week pre-workout will give me some time to read the Blast Your Bench eBook so that I can make sure to follow the program correctly when the time comes.
Modifications I am going to make
Since I am only going to be lifting 3x per week for the next 2 weeks I have decided to focus on cardio quite a bit and try to lose some extra fat that I have packed on recently. I am also planning on performing the rotator cuff routine 2 – 3 times per week during the pre- “Blast Your Bench” phase in order to rehab my shoulder and prepare it for the regular program. Tomorrow I plan on reading through most of the material downloaded in order to make sure that these modifications don’t go against what Lee Hayward suggests.
Click here to read the journal entry for Day 2
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