THE BENCH NEMESIS — Max Your Way to New Strength
By Shane Robert
Daily maxing is one of those concepts that waves in and out of fashion every handful of years. I’m not 100% sure when this started, but it’s a fair bet that it was sometime after Ivan Abadjiev, the ‘Bulgarian Butcher,’ implemented the infamous Bulgarian Weightlifting program. With the advent of the internet, it became something that was always lurking in the shadows of the dark lifting-web, waiting for its chance to reemerge.
Sometime around 2011 or 2012, daily maxing caught its biggest wave of popularity and became a central point of discussion among lifting netizens and academics alike. From anecdotes to legitimate controlled studies, we learned that daily maxing really did work and worked quite well. That’s not to say that there weren’t downsides. Fatigue, overuse injuries, etc. were all common. But for many lifters, the downsides were worth the gains.
While the premise was always simple — work up to a daily max, maybe do some back off volume — there were a few “programs” that got a bit more specific. One such program was “The Squat Nemesis Program” written by weightlifting coach and math teacher Nick Horton. As stated, it was simply this:
- Work up to a max single for that day
- Drop 30% off the bar and work up slowly to a heavy 3 reps (not a miss, just heavy). Don’t take more than 5 to 10 lb jumps! You WANT the volume in that mid-range.
- Drop to something lightish and do 2 sets of 5 reps. Your only goal is speed out of the hole. These should be rather light for you, like 40% to 65% of max. FAST!
Do this for 21 days. Revel in your newfound strength.
Though this program was originally laid out using the squat, it had profound effects on bench pressing. Doing the program as written, but substituting the bench for the squat, worked amazingly well. Throwing in a few tweaks, and applying some principles from Conjugate training, can really supercharge this program.
One of the main drawbacks with daily maxing is overuse injuries due to loading the tissue in the exact same patterns so frequently. We can get away with this kind of frequent patterning for a long time when loads are minimal, such as throwing a baseball. When loads are heavy, however, the timeline speeds up. Instead of abandoning daily maxing altogether, the goal is to keep what works while minimizing its biggest drawback: repetitive strain. To avoid this, we want to find movements that are mechanically similar enough to give us the neurological adaptations, aka skill, to our main lift, but change the forces enough to be a slightly different stimulus to our tissue, preventing injuries.
Below is the setup that I have used very successfully with clients who want to try this. Keep in mind that this approach is best suited for intermediate to advanced lifters who already have solid technique and recovery habits.
BENCH NEMESIS
The main “Nemesis” framework applies. You will work up to a daily max for that day's movement, then drop to ~70% and start doing triples, working up in small jumps, no more than 10 pounds at a time, to the heaviest triple that you can for that day. Then drop 30% from that and 2 sets of 5.
DAY 1: Choose a movement that is very similar to your main bench, but requires you to underload. Long pauses, 5 seconds for example, or Spoto benches are good choices.
DAY 2: Main bench
DAY 3: Overloaded bench. This could be using a slingshot type device, reverse bands, pin presses, etc.
DAY 4: A light movement that underloads your main movement quite a lot. Cambered bar, Larsen presses, slight inclines, etc.
DAY 5: Main bench
DAY 6: Specific weakness. If you are weak off the chest, wide grips or bottom up presses; weak triceps, close grip; slow, accommodating resistance. You’ll have to figure out your weakness for yourself and decide the best way to go about training it.
DAY 7 (OPTIONAL): Main bench
Do this for 21 days or up to about 8 weeks depending on your ability to tolerate it.
To reiterate, each day you are still working up to a max for that day and dropping down to do the escalating triples. The weight will fluctuate based on how the movement changes and that is intentional. This structure attempts to set the days up so they feed into one another and, hopefully, make you stronger on your 2-3 main bench days.
Daily maxing isn’t magic, but it is a powerful tool when applied with some thought. The goal of this variation isn’t to reinvent the wheel, but to keep the benefits that made daily maxing effective in the first place — frequent exposure to heavy weights while reducing the wear and tear that usually comes with it. By rotating movements, slightly shifting stress patterns, and still pushing to a daily top end, you give yourself a way to train hard and often without burning out as quickly. If the days are structured well, each session feeds into the next, and your main bench work starts to feel stronger almost by default.
If you get that balance right, this setup can be one of the fastest ways to push your bench forward without paying for it later.
