Band Shirts & Big Benching: My Guide To Starting Unlimited Bench Press
By Luke Litchfield

The information in this article is a mixture of research backed information, opinion and reflection of my own experiences of unlimited bench and how to train for it.

In the past few years unlimited bench press has grown worldwide and within the UK also, you may be thinking you would like to give this a go, this will be my advice to you when you start out training.

So firstly let me say this, yes everyone will bench more in a band shirt or unlimited sling, honestly to this day I have not seen anyone bench less. I'm sure there is likely an exception out there. However it's a lot harder to get the crazy number than you may think, the people benching 400kg+ are usually very strong both in raw bench and regular equipped bench.
Some of the big mistakes I see when people jump into this world are just going heavy off boards, not setting the shirt/ sling correctly or using too many plys of kit before being capable. I made all of these initially at one point hitting doubles of 340kg off high boards and then thinking everything would be easy, boy was I wrong.

So the idea of this article is to give you a realistic way to train that will hopefully avoid the usual pitfalls. In the last 2 years I have tried and tested several styles of training for unlimited and this is what I would recommend for an intermediate raw or equipped bencher looking to get into it.

Shirt or Sling Advice

I'm going to keep this general as there are several popular brands and devices out there with my experience mainly being in the F8 Gear and the Titan supercharged ram also.
So firstly start in as little ply as possible, double ply sling at most will be fine, in a 2 ply shirt I managed over 50kg improvement on my multiply bench and over 100kg on my raw, so you will get a lot of weight if you learn the kit.

Secondly, ensure you have the correct size, the biggest issue I had was getting my chest high because I had a chest plate that was too small and I couldn't get my arms wide. So maybe try out a friend first before you spend the cash, or speak to a few people.

Thirdly, setting these shirts and slings in my opinion is about where it finishes on the arm, in aregular equipped bench we often look at the collar, but in unlimited we want to ensure that the elbow ( to the limit of the rules) is maximally supported throughout. This means not having it too far up the arm and into the armpit, however if you are struggling to touch this may be an option in the beginning.

This advice is very general but hopefully gives you an insight into the unlimited world.

The Program Overview:

The program is split into 2 bench days a week, a light day and a heavy day focused on shirt work. Ideally these days need to be at least 72 hours apart. Myself I work off a conjugate style
training structure and this would easily fit into that or a general for day upper lower split.

The Lighter Day

On this day the goal is to build up specific volume in the strength curve of the equipped bench and the movement styles that suit it, on this day we rotate exercises weekly over 3 weeks in a repeating pattern, aiming to do a little more each time.

I would rotate the main lifts weekly between:
1. Reverse grip bench into mini bands
2. Slingshot bench ( 1 ply max)
3. Deadstop Bench Raw Or Sling
Depending on your loading tolerance I would go for 6-8 sets x 3 reps, It may be difficult to gauge the weights at the start. We are looking for no more than 7 or 8 RPE. For myself and others I
have trained, I found these were the most beneficial. After completing the 3 weeks, I would repeat and add a small amount.

Shirt Specific Bench Day

This day was specifically there to help you load weight on the bar and improve technical skill, for this program I am assuming that the shirt you will compete in will be a 2 ply shirt. As with the
light day I would rotate exercises, this was mainly to stop myself and other individuals over training as the CNS demand can be very high and tbh so can the stupidity when you can now handle a lot more weight.

I would rotate through this wave:
1. 2-3 Board press, work up to a heavy 2 rep lift at about 9/10
2. 1 Board press, work up to a heavy single at 9/10
3. Full range 2 ply sling, work up to a heavy double at 9/10
4. Deload- On this day I favored a raw variation that felt nice but was not overly heavy
5. 1 Board press, work up to a heavy double at 9/10
6. Touch in shirt, work up to a touch at 8 or 9/10
At the end of this 6 week run I would then repeat the 6 week process adding a small amount to the previous wave if possible.

Assistance exercises

I learned very quickly that I could not phone in the assistance work with this kind of bench press. I had to be built and conditioned to handle the weight, because when I wasn't I had all sorts of pains.

So I shall list some of the best and most useful assistance exercises I used to improve my own and others bench press. Many of these I did in a bodybuilding reps and sets fashion, for 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps, sometimes adding drop sets or rest pause sets on the last sets.

Triceps:
1. Jm Press
2. Kolb style board extensions
3. Single arm overhead cable extensions
4. Rolling dumbbell extensions

Pressing & Pecs:
1. Incline and flat db pressing
2. Floor & incline db fly
3. Barbell press ups with a wide grip
4. Spoto Press

Shoulders:
1. Barbell shrug
2. Db side raise
3. Rear delt cable x over
4. Rear delt machine or bent over rear
delt fly

Upper back:
1. All pulldowns, vary the grip each session
2. Inverted barbell row
3. Bench grip seated row, add a band to increase effort.
4. Straight arm pulldown or dumbbell pullover

Closing Thoughts

Hopefully those of you reading this will see this is a very measured approach to Unlimited bench press, however the main thing I have learned is that physical and neural fatigue management are so important when lifting unlimited and avoiding burnout is key. So take what you read here, apply it as you can into your training or run it as written. But most importantly make sure you take time pushing to the big numbers, and make sure you can take them full range.

Luke Litchfield
Based in Dare Fitness Gym in Aberdare, Wales
Multiple 300kg Equipped Bench Press
First Welshman to Bench 3 x BW
Offers in person and online personal training
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