New Bench Press Success With 10X

There are many ways to use the famous 10×10 protocol to build muscle size and strength. We prescribe it primarily for three-week pure-density phases designed to spark muscle growth in the sarcoplasm of the 2A muscle fibers. It’s not for strength, which comes from myofibrillar growth.

With our pure-density version you use a light weight, one with which you can get 20 reps, but you only do 10. Then you rest for 30 seconds and do 10 more—and so on until you complete 10 sets of 10 reps. The last few sets are brutal, and you actually shouldn’t get 10. If you do get 10 on your 10th set, add weight at your next workout.

After you’ve been on a straight-set power-bodybuilding workout for a few months, a three-week 10×10 phase, where you use the method on only one exercise per bodypart and primarily train the endurance components of the growth fibers, can do amazing things for muscle growth.

Another way to use pure-density 10×10 is in a heavy/light program. On light day you do only one exercise for a muscle for 10×10. At the next workout for that -bodypart you do a heavy straight-set power workout. Alternate power and density for maximum muscle immensity, getting major size increases via both sides of the key 2A growth fibers.

You can also use 10×10 as a strength-building protocol, and one of the most popular is by Olympic strength coach Charles Poliquin. His power-oriented take on 10×10 is based on the German Volume Training model. Since you’re focusing on strength, there are three primary differences:

1) You use a lower rep range, four to five.

2) You rest 90 seconds between sets—instead of 30 seconds, as in our pure-density version.

3) You increase the load by 5 percent per workout for two workouts in a row but reduce the target rep by one for every weight increase.

If that last one is a bit confusing, here’s an example using the bench press for a trainee who can bench 300 pounds for 10 reps with strict form:

Workout 1: 10 sets of five with 300

Workout 2: 10 sets of four with 315

Workout 3: 10 sets of three with 330

Workout 4: 10 sets of five with 315

Workout 5: 10 sets of four with 330

Workout 6: 10 sets of three with 345

Poliquin says that at this point you’ll be able to bench 330 for 10 strict reps, a 30-pound increase. That may not happen in all cases, but that’s your goal.

Realize that because your rest is two to three times as long as it is in our 10×10 pure-density protocol, the 10 power sets will take longer. As we said, the short-rest 10×10 method is more for building muscle mass, while the power 10×10 protocol—really 10×5-4-3—will have a muscle-size side effect. It just won’t be as pronounced due to the low reps and longer rests.

Use Poliquin’s power 10×10 progression on bench presses if you want to increase your poundage quickly—or try it on any exercise for new power and size.

—Steve Holman
and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com

Editor’s note: For more 10×10 training and complete workouts, see the e-book The Ultimate 10×10 Mass Workout, available at www.X-Workouts.com.