A Few Pointers About the

First of all, there seems to be an endless debate about what the proper bench-press grip is. There’s a wide-grip school, a medium-grip school, and an in-between grip school. For our purposes here, I want you to try a little test that will help determine the best bench-press grip for you, not Tom, Dick, or Harry. Get on the floor, and without thinking about it, assume your natural push-up position. Have someone measure the distance between your two forefingers. That’s probably your optimum bench-press grip. Remember it, and use it during this program.

This may seem simple and unscientific, but the body will almost always assume the position that gives it the best mechanical advantage. Trust your body.

Here’s another tip: most people bench press straight up and down, like some flesh-and-blood piston. However, if you were to look at slow-motion films of just about every major powerlifter in the world, you’d notice that they don’t push the bar straight up and down. Instead, they push the bar up and slightly at an angle towards the head. This motion is called the J-lift. Use it.

I should also mention, briefly, the importance of doing proper warm-ups before doing any of the workouts in this program. This workout involves using very heavy poundages. In other words, it can be very intense, and if you’re not careful, it can cause injuries to muscles that haven’t been properly warmed up. Do about four of these warm-up sets, and then rest about three minutes before starting your work sets.

External Factors
How much progress you make during this program involves a lot of things you can't control, like muscle length, number of fast-twitch fibers, neural efficiency and all the things that fall under the category of genetics.

However, there are a lot of things you can control. As I pointed out in previous editions of Muslce Media, muscle cells don't live in a vacuum—they're a part of you and share in whatever mistreatment you subject yourself to. If you party every night, continually do shooter of Jagermeister like it's New Year's Eve, and in general, abuse your body, your muscles aren't going to be able to respond properly no matter how advanced a program you undertake. Muscle is hard enough to develop. Don't make things worse by not eating properly, not getting enough sleep or abusing your body in general.

Consistency is also vital. There are plenty of reasons not to train, so only when you make training your number one priority will you be able to make progress. I'm not saying give up every semblance of a normal life, but say to yourself, "Training, at least for this period of time in my life, is the most important thing." This will give you enormous willpower and allow you to rearrance your lifestyle, so you can hit the gym. And it's not like I'm asking you to go to the gym every day. This workout, when followed to a "T," will put you in the gym only four days a week, for an hour at a time. Piece of cake.