The Fastest Way to Blow Up Your Bench (Using Science)

Get FREE 2-week access to the bench press programs with the BWS+ app: https://bws.plus/f1

Click below to subscribe for more videos:
https://www.youtube.com/jeremyethier/?sub_confirmation=1

Reaching a 225 bench press is a sign you've made it in the gym. But only 2% of new lifters can do it, and even among regulars, barely 1 in 5 ever get there. It took me 3 years to increase my bench press and hit a 225 bench press. But it took Ryan, a record-breaking lifter and pro bodybuilder, just 1.
Now he benches over 400 lbs easily — a bench press progress so rare you have better odds of becoming a billionaire. All using a system I’ve never heard of ... and he says he's natural? So, after breaking Ryan's method down (including bench press form tips) with the latest research, I turned it into a plan that could help you and me add up to 30 lbs to your bench in just 6 weeks. Here’s how to increase bench press, explained.

Ryan: "After I made that switch, it was a year's worth of progress in 3 months. This is key if you're serious about how to increase bench press." The switch? His grip.

Research shows that widening your grip just an inch or two can boost your bench press instantly — often by 5-10% — just by shortening the range of motion.
Ryan: "The rule of thumb is the wider you go, the more pec engagement you'll experience, and the more narrow you go, the more tricep engagement you'll experience. You kind of want to play to your strengths. If you have very strong triceps, going narrow might help. But it comes down to experimentation and using how it feels to guide you." This is essential insight for anyone looking to improve bench press form.
Ryan's bench press form starts before his hands even touch the bar. He uses a big arch, similar to what powerlifters do, to shorten the range of motion and boost strength. It can look extreme, but it's one of the tools he uses to increase bench press safely and effectively.

Your warmups matter if you want to make serious bench press progress. Ryan spends up to 30 minutes just working his way up to 400 lbs, treating every set as a practice rep to improve technique. This is key if you're serious about how to increase bench press.

Ryan structures his workouts into three parts, starting with strength. A few focused sets of heavy bench press, lower reps, and high effort. Then he uses those sets to identify sticking points and apply fixes. This is crucial if you want to steadily increase bench press over time.

There are 3 common sticking points. Right off the chest, in the middle, and at the top. If you’re failing off the chest, for example, it could be a pec power issue.
Ryan recommends dips and speed bench press work. If you're stuck midway, overhead presses help. Lockout issues? Try Spoto press or close grip variations. These details will make or break your bench press progress.

Research shows that muscle size is one of the biggest predictors of strength, and that relationship becomes even more important as you gain experienced and master the “skill” of benching. Ryan takes full advantage of this by using bodybuilding exercises to develop the muscle groups that help him with the bench press. These include incline dumbbell presses and cable flyes, which target areas the bench press alone may miss. That’s a key strategy when thinking about how to increase bench press without plateauing.

Motivation can make or break your journey to a 225 bench press. Ryan tracks everything—bench press progress, dips, flyes, and more—to gamify the process and stay engaged. This level of tracking shows how even small changes to your bench press form can lead to massive gains.

Broga keeps Ryan injury-free. It's a hybrid of yoga and ‘bro’ training that maintains joint health, allowing him to train harder, longer, and consistently push his bench press progress. This is one of those underrated strategies that separates casual lifters from pros.

The final piece? Recovery. Ryan only bench presses once per week now, and now, this might sound strange at first. In fact, as a beginner, research shows that going from benching just once per week to 2 or 3 times per week can literally double your strength gains. But as you get stronger and stronger, things change. It’s why, although research shows for beginner lifters, higher frequency training leads to faster strength gains, when you look at advanced lifters it doesn’t tell the same story. But even though Ryan’s low-frequency approach works for him, some people will still see better results by benching more often. The only way to find out which approach would help you? With Ryan’s advice and using the latest science, I’ve created a low-frequency bench program and a higher-frequency bench program designed to get you to a 225 bench press (and beyond). Try one of them, track your strength gains, and then try the other and see which one you seem to recover and progress faster with.