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Josh Bryant and Jonathan Irizarry are bringing us a 12 week bench press program with the intention of helping Jonathan blast through previous PR's and setting his own all time best best press lift. The complete guide will be available for download for you all to do the same at the end of the series.

To build a big bench you have to have a starting point. Here Josh and Jon do the assessment portion of the program. The mission of the assessment is to identify weak links in form i.e foot placement, elbow placement and how Jonathan presses. It is also meant to establish a starting point i.e Jonathan's current max weight.

Keep in mind we are going to enter Jon into a powerlifting meet to legitimize the lift at the end of this series hence why Jon is training with the pause at the bottom of the rep.

Jonathan's starting bench press max for this series is right at 440 according to this assessment.

The rest of the program Josh will make changes as they go based on immediate feedback and cues from Jon and how each exercise affects him from week to week.

Stay tuned and be sure to follow the program to improve your own bench press.

Big Bench Program - Episode 1 Assessment

The mission is to keep tissue and get gnarly shredded!

Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello spell out the process when dieting and how to get as fat free as possible without sacrificing muscle tissue built in the offseason.

_"What put the tissue on will keep the tissue on."

Hunter and Bryan believe in NOT changing up too many variables and backing off of the volume and prioritizing energy for the compound lifts that require quite a bit more muscle recruitment and mental grit to execute.

_"For this push session we prioritize the incline press, shoulder press and dips and then follow up with laterals and flys when we need to just push through on the single joint movements."

In this video Hunter was just over 2 weeks out and by the time of publishing it is 2 weeks out from the Tampa Pro which will be his pro debut and a victory just to be able to make it to the stage in what has been an absolutely roller coaster ride of an offseason and year!

Stay tuned as we head to Houston one more time and then travel to Tampa and handle business!

Hunter Labrada 2 Weeks Out From Pro Bodybuilding Debut

_"At this point its not about how strong you are physically. It's all mental. It has been a crazy year and basically an 8 month roller coaster ride."

IFBB Pro Joe Mackey is preparing for the first open pro show of what will be an awesome year. _"It's framing to your advantage. I had a few hiccups this year and always look at it as cup half full vs empty. Stuff is always going to happen and that's life!"

_Joe Mackey and Jon Irizarry link up to really hammer home these last 2 weeks preparing for Tampa. Jon is leading a lot of the workouts and totally hammering Joe when it comes to presentation. _"I'm gonna make his ass work. We are gonna make him prepared and looking his best."

As you all know, the devil is in the details when it comes to pro bodybuilding. Anything on a world class level demands that the details are what get all the attention. If you are missing anything when it comes to mental strategy, training, nutrition, presentation and even transitions and lack luster energy on stage someone wont have missed those details and will move past you.

We will be bringing you non stop coverage of everything it takes to be the best in the IFBB here in Tampa with Joe Mackey, Hunter Labrada and Jon Irizarry mixing it up leading up to contest day, during and after!

All Gas No Brake - IFBB Tampa Pro

Joar Fällmar, 28 years old lives in Jönköping, Sweden with his fiance and their 2 dogs. He is working as a sales manager and fitness coach.

Joar started working out when he was 13 years old but as he is saying:

_"I didn't get "stung" up by the iron bug seriously until I was like 17."

He competes in the amateur Classic Physique division and his latest competition was in fall 2018. He did his debut 2015 and so far he has earned 2 National silver medals, 1 Nordic Championship gold medal, 1 national qualifier gold medal, and 1 European championship bronze medal.

Joar did 3 competitions during 2018, the first one was Swedish Nationals where he managed to get into the national team and represented Sweden at Nordic Championships where he ended up winning an overall title. After that he switched to the NPC league and at that time he was exhausted, tired after his previous competitions. Joar ended up in 4th place but as he is saying, he was pretty happy with that considering how tired he was.

Shortly after that, he faced several serious injuries and the whole year of 2019 was rehab and prehab.

Joar learned a lot from that and nowadays he is including prehab and eccentric movements combined with heavyweights in his training.

"I'm focusing on more - how to do the movement - more quality before the quantity."

_"In my opinion it is important to realize that you can't have the same strength every day but the least you can do is to do everything you can with the energy that you have."

Joar has always a goal and a mission every time he walks into the gym. Whether it the mental game or increasing the weights, he is always trying to make progress in the gym.

Today's chest workout is a mix of heavy and lighter weights and focus on the execution of the movements as well as the eccentric parts and some drop sets for that extra blood flow. High intensity, around 45 minutes!

Slight incline dumbbell press, 2-3 ”feeder sets” followed by 1 top set and then 1 back off set with neutral grip on the last one.

Machine iso-lateral chest press. A total of 4 sets with the last top set being a dropset.

Dumbbell pullovers, 4 straight sets with short rest.

Cable flys, 4 straight sets with short rest, the last set being a dropset.

Chest Day Hypertrophy with Joar Fällmar

Hunter Labrada is 12 days out here from the IFBB Tampa Pro championships.

In previous videos Bryan Troianello and Hunter explain their reasoning behind backing off the volume and intensifier techniques but keeping the top sets as close to offseason top weights as strength allows and this will satisfy 

"what put the tissue on will keep the tissue on."

In the past 10 years of training and more notably for bodybuilding purposes in the past 4-5 years of training Bryan and Hunter have really dissected what makes legs grow, more specifically how to make their quadriceps and hamstrings the biggest and roundest for the specific purpose of bodybuilding competition.

_"If you want to make your quads grow you need to focus on initiating movements with knee flexion and not the hips."

Having these fundamentals and consistently progressing on keep lifts for years now have built what have to be some of the gnarliest quads and hams in recent years in the IFBB.

Leg Training While Shredded - Tampa Pro 12 Days Out

This is Jon Irizarry's first training session in this 12 week bench press program.

In this episode Josh Bryant helps cue Jonathan on:

Perfecting technique with sub maximal weights

As the series progresses the weights will go up, volume with go up and Josh will make changes as Jonathan progress week to week.

Superset with sub maximal weight: Bench press with Seal row with dumbbells

Josh gives in depth detailed commentary during each and every exercise and how to perform each rep.

Big Bench Program - Episode 2 First Workout

Chest training according to IFBB Pro Fouad Abiad.

Fouad gives us a step by step of the who, what and how with his warm ups, exercise selection, back off sets, the machines he prefers and how he intensifies his sets.

Fouad talks heavily on injury prevention when it comes to over stretching and preventing strains and pulls to the biceps and shoulder joints. With the smith machine bench presses he gives the reasoning of having the advantage of a more stable press eliminating certain aspects that might limit fully hitting the chest.

Check out the full workout and if you like how detailed Fouad got here let us know so we can reach out to him and to spread some more knowledge.

Hoss Chest Training with Fouad Abiad

A solid foundation is essential for growth. Training principles serve as that foundation for elite lifters and bodybuilders alike.

In this chest training video, Samir Troudi explains several principles he delivers on every single workout. Samir mentions "mechanical overload" which is geared towards heavy weights and a rep range between 6-10 "muscle fiber damage" which consists of high rep and high amount of exercises and then "metabolic stress" such as occlusion training.

_"So basically I try to mix these three principles to try to get all the benefits out of them and stimulate hypertrophy (muscle growth)."

Samir's tip is to go as heavy as possible with perfect form and then when you approach your top sets and plateauing out then he recommends incorporating the other techniques to tax every for of muscle fiber and every stimulus possible to accomplish growth in strength and muscle size.

Samir Troudi's Training Principles

What does it take to be the best in your field? Answer: A LOT.

You can throw work ethic, motivation and drive out of this conversation because at the pro ranks EVERYONE has that. This is where attention to detail and being proactive on discovering any edge you can have over the competition.

Here in this chest training session, Joe Mackey links up with therapist Eugene Torrence again. They utilize training to properly hit the "smaller muscles" of the whole pectoral muscle complex namely the pec minor.

Then they utilize a stimulus machine to really over load the contractile fibers of the whole chest.

_"It's like a double whammy. You're fighting the weight of the exercise and the current at the same time."

Joe Mackey is preparing for his 2020 competitive season at the Tampa pro which should be ultra competitive since it is one of the few qualifiers for this years Olympia. Given this fact of the Tampa pro being full of ultra competitive and a hungry crop of pro bodybuilders Joe is definitely doing his due diligence in edging out everyone possible.

Chest Development of a Pro Bodybuilder

Bernardo Costa is quickly building a reputation with the GASP, Better Bodies and Destination as the thinking man when it comes to his approach and logic to programming, exercises and execution.

\Here he is joined again by Shane Post who is preparing for the IFBB North American championships where he will compete in both bodybuilding and classic physique to earn his pro card and turn 2020 into a badass year given the circumstances. Side note is to always frame everything to your advantage...

In this particular training session, Bernardo and Shane pick apart biceps and triceps training.

_"Even though we are training biceps and triceps which are smaller muscle groups, we still have to choose exercises to hit from every angle possible for proper stimulus and ultimately growth."

The workout focuses on hitting both heads of the biceps and all three heads of the triceps by manipulating the angles and the elbow and supination vs pronation of the hand.

Alternating dumbbell curls: 3 sets x 10-12 reps (intentional supination and forward elbow movement at the top of each rep)

Rope pushdowns: 3 sets x 10-12 reps (intentional pronation at the end of each rep)

Cable high curls: 3 sets x 10-12 reps (curl all the way behind the head)

Overhead cable extensions: 3 sets x 10-12 reps (try to keep the elbows close together at the end of each rep - emphasize stretch)

Dumbbell lying triceps extensions: 3 sets x 10-12 reps (keep elbows in and slightly forward to keep tension on the triceps)

Stay tuned and subscribe for more in depth training and contest coverage with Bernardo and Shane.

Biceps and Triceps Logic with Bernardo Costa & Shane Post

Joe Mackey is roughly 12 days out in this chest training session with Jon Irizarry and is running on fumes in an effort to get as fat free as possible moving into the last week before the much anticipated Tampa pro.

Even with being a week out the training and mindset is still laser focused with Jon and Joe. Top set strength is still there so Joe is still pushing some impressive weights with "every rep being perfect".

Joe Mackey has a huge presence on stage just from the fact that he has such freaky proportions. Jon and Joe presentation on the pro level has to be flawless so they are making sure conditioning is there to be able to execute all the mandatory things to highlight Mackey's physique to the best of his ability.

Joe Mackey heads to Tampa on Wednesday to link up with Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello. Stay tuned as we bring you non stop coverage leading up and during the Tampa pro.

Chest Training with Joe Mackey 1 Week Out from Tampa Pro 

Jonathan Irizarry is well on his way to totally annihilating 500lbs.

_"The intentionality is there. The weight is moving fast. We are perfecting form and the explosiveness we need."

In this workout Josh increases the top set weight of 420lbs by 3 reps with a pause and increases the superset of bench + seal row from 6 sets to 8 sets. Dead bench increases as well. The weighted dips was supposed to be at 100lbs added weight but wasn't available so went to 110lb this week. Jon and Josh wrap up the workout with the floor dumbbell flys and floor dumbbell triceps extensions.

Stay tuned for workout 3 and then a de-load week right after.