Tip: Do Spoto Presses to Boost Your Bench Press
Tip: Do Spoto Presses to Boost Your Bench Press
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<h2 class="article-detail">Do you get stuck at the bottom in your bench press PR attempts? This exercise will help. Check it out.</h2>
<div class="article-detail-byline"><span class="byline">by <a href="https://www.t-nation.com/all-articles/authors/john-gaglione">John Gaglione</a> |</span> <span class="timeStamp3">Yesterday</span></div>
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<p>For advanced lifters, it's important to strengthen every part of your bench press. Board presses typically work great for the lockout, but doing board presses without boards can add a new twist to help kick-start your gains.</p>
<p>"Invisible board presses" are much more challenging since you can't rest on the board. You have to rely on your muscles to stabilize the weight. (Yes, this looks like a newbie cutting his range of motion short, but it's also a technique used by very advanced powerlifters.) This will build a tremendous amount of reversal strength since it takes a ton of effort to bring the weight to a dead stop and let it float in the air before you have to start it up again.</p>
<h4>The Spoto Bench Press</h4>
<p><iframe width="620" height="349" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/67hem3XD8W4?autoplay=0&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="">[embedded content]</iframe></p>
<p>Eric Spoto, one of the greatest benchers of all time with a 722 raw bench, coined these invisible board presses "Spoto" presses.</p>
<p>You can also pause at different heights depending on your sticking point. For instance, I like invisible two-board presses to strengthen the mid range to lockout portion of the lift. Remember, any time you do isometric work you're strengthening a few degrees above and below the point of the pause. This is why Spoto presses work the bottom end as well as mid range.</p>
<p>However, you should implement various heights in your training in order to gain strength in all areas. Again, right above the chest and about a two-board height are great places to start. You can utilize these with heavy weight for a few reps or lighter weight for a lot of reps.</p>
<h4><a href="https://www.t-nation.com/training/bench-press-like-a-boss">Related: Bench Press Like a Boss</a></h4>
<h4><a href="https://www.t-nation.com/training/secret-to-a-bigger-bench-press">Related: The Secret to a Bigger Bench Press</a></h4>
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<div class="title-details">
<h2 class="article-detail">Do you get stuck at the bottom in your bench press PR attempts? This exercise will help. Check it out.</h2>
<div class="article-detail-byline"><span class="byline">by <a href="https://www.t-nation.com/all-articles/authors/john-gaglione">John Gaglione</a> |</span> <span class="timeStamp3">Yesterday</span></div>
</div>
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<div readability="34.140306122449">
<p>For advanced lifters, it's important to strengthen every part of your bench press. Board presses typically work great for the lockout, but doing board presses without boards can add a new twist to help kick-start your gains.</p>
<p>"Invisible board presses" are much more challenging since you can't rest on the board. You have to rely on your muscles to stabilize the weight. (Yes, this looks like a newbie cutting his range of motion short, but it's also a technique used by very advanced powerlifters.) This will build a tremendous amount of reversal strength since it takes a ton of effort to bring the weight to a dead stop and let it float in the air before you have to start it up again.</p>
<h4>The Spoto Bench Press</h4>
<p><iframe width="620" height="349" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/67hem3XD8W4?autoplay=0&rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="">[embedded content]</iframe></p>
<p>Eric Spoto, one of the greatest benchers of all time with a 722 raw bench, coined these invisible board presses "Spoto" presses.</p>
<p>You can also pause at different heights depending on your sticking point. For instance, I like invisible two-board presses to strengthen the mid range to lockout portion of the lift. Remember, any time you do isometric work you're strengthening a few degrees above and below the point of the pause. This is why Spoto presses work the bottom end as well as mid range.</p>
<p>However, you should implement various heights in your training in order to gain strength in all areas. Again, right above the chest and about a two-board height are great places to start. You can utilize these with heavy weight for a few reps or lighter weight for a lot of reps.</p>
<h4><a href="https://www.t-nation.com/training/bench-press-like-a-boss">Related: Bench Press Like a Boss</a></h4>
<h4><a href="https://www.t-nation.com/training/secret-to-a-bigger-bench-press">Related: The Secret to a Bigger Bench Press</a></h4>
</div>
<p><em>This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.</em></p>
https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-spoto-presses-to-boost-your-bench-press