Gruba Bench Plateau Breaker (GBPB)

Gruba

Unlock your bench press potential with the Gruba Bench Plateau Breaker (GBPB), a focused 16-week program designed for serious lifters. Training four days a week, you'll master essential movements like the competition bench press and front squat, while integrating upper back and tricep work to enhance overall strength and stability. With a mix of high-intensity sets and strategic pauses, this program emphasizes explosiveness and control, ensuring you break through plateaus and achieve your lifting goals. Get ready to elevate your performance and dominate your next lift!

*Purpose*
This program is designed to help you break through a plateau in the bench press by combining strategic strength blocks, hypertrophy phases, and a tapering peaking strategy. It systematically builds pressing power, addresses weak points with targeted accessories, and prepares you neurologically and physically for a new 1RM.

The squat is also featured in an intelligent way, ensuring a long-term approach to building strength, while the deadlift is only featured as RDL to ensure maintenance of hinging strength and patterns.

*Methodology Overview*
The program runs for 16 weeks, divided into distinct blocks:

Block 1 (Weeks 1–4): Strength Foundation

Block 2 (Weeks 5–8): Hypertrophy & Volume Rebuild

Block 3 (Weeks 9–13): Strength Building 2.0

Block 4 (Weeks 14–15): Taper & Peaking

Week 16: 1RM Testing

Each block has a primary bench press structure on two main days per week, supplemented with targeted accessories (Spoto press, Larsen press, narrow grip bench, etc.) and general upper/lower assistance (RDLs, rows, shoulder work, etc.). Squats are included to maintain lower body balance and overall systemic strength.

Block 1 – Strength Foundation (Weeks 1–4)
This block focuses on low-to-moderate rep ranges (sets of 5 and 3) in the 73–85% range. The aim is to re-groove heavy pressing technique and build base strength without maxing out. Volume is moderate, and progression is driven by steady load increases. Bench is performed twice per week, one heavier day and one slightly lighter.

Block 2 – Hypertrophy (Weeks 5–8)
After a deload in Week 5, this phase emphasizes muscular growth and joint recovery through higher reps (3×8) in the 70–77% range. The goal is to rebuild tissue capacity, strengthen connective tissue, and address muscular imbalances through a wider range of motion and more variation. Accessory work plays a larger role here, and intensity is kept manageable.

Block 3 – Strength Rebuild (Weeks 9–13)
This second strength phase builds directly on the hypertrophy block. Intensity begins just above where the previous block ended (around 77–80%) and climbs to 87–90% over 4 weeks. Reps drop back to the 3–5 range. Accessories are more specific (e.g., Larsen press, Spoto press), and total volume is slightly reduced to favor recovery and neural drive.

Block 4 – Taper & Peaking (Weeks 14–15)
In these two weeks, volume is cut significantly, and intensity is carefully manipulated to maintain readiness. Week 14 still includes some back-off work and singles in the 90–92% range. Week 15 strips back volume even more, retaining only fast singles and technical work. Accessories are minimal, and fatigue is aggressively managed.

Week 16 – 1RM Test
Bench and squat are tested on separate days to allow full focus and recovery for each lift. The peaking phase ensures your nervous system is primed, muscles are fully recovered, and your technique is automatic. You should arrive at test week feeling fresh, confident, and ready to hit a new PR.

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Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Bench Press (Barbell)

Bench Press (Paused)

Hammer Curl

Competition bench + upper back

Front Squat (Barbell)

Pin Press Bench (Barbell)

Zercher Deadlift

Skull Crusher (Barbell)

Quads + triceps

Incline Bench Press (Barbell)

Seated Shoulder Press (Dumbbell)

Shoulders + chest

Squat (Barbell)

Spoto Press

Banded Triceps Pushdown

Back Extension (Weighted)

Squat + bench

Bench Press (Close Grip)

Hammer Curl (Dumbbell)

Leg Press (45 Degrees)

Floor Press (Barbell)

Romanian Deadlift (Barbell)

Rolling Triceps Extensions

Cable Crossover

Front Raise

Dip (Weighted)

Squat (Paused)

Squat + press

Floor Chest Fly (Dumbbell)

Bench Press (Dumbbell)

Chest Supported Row (Machine)

Leg Extension

Band Pull Apart

Bench test

Squat test

Strength 1

Hypertrophy

Strength 2

Strength Transition

Peak

Test

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