Patrik Nyman's Prilepin Bench program

Based on a 130 kg (287 lbs) raw bench and a 115 kg (254 lbs) raw close-grip bench we get the following cycle. Kilograms are rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg. Notation: sets x reps @ weight.

HEAVY BENCH (Monday)

Week 1 (89 %): 3x2 @ 115 kg

Week 2 (80 %): 5x3 @ 105 kg

Week 3 (86 %): 5x3 @ 112.5 kg

Week 4 (90 %): 3x2 @ 117.5 kg

Week 5 (80 %): 5x3 @ 105 kg

Week 6 (86 %): 5x3 @ 112.5 kg

Assistance work

JM Press, Pressdown or similar 3x8
Some kind of lat row or pulldown 4-6x6-10
Some kind of shoulder press 3x12
(Tate press or one-handed pressdown 2-3x16)

CLOSE-GRIP BENCH (Friday)

Week 1 (82 %): 5x3 @ 95 kg

Week 2 (85 %): 5x3 @ 97.5 kg

Week 3 (73 %): 6x3 @ 85 kg

Week 4 (82 %): 5x3 @ 95 kg

Week 5 (85 %): 5x3 @ 97.5 kg

Week 6 (73 %): 5x3 @ 85 kg

Assistance work

Dumbell triceps extension or Tate press 3x12
Face pull 3x8-12
Dumbell side or rear raise 3x12-16
Hammer curl 3-4x12-16

Notes
  • All bench reps should be paused on the chest before pressing up.
  • Explode the weight up no matter how light the weight.
  • You should be able to complete all bench sets without going balls to the walls, i.e. roughly one rep short of failure. If these percentages turn out to be too severe, you will need to lower the weights.
  • Be careful not to train the triceps too hard on the heavy bench day. As a general guideline, you should probably leave the JM press etc. 1-2 reps short of failure.
  • Advanced lifters can add chains to the close-grip bench, adding approximately 10 kg/22 lbs extra resistance to the lockout.
  • If your max is below 100 kg/220 lbs or so, you might want to do these calculations by hand and round to smaller plates than 2.5 kg/5 lbs as to get closer to the actual percentages. As an example, for a 60 kg max, 89% and 86% will both equal 52.5 kg.

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