Eric Spoto is one of the few people in history to break the 700 pound barrier for a raw bench press with a meet lift of 722 pounds (327.5 kilos). For years he was virtually unmatched in terms his raw benching strength. The fact that he is way ahead of the majority of elite lifters in the world would make any serious lifter wonder how he developed his benching strength. This article will take an in depth look at the distinctives and attributes of one of his bench press workouts.
One of the characteristics of an Eric Spoto bench press workout is the accumulation of a massive total workload. Many lifters choose to minimize their warm up sets while working up to a heavy weight in order to save their energy for their heaviest set. They accomplish this by limiting the number of reps to five or less per set, even when starting out with light warm up weights.
In the video of Eric Spoto’s bench press workout, he does not do a few easy warm up sets with light weight and low reps to save his strength for the last hard set. Spoto starts out with high reps on his initial warm up sets when lighter weights are being used. While he doesn’t push himself hard on all of his warm up sets, he uses them to accumulate a massive total workload and then focuses on high intensity for just two out of his nine sets.
The basic sets, reps, and poundages for his nine set workout are listed below along with the total workload of the workout:
Set 1: 135 pounds x 18 reps = 2,430 pounds lifted
Set 2: 225 pounds x 12 reps = 2,700 pounds lifted
Set 3: 315 pounds x 10 reps = 3,150 pounds lifted
Set 4: 405 pounds x 10 reps = 4,050 pounds lifted
Set 5: 495 pounds x 10 reps = 4,950 pounds lifted
Set 6: 585 pounds x 3 reps = 1,755 pounds lifted
Set 7: 635 pounds x 1 rep = 635 pounds lifted
Set 8: 675 pounds x 1 rep = 675 pounds lifted
Set 9: 705 pounds x 1 rep = 705 pounds lifted
Total workload for all sets and reps combined = 21,050 pounds
Total reps for all sets combined = 66 reps
The workout that is listed is shown in the following video:
How does Eric Spoto’s workout translate into percentages relative to his single rep max? This is critical information if you are trying to get a feel for how hard he works out and want to try a similar bench press workout with the percentages of a single rep max that he is using. The percent of weight that he uses relative to his single rep max are based are shown for each set below. The percentages are based on what appears to be Eric’s best official lift of 722 pounds. These percentages for each set are listed below:
Set 1: 135 pounds = 18 reps using 19% of his single rep max
Set 2: 225 pounds = 12 reps using 31% of his single rep max
Set 3: 315 pounds = 10 reps using 44% of his single rep max
Set 4: 405 pounds = 10 reps using 56% of his single rep max
Set 5: 495 pounds = 10 reps using 69% of his single rep max
Set 6: 585 pounds = 3 reps using 81% of his single rep max
Set 7: 635 pounds = 1 rep using 88% of his single rep max
Set 8: 675 pounds = 1 rep using 94% of his single rep max
Set 9: 705 pounds = 1 rep using 98% of his single rep max
Average weight per rep = 319 pounds = 44% of his single rep max
How hard Does Eric Spoto Push His Sets?
It is evident that Eric Spoto does tons of sets and reps, but he is smart in his approach to doing this. Even though he does eighteen reps on his first set, it’s only 19% of his single rep max. This would be equivalent to eighteen reps with 40 pounds for a 200 pound bencher, 60 pounds for a 300 pound bencher, and 80 pounds for 400 pound bencher. In other words it would be easy. Likewise, ten reps may seem like a lot of reps with 315 pounds, but you can find an internet video of Eric doing 45 reps with 315 pounds, so ten reps is easy for him. You can also find a video of him doing 26 reps with 405 pounds, so once again, the 10 reps that he blasts out with 405 for his fourth set do not come close to testing his strength or maximum capacity for reps.
When does Spoto really push himself in this workout? He pushes hard on his fifth set where he does 10 reps with 495; he pushes moderately hard on his eighth set, and he has to push hard on his last set when using 705 pounds. This basically amounts to seven sets that didn’t require a high intensity effort, and two sets that did require a fairly high intensity of effort. Of the two sets where he had to push hard, one was done with higher (10) reps, and the other was done for a single rep. By using this strategy, he incorporates both a high amount of volume and intensity into his workout.
Spoto Never Grinds in this Workout
Eric Spoto maintains what I refer to as a positive workout state for every rep of every set of the workout. He never goes into a negative workout state where he begins to strain, struggle, or grind on his reps. If you observe closely, you will notice that Spoto never slows down his rep speed as a set progresses, and he always uses a steady even rep pace throughout the entire set for every set. This type of lifting insures that the creatine phosphate system is the dominate energy system being used during the workout, and it develops consistent firing patterns within the nervous system.
The only time Spoto slows down his rep speed during a set is to pause the bar on his chest before doing his last rep of each set. He doesn’t pause because of fatigue, or because he is going to failure, he pauses in order to simulate the lifting form that is used at a power lifting meet.
Testing Strength and Going to Failure
Although Spoto doesn’t push to failure on his sets in this particular workout, I have observed other videos where he does push to failure when going for a personal rep record with various weights. Whether or not he goes for personal rep records on a regular basis, or he only does so occasionally is not clear.
Finishing Strong
Even though Eric Spoto does tons of reps over the course of nine sets in this workout, he is obviously still at full strength, or close to full strength when he reaches his last set. If he wasn’t at full strength, he would have been buried by his last set with705 pounds. It appears that Eric has a huge workload capacity that enables him to do a tremendous amount of sets and reps without weakening.
I am a believer in the philosophy that it is best to still be at full strength as you finish your workout. If you push yourself to the point where you are significantly weaker by your last set, it makes it harder to recover, plus your body may focus on adapting to improve endurance instead of strength.
Rep Speed and Rep Pace
Eric Spoto uses a fast rep speed for most of his sets in the bench. If you look at the data in regard to how long it takes him to perform each set, simple math will tell you that each rep takes a second or less to perform when doing his first his five sets. You’ll also notice that his rep speed is fairly constant across the first five sets, although it slows down just a little bit as he adds on weight.
If you look at Spoto’s last four sets, it looks like his rep speed slows down a lot compared to his earlier sets. While it does slow down some due to an increase in weight, part of the reason for this is that he lowers the bar very slowly on his single rep lifts, and when lowering the bar for the first rep of a heavy triple for his sixth set. He consistently takes about 2.5 seconds to lower the bar for each of these sets. Notice also that his nine sets consist of only 71 seconds of actual lifting time.
Set 1: 135 pounds x 18 reps 13 seconds
Set 2: 225 pounds x 12 reps 9.5 seconds
Set 3: 315 pounds x 10 reps 9.2 seconds
Set 4: 415 pounds x 10 reps 10 seconds
Set 5: 495 pounds x 10 reps 10.6 seconds
Set 6: 585 pounds x 3 reps 7.5 seconds Lowers the bar for 2.5 seconds on first rep
Set 7: 635 pounds x 1 rep 3.5 seconds Lowers the bar for 2.7 seconds
Set 8: 675 pounds x 1 rep 3.5 seconds lowers the bar for 2.5 seconds
Set 9: 705 pounds x 1 rep 4.3 seconds lowers the bar for 2.6 seconds
Total lifting time for all nine sets combined = 71 seconds
That’s 21,050 pounds lifted in 71 seconds!
Lifting Form
Eric’s lifting form is basically stellar. The only thing that you might be able to find fault with is that he doesn’t lock out on most of his reps, however, if you watch him in a powerlifting meet, he seems to have a very good lockout.
You’ll see that Spoto always takes time to set his body up right for each set, and each single rep. When setting up for a lift, his feet are spaced fairly wide, he squeezes his shoulder blades together and slightly arches his back to get his chest as high as possible and reduce the distance the bar must travel from his chest to a lockout. He has a medium to medium wide grip so that his hands are directly over his elbows and his forearms are straight up and down and perpendicular to the floor when the bar touches his chest. He touches the bar down to the lower part of his sternum and pushes the bar up and a little bit back so that it ends up over his upper chest or clavicle. As he lifts, he also applies leg drive to push his chest up as high as possible.
Spoto discusses the details of his bench press set up and lifting technique in the following video.
The take aways from Spoto’s workout are his ability to know how to incorporate both high volume and intensity into the same workout. He has a great feel for doing as much work as possible without exceeding his ability to finish at full strength for his last set. Hard work is evident, but strain, struggle, and grinder reps are nowhere to be seen in the workout video as he pushes just hard enough without reaching a point where he is overworking. Spoto also uses excellent form and a smooth rep cadence for all his sets. If you study his form, his advice, and his workouts, he is a great bencher to learn from. Best of training to you.