HOW TO: Build your own Boards for Board Presses.

[irishkid]

I'll be posting a new topic every week on different aspects of exercise, specifically the who, what, where, when and whys and the allmighty HOWTO's. You can expect to see articles on how to perform excercises correctly, rundown of KETO, dieting, stretching, west side barbell routines, powerlifting history, bodybuilding techniques and MUCH MORE.

This week I'll be covering the topic of building additional items to aide in your workout routine. Specifically the boards for "board presses".

To start, heres some information on board presses and their benefits:

Goal of the excercise: The purpose of a board press is to train specific ranges of the pressing motion in order to increase overall power for a bigger bench press. The board press is designed to cure the "sticking" points in a persons bench press. No matter what your routine, you will inevitably go at heavy poundages at some point on the bench press. Should your sticking point be around your chest, use a 1 or 2 board. Should you have trouble locking out? Use a 3-5 board. The boards will limit your ROM and allow you to put up more weight than your 1rm.

Technique: The bar is lowered until it touches the boards, and is pressed back up. The beauty of this movement, is that both the positive and negative bench motions can be utilized in a constrained range of motion. The height of the boards is chosen by the lifter

BUILDING TIME!!!!!
Supplies:
- Wood (2x6) [If you want to build boards 1-4 you will need at least 15 feet of wood]
- Wood/professional grade glue (get an extra bottle)
- Wood screws (2"-2.5") [I reccomend 2.5"]***
- Countersink drill bits***
- Sand paper (60 & 150 grit)***

*** denotes optional

Lets put the pieces together

Making BOARD #1
- Make a 19" cut in your 2x6 (Mernards or Home Depot can do this for you)
- Look at it
- Your done

Making BOARD #2
- Make a 19" cut in your 2x6
- Now, make an additional 15" cut in your 2x6
- Take the one 19" and one 15", and briefly sand up the sides you want to glue. The cuts in the board will help the glue stick. Put wood glue on one side of each board where they will meet and place them on top of each other so end are even. Set in place with some weight on it (15 lb dumbell or a few bricks will suffice). I would let that stay on there for a good 20 minutes. After you feel the glue has stuck make sure their is a strong hold between the 2 boards.
- Take a drill bit (countersink) thats a wee bit narrower than your wood screw (you want the screw to catch the wood when you put it in the hole) and just as long (2.5") and make for holes near the corners of the 15" board
- Take screws and put them in the hole.
- FOR EACH ADDITIONAL BOARD, just add another 15" board to the opposing side and follow step 3.
- Optional wood filler
- Sand it down. (highly reccomended) If you dont sand the wood down you have a decent risk of catching a splinter during your lift, which is not fun.

Heres some diagrams of how your final product should look
Boards 1-3 (from L to R)






And thats it!
Est time per board: about 10 mins of actual building and sanding per board. Definately worth the investment. Cost me under 12 dollars for a very useful tool that will really bust my tries and help my bench skyrocket!

[XiL3]

Excellent Post!!! I will sticky this, and when we get a powerlifting section or article section it can go there.

[Richie_Awesome]

Great stuff.

You said 15" and 19", how imperative is it to be exact on that?

[irishkid]

Originally Posted by Richie_Awesome

Great stuff.

You said 15" and 19", how imperative is it to be exact on that?

I found it very useful because you can fit it in your gym bag (very compact) and it is still easily manueverable by your spotter.

I have seen longer, here are some pictures of different boards:


(the longer handle)


(more of a paddle)

[Mansewerz]

board presses i've heard are really good, just a pain in teh ass at first. great help Irishkid. o and i'd love to hear more on teh keto diet, i'm gonna start that for 10 days after a 20 day bulk cycle

[Richie_Awesome]

Man, I need to make some.

[Superchrist]

5 star thread. My gym here at school doesn't have any boards so maybe I'll make some. Great thread.

[Richie_Awesome]

Originally Posted by Richie_Awesome

Man, I need to make some.

x2

[moneymane]

i dont use boards me and my homies wrap a towel around tha bar then bounce teh weight dats how we do

[Richie_Awesome]

Originally Posted by Richie_Awesome

Man, I need to make some.

Originally Posted by Richie_Awesome

x2

x3, I'm doing it tomorrow. lol