Mike O’Hearn’s Yoga Block Hack for a Bigger Bench Press

Mike O’Hearn is best known as a bodybuilder and a former member of American Gladiators, but he is no stranger to the powerlifting platform. His experience in powerlifting goes back decades — he’s bench pressed over 405 pounds on an incline. Now in his 50s, O’Hearn coaches and trains clients to get stronger. 

One example of O’Hearn’s strength coaching features his client’s incline bench press training in his home gym. O’Hearn’s client had a strength imbalance — one side was stronger than the other, resulting in an uneven press. O’Hearn placed a small yoga block under his client’s shoulders to remedy the issue.

“This will give less room for his back; he has to stay more balanced,” O’Hearn explained. The client performed several reps on the incline bench with the block between his shoulder blades. The block’s thickness created a more-compromised position, which compelled O’Hearn’s client to focus more on balance and stability to lift properly.

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O’Hearn had his trainee perform more sets with heavier weights with the same form to cement the point. Implementing methodology to fix form rather than manually manipulating it for better numbers is how O’Hearn’s clients can navigate their lifts to better positions throughout the reps. This translates to training more consistently long term.

Longevity is the ultimate goal.

—Mike O’Hearn

Strength asymmetries are common, but the dominant limbs or sides are not always the same. Regardless of which side is dominant, trainers, doctors, and practitioners can recommend specific exercises to help promote balance, as O’Hearn did in this case. (1) Another widely used strategy is more unilateral dumbbell work to promote physique and strength symmetry.

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Reference

1. Boccia, G., D’Emanuele, S., Brustio, P. R., Beratto, L., Tarperi, C., Casale, R., Sciarra, T., & Rainoldi, A. (2022). Strength Asymmetries Are Muscle-Specific and Metric-Dependent. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(14), 8495. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148495

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