This is Mark Bell’s 5 week Sling Shot bench press program, also known as “Stronger in 30 Days.” You bench once a week for five weeks: paused bench press, then Sling Shot work on top of it, then three superset clusters. Week 5 is a PR attempt.
What makes it unusual is that it programs for the Sling Shot, a piece of bench press equipment that supports your elbows out of the bottom and lets you handle more weight than you could raw. Most programs treat overload work as optional. This one builds the whole back half of each session around it, which makes it a rare worked example of how to actually periodize a Sling Shot rather than just own one.
You only bench once a week, which is why I’d call this an advanced program despite how simple it reads. You need to be strong enough that a single very high volume session is worth a full week of recovery. If you’re still adding weight to the bar every session, a higher frequency approach will beat it.
Related: Which Sling Shot is Right for You?
Table of Contents
5 Week Sling Shot Bench Press Program Spreadsheet
Enter your bench 1RM at the top and every working weight fills in. Based on Mark Bell’s own Stronger in 30 Days PDF. The second tab holds the warm up, which the PDF spells out and most people skip.
Sling Shot Bench Press Program Overview
Here’s the whole program on one screen. All bench press reps are paused.
| Week | Paused bench press | Sling Shot bench press | Supersets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4×6 @ 75% | 3-4×3 @ 80% | A, B and C |
| 2 | 5×5 @ 75% | 3-4×3 @ 80% | A, B and C |
| 3 | 6×4 @ 75% | 3-4×3 @ 85% | A, B and C |
| 4 | 3×2 @ 85% | 3×1 @ 90% | A only |
| 5 | Ramp to a PR | – | None |
Weeks 1 through 3 all sit at 75% and all land within a rep of the same total. What changes is the shape: reps per set descend from 6 to 4 while sets climb from 4 to 6, so you’re doing the same work in smaller, fresher pieces. The Sling Shot triples carry the intensity increase, going 80% to 80% to 85%.
Week 4 is where the taper actually happens. Barbell volume drops from 24 reps to 6, the bar goes to 85%, the Sling Shot goes to heavy singles at 90%, and two of the three supersets come out. Week 5 is a warm up and a max attempt with nothing else attached.
The Supersets
You go through each cluster 4 times, resting 90 seconds after each round, at roughly RPE 8 to 9.
| Superset | Movements | Scheme |
|---|---|---|
| A | Incline dumbbell press + barbell bent over row | 4 rounds of 10 |
| B | Dumbbell tricep extensions + lat pulldowns | 4 rounds of 10 |
| C | Pushups in the Sling Shot + face pulls | 4 rounds of 25 |
All three are in weeks 1 through 3. Week 4 keeps only Superset A so you arrive at the PR attempt fresh.
Week 5: The PR Attempt
The last week is a single ramp with no accessory work behind it. The spreadsheet lays it out as 10 reps with the empty bar, then 10 at 30%, 10 at 45%, 5 at 60%, 3 at 70%, a single at 85% and a single at 95% before the attempt.
For the PR itself the sheet offers 102.5%, 105%, 107.5% and 110% of your entered max and lets you pick. If four weeks went well, 105% is the sensible starting guess.
Is One Bench Day a Week Enough?
Week 3 is the biggest week: 6 sets of 4 paused bench, 3 to 4 sets of 3 with the Sling Shot, and 4 sets of 10 incline dumbbell press. Call it 36 barbell reps and 40 dumbbell reps, or 10 barbell sets and 4 dumbbell sets. I’m not sure how to count the pushups, so we can be generous and add them as 4 sets. That’s 18 sets of bench press or bench-adjacent work in a week.
Points of comparison:
- Greg Nuckols 3x Intermediate Medium Volume Bench Press Program has 18 sets of pure barbell bench press work at its highest volume points.
- nSuns 4 Day LP has 26 sets of bench press work, including 8 sets of close grip bench, which carries over a lot better than pushups do.
I am not implying this is a bad program. I haven’t run it. I just suspect you probably need a fairly big bench (315+) before one very high volume session earns a full week of recovery. If your bench is under that, look at the 6 week bench press programs on the site first, or the Empire Barbell high frequency bench program if you want the opposite end of the frequency spectrum.
Sling Shot Bench Press Program FAQs
Do I need a Sling Shot to run this?
Yes, for the program as written. Every week has Sling Shot work on top of the raw bench press, and week 4’s heavy singles at 90% are the whole reason the taper works. You could substitute board presses or a slight incline for the overload sets, but at that point you’re running a different program.
How much does a Sling Shot add to your bench?
It varies with the model and how much of your sticking point sits at the bottom of the lift, so there’s no single number worth quoting. The useful way to find out is to work up to a single you know you can hit raw, then put the Sling Shot on and keep going. The program assumes you can handle 90% of your raw max in it for singles without much trouble, which is a reasonable floor.
Which Sling Shot should I use?
The Sling Shot guide walks through the models. The short version is that the original is the middle option and the one this program is written around.
Can I train other lifts during these 5 weeks?
Yes. This is a bench specialization block, not a full program, and it only occupies one day. Squat and deadlift on your own schedule around it. Just keep the day before your bench session easy, because the session is long and you don’t want to walk into it already cooked.
What if I miss a rep?
Don’t. The percentages are conservative and everything before week 5 should be makeable. A miss in weeks 1 through 4 usually means your entered 1RM is optimistic, so drop it 5% and rerun the sheet rather than grinding through.
Updates
- Added the week by week percentages, the superset table and the week 5 PR ramp, all of which were previously only inside the spreadsheet. Corrected the description of the periodization: weeks 1 through 3 hold both the volume and the 75% intensity steady while the set and rep shape changes, and the actual taper happens in week 4. Added the warm up tab and Sling Shot FAQs.
