Advanced Muscle Mechanics

07/26/2026

For more than 100 years, we’ve obsessed over nearly every variable in the bench press.

-Programming.
-Grip width.
-Bar path.
-Tempo.
-Equipment.
-Foot position.
-Scapular control.

Yet, we’ve ignored the one variable every athlete is in contact with for every single rep:

The bench itself.

The fitness industry has treated the bench as a piece of furniture instead of a performance variable. Athletes have spent generations adapting their bodies to flat surfaces designed for manufacturing simplicity—not for human biomechanics.

That changes now.

We’re putting the finishing touches on the Joint Ops™ Performance Bench System, and once these final design-for-manufacturing details are complete, production begins.

This isn’t just another adjustable bench.

It’s the beginning of human-centered strength equipment, where the surface beneath the athlete becomes part of the lift itself.

Because when you change what happens beneath you, you change everything that happens above you.

-Setup.
-Force expression.
-Movement quality.
-Joint mechanics.
-Stability.
-Muscle recruitment.
-Repeatability.
-Performance.
-Longevity.

Every rep starts where your body meets the bench.

When you have the opportunity to work with elite athletes like Wellington Archie, holder of the USPA Texas Raw Bench Press Record and USPA National Raw Bench Press Record, you quickly realize that every detail matters. At the highest level, tiny mechanical advantages become meaningful differences in force production, consistency, and long-term durability.

The surface isn’t passive.

It’s part of the lift.

The era of human-centered strength equipment is almost here.

07/14/2026

Innovation has a trust problem.

Too many companies have pushed gimmicks, overpromised results, and taken advantage of people who trusted them to build equipment with quality, and the customer’s best interests in mind.

That skepticism is understandable. But it also means legitimate innovation often starts out guilty until proven innocent.

When you challenge an industry standard, people will call your product bu****it. They’ll dismiss the research, attack the methodology, or claim patents are meaningless. When you know what you created is real, that resistance can fuel you, but it can also make the journey incredibly isolating.

Today was a reminder to keep going.

Our second U.S. patent has officially issued.

We now have:

-2 issued patents + additional patent protection already pending.
-3 published independent university studies + another study currently underway.

Patents establish that what we created is novel. Research demonstrates what it can do. And the evidence continues to build.

People will always try to tear apart what they don’t understand, or what they feel threatened by. But today’s news helped quiet the noise and reminded us why we started:

-We have created something truly special. -Something that is truly the first-of-its kind.
-Something no one else has done.

And we’re only getting started.

PATENTED. PEER-REVIEWED. PROVEN.

06/18/2026

The strongest innovations don’t always start with a new exercise. Sometimes they start with questioning the equipment itself.

For more than 100 years, the flat bench has remained virtually unchanged.

Yet athletes, coaches, and lifters have spent decades trying to work around the same limitations through programming changes, technique adjustments, mobility drills, specialty bars, and endless accessory work.

We asked a different question:

What if the surface itself was part of the problem?

That question led to years of development, testing, athlete feedback, engineering, and research.

The result was The Launch Pad®.

A patented performance interface designed to change how the body interacts with the bench, creating a different training environment without changing the exercise itself.

Because when the athlete changes, performance changes.

And when the surface changes, everything built on top of it can change too.

This is bigger than a bench accessory.

It’s a new way of thinking about strength training.

PATENTED • RESEARCH-BACKED • BUILT FOR PERFORMANCE

Effects of an eight week training regimen with a novel bench press pad compared to a traditional bench on upper body strength and performance in collegiate American football players Article Sidebar PDF Published: Oct 2, 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.55860/RNUB8627 Keywords: Bench press, Muscular stre...

06/17/2026

Please join us in welcoming Jonathan Erskine, MS, SCCC, to the Advanced Muscle Mechanics team.

We’ve tagged Jonathan in this post to make it easy to give him a follow.

Jonathan brings more than a decade of experience in strength and conditioning, having worked with collegiate athletes, tactical athletes, and members of the U.S. Special Operations community. He earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Troy University and holds the prestigious Strength & Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) credential, one of the most respected certifications in the profession.

A competitive powerlifter and accomplished coach, Jonathan has built a reputation for combining evidence-based training with real-world application. Throughout his career, he has helped athletes and operators develop greater strength, power, resilience, and performance in environments where results matter most.

Jonathan is a supporter and user of The Launch Pad. He and many of his colleagues throughout the tactical and Special Operations communities have incorporated it into their training and have been using it for few years now, giving him a unique perspective as both a coach and end user of the product.

Jonathan will be sharing training insights, coaching education, programming strategies, and practical tools that can help you get more out of your training. Whether you’re an athlete, operator, coach, or simply someone looking to improve performance, you’ll want to keep an eye on the content he’ll be putting out.

Most importantly, Jonathan is a great guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience who genuinely cares about helping people succeed.

We’re very excited to have him on board.

Welcome to the team, Coach Erskine!

Give him a follow and be on the lookout for coaching insights, training tips, and practical ways to get the most out of your training, including how he utilizes The Launch Pad with the athletes and operators he works with every day.

05/16/2026

What started as an idea to challenge a 100-year-old flat bench standard is now backed by not one, but THREE published peer-reviewed studies, with more on the way.

The Launch Pad® continues to show measurable improvements in strength, performance, mechanics, and force transfer compared to the traditional flat bench.

This is bigger than a product. It’s the beginning of a new performance interface category.

And to think… this all started with a hand-built prototype in a garage just 4½ years ago.

PATENTED • PEER-REVIEWED • PROVEN

Eccentrically overloaded bench press training Augmenting strength gains via a novel bench press pad Article Sidebar PDF Published: Jun 10, 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.55860/JCDL3612 Keywords: Performance analysis, Bench press, Muscular strength, 1-RM, Eccentric overload, Ergogenic aid Main Article....

03/12/2026

The bench press hasn’t changed in 100 years. But the science finally has.

For decades, lifters have pressed on the same flat surface, despite the fact that the human spine, rib cage, and shoulder complex aren’t flat.

So what happens when you change the pressing surface instead of the weight?

A newly published peer-reviewed study in the International Journal of Exercise Science (2026) tested resistance-trained lifters performing bench press at 70% of their 1RM.

When the bench was equipped with The Launch Pad®, researchers measured:

⚡ +17.5% faster bar velocity
💪 +24–27% greater pec activation
📏 +15.8% greater range of motion
🔋 +8.8% higher power output

Same lifters.
Same load.
Same exercise.

Completely different performance.

The reason is simple:

When posture improves, mechanics improve.
And when mechanics improve, performance follows.

The Launch Pad® converts a flat bench into a biomechanically optimized pressing surface, allowing athletes to move more explosively, recruit more muscle, and generate more power without increasing weight.

This is now the third peer-reviewed university study validating the concept and we’re just getting started..

Maybe the bench press didn’t need more weight.

Maybe it needed better design.

Stay Tuned.