absolute weakest bench you've seen needing intermediate programming?

[marcf]

These are the people I want to tell that they only practice the 'rest lift' between squats and deadlifts.

That's cute and all, except they can bench way more than you squat or deadlift. Nothing wrong with bench only competitions.

But if you wanna walk up to a guy who benches a 585 "rest lift" in competition and tell him that, go right ahead.

[synnfusion]

If you have exhausted all resets, microloading, taking a short break from the stuck lift, and your form is spot on, then I'd just use another bench press variation for a while. Because if you are running a LP as intended, you'll only be able to run it for a couple more months at best.

So continue benching, but don't use the stuck lift. Do something like close grips, football bar benches, or even DB benches. All the while take what you can get on the other 3 big lifts, and the chin ups.

Once you have truly exhausted all the linear gains, you can switch to an intermediate program for all lifts. Depending on how your body is shaped, I would guess you have narrow shoulders and/or long skinny arms, a one lift per day set up with some good assistance stuff will help your bench more than just stubbornly benching all the time.

Because you may snicker at the "bench bros", but all of them have big arms, big chests, and wide backs. You don't get that without doing lots of upper body work.

You're absolutely right about pretty much everything you said. Narrow shoulders, arms slightly longer than average. Also slowly increasing respect for the bench bros.

[synnfusion]

Because if you can progress 3 out of 4 lifts every time you do them, it is inefficient to switch to a program where you can only progress each lift once a week, unless you add very little weight each time you do a lift on the LP.



According to the OP he only benches 35lbs more than he presses. And that difference is getting smaller, as the press still goes up, but the bench doesn't. So there must be a weak point, assuming the bench press form is good. So if the bench alternative chosen improves that weakness, this will surely help progress once the bench press is introduced again.

It's extremely frustrating to deal with a stuck lift, and a lot of lifters get tunnel vision. The OP lifts as a hobby, so training is supposed to be fun. So why not do some other bench lift for a while, get solid progress overall by running out the LP, and then attack the bench press again with renewed enthusiasm? I guarantee you that this will give the lifter a better total for the four lifts over the span of a year than an immediate switch to intermediate programming, and it will therefore be more enjoyable as well.

My press is actually stalling now as well which isn't surprising. It seems like it would be virtually impossible to keep progressing on the press until they completely match with each other haha.

[synnfusion]

That's cute and all, except they can bench way more than you squat or deadlift. Nothing wrong with bench only competitions.

But if you wanna walk up to a guy who benches a 585 "rest lift" in competition and tell him that, go right ahead.

It's just a joke and it's mostly directed towards the commercial gym benching bro. Don't worry, I still have enormous respect for anyone who gets under a heavy bar in any way and anyone who benches 4 wheels or more has huge amounts of respect from me.

[MattBraunstein]

Some of you are suggesting late intermediate/advanced programming for a late stage novice with all these variations. This seems pretty ill advised.

It's best to stick with the simple approach. Get form checked. After that, start looking at increasing volume. This can be either extra sets, like 5x5 and/or benching twice a week and pressing once. I would not consider microloading at this time for the bench. Given how much farther ahead your squat and deadlift are, you should be strong enough in general to keep progressing the bench by 5lbs. If we are talking about switching to intermediate programming, that would be once per week. On an HLM program, you could consider a bench alternative such as pause benches, instead of a normal bench on your M day. But make sure you stick with a normal bench on your H day.

[DieselBro]

Right. Nothing says you can't have different programming/progression for different lifts.

I am kinda in this boat... knees are fucked up.. started out with the bar on squats, to try and slowly strengthen everything. Got to squatting 225 on Monday, but wed and Friday I have to back off due to knee pain... other lifts progressing fine on beginner routine though.

[marcf]

It's just a joke and it's mostly directed towards the commercial gym benching bro. Don't worry, I still have enormous respect for anyone who gets under a heavy bar in any way and anyone who benches 4 wheels or more has huge amounts of respect from me.

I just don't want you to miss the bigger picture, which is more benching. You'll need more frequency than what you're already doing to break through your plateau.

I took LP up to a 295 bench fairly quickly, but it was a grind. Then I regressed a little, but I'm not sure why. I started benching twice a week instead of every other workout and in 4 weeks I benched 300 pretty smoothly. If you can squeeze in some bench variant or lighter bench (like 3 sets of 8) after you press on your press/non-bench days, I think you'll see some decent results after 3-4 weeks.

[DieselBro]

I just don't want you to miss the bigger picture, which is more benching. You'll need more frequency than what you're already doing to break through your plateau.

I took LP up to a 295 bench fairly quickly, but it was a grind. Then I regressed a little, but I'm not sure why. I started benching twice a week instead of every other workout and in 4 weeks I benched 300 pretty smoothly. If you can squeeze in some bench variant or lighter bench (like 3 sets of 8) after you press on your press/non-bench days, I think you'll see some decent results after 3-4 weeks.

Damn, 295.. how old are you?

I took LP to 195 bench and 117.5 Press and am now microloading LOL..but keeping progress going forward at least.

[MattBraunstein]

Where was the late intermediate/advanced stuff mentioned?

Maybe I misread what was being suggested. It sounded like it was being suggested to add a bunch of assistance work to handle sticking points. This wasn't by you, but by someone else. That was what I was referring to.

You're hinting at those broscience ratios, which don't generalize well.

Maybe that is hinting at broscience, but when you see something that looks strange, you should at least question it. Maybe this is where he stalls out, but just sounds off given his other lifts progress, including the press.

[marcf]

Damn, 295.. how old are you?

I took LP to 195 bench and 117.5 Press and am now microloading LOL..but keeping progress going forward at least.

I'm 35 and I weigh 240 now, but I started my LP at 222 pounds, so the weight gain definitely helped. I did have to reset, though. I started microloading around 235 pounds, but when I got to 255 my shoulder hurt so damn bad that I had to take a week or so off and reset back to 230-235 I think.