Whining About My Crappy Bench

[franklie]

I really, really suck at the bench press.

Squat continues to increase rapidly and the deadlift is coming along for the ride. But my ability to press weights remains sub par.

I got 225x5 a few months ago when I hit a high of ~175 lbs. Got a very hard 225x5 three days ago at a new high of 185 lbs. Today I barely pressed 235 once.

Pretty damned sure that I'm beyond linear progression for the bench. I only seem to increase sporadically and when I'm dialing back my squat training for whatever reason (injury, fatigue, lull between heavy cycles). My squat number just keep growing, but whenever I add weight to the bench press, it just feels so heavy and I usually stall.

The biggest move ever on my bench was the 25 lbs I got last year when I ran a Smolov Jr for it while rehabbing my knee and squatting really, really light. Have since failed with Russian volume approaches run concurrently with high volume squatting. Thinking of trying another Smolov Jr., however, after this meet when I dial back the squat.

Input/advice welcome.

Gary, my experiences with bench are as follows:

at age 21/22 at a BW 155lb, ht 5' 10" over a 3 month period I moved my bench from 185lb to 305lb.

I benched on MOndays and I benched on Thursdays. My training partners were strong mofos and I struggled to keep up with them. Every workout I ended up doing a 1-2 rep max for my final set. The bench workouts were done "pyramid style" - low weights high reps as the weight went up the reps went down. I also did dumbbell flies (65lb) and incline benches (225lb) as part of my "chest routine". For my triceps I did 135lb "skullcrushers" with an Olympic bar on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I ended up with stretch marks where the pecs join up at the shoulder and I was embarassed for many years about them. My buddies accused me of taking steroids but I ate an ordinary diet with a 5 cup blender of protein drink at night.

Later in my 30's at a body weight of 165lb I worked upto a bench of 275lb. Again I followed a similar routine to the routine I used to get to 305lb.

I'm not sure that they are competition grade benches but the bar did touch my chest on each rep and I locked out each rep at the top.

Perhaps something in what I've written might be able to help you get your bench up.

[George Noble]

I think higher volume works for the bench. Guys like you and me bench around 230 and although it's easy to feel smart about how many of Rip's books we have read, the retards we make fun of are benching more than us because they just do so much of it and they do so much of other upper body movement.

[Smack]

I think higher volume works for the bench.

Really?

I'm in the same situation, expect with even lower bench press numbers. I did SS for ~10 weeks and added 15kg to my 5RM. I then switched to a routine that has much higher volume on the pressing muscles (IA's SPBR) and it didn't do shit for me bench.

[PMDL]

Yeah I gotta agree with the volume thing. Bench has always been more responsive to higher volume than either squats or pulls, where I seem to be able to get away with relatively little (at least on the lifts themselves).

For me benching has always needed a frequency component to improve, even if the daily volume wasn't very high. Though now I'm finding that chipping away at it with the conservative, steady-improvement approach is working just as well.

Maybe it's because I'm too old and injured to be trying all this crazy shit, and I'm finally sticking to the basics that I should have been sticking to for years.

[Guido]

I've got pretty much the same issue with my bench. I managed to get up to 315 just doing a basically random powerlifting routine of alternating heavy and light weeks, doing 5's some days, triples others, double on occasion, and then going for a new max about once every 2 months. I was making decent gains but then I completely plateued at the end of 2007. I haven't hit more than 315 ever since. I've tried all sorts of thing to bring it up including floor presses, more OH pressing, moving to twice a week sessions, 5-3-1, etc. I had actually gone down to a max of 305 a year or so ago. I was able to bring it back up to 315 recently by doing a higher volume approach alternating lighter and heavier days twice per week, with OH pressing on a separate day. I'm going to do another cycle of that and see where it takes me.

[tdwaffle15]

Interesting discussion. I'd think that the higher volume would necessitate lower weights...does this sort of programming contribute in the form of greater sarcoplasmic hypertrophy specifically, and thus create more efficient levers?

Weight gain has been a proven method. But IIRC Gary you are already just above the weight class you hope to compete in.

[BruteForce]

If you were willing to work in some Close Grip Bench Presses or Reverse grip benchpresses into your workout, your benchpress would certainly push through its sticking point. You do have some incredibly long limbs, so the benchpress certainly won't be your strongpoint but, you can definitely bring it up with the above exercises.

[hbriem]

My bench was stuck for over two years. It finally moved a bit late last year with a very demanding 9 week Russian routine. You know the deal 80%x6x3, 6x4,6x5, etc. I also did some lower volume benching on the other two workout days so I was doing some form of bench 3 times a week. I'm doing it again right now in the hope of adding another 2.5kg or so on top. Looks good so far.

[PMDL]

Interesting discussion. I'd think that the higher volume would necessitate lower weights...does this sort of programming contribute in the form of greater sarcoplasmic hypertrophy specifically, and thus create more efficient levers?

I can't say I really care what it does physiologically.

[Gary Gibson]

Interesting discussion. I'd think that the higher volume would necessitate lower weights...does this sort of programming contribute in the form of greater sarcoplasmic hypertrophy specifically, and thus create more efficient levers?

Weight gain has been a proven method. But IIRC Gary you are already just above the weight class you hope to compete in.

80% x5x 10 is very different from 60% x10 x5