Pressing more often? Poor press progress.

[starkarevarjedag]

I am doing Starting Strength since 2 weeks. My deadlift and squat are increasing every time but my press and bench press are very hard to improve.
My press is at 40kg but I cannot do 3x5 at 41. I bought microplates because at 42.5kg I did 2, 2, 1. But at 41 I could only fo 4,3,3.
The bench press I also failed to increase, from 50 to 51. Can only do 3x3.

I am thinking about pressing more. That helped before.
What is the effect of adding a lighter pressing pass? Does it even help?
Like on bench day I will add a lighter press. So if I am normally trying to press 41kg I would do a lighter session at 35 or 37.5kg after the bench.
Or will that just exhaust me?

Generally I find it hard to press 3x5. Is 3x3 ok?

[NeilTheCanadian]

If you're that early in the LP, you need to be sticking to the 3x5s, worry about modifying it later, for now find a weight at which you can do 3x5s, and move up from there. Because of the nature of the pressing exercises, they are always going to progress slower than the DL or squat, so fret not. But if you try to go for heavy 3s or singles too early youll stall pretty quick. Stick to the program as its written in the book and youll be just fine.

[Eric Schexnayder]

I am doing Starting Strength since 2 weeks. My deadlift and squat are increasing every time but my press and bench press are very hard to improve.
My press is at 40kg but I cannot do 3x5 at 41. I bought microplates because at 42.5kg I did 2, 2, 1. But at 41 I could only fo 4,3,3.
The bench press I also failed to increase, from 50 to 51. Can only do 3x3.

I am thinking about pressing more. That helped before.
What is the effect of adding a lighter pressing pass? Does it even help?
Like on bench day I will add a lighter press. So if I am normally trying to press 41kg I would do a lighter session at 35 or 37.5kg after the bench.
Or will that just exhaust me?

Generally I find it hard to press 3x5. Is 3x3 ok?

Are you male? Female? Age? Height? Weight?

If you are a 60 year old 40kg female, then your press is doing fantastic.

How can you tell that the increasing the pressing frequency helped after only 2 weeks of strength training?

At what weight did you start pressing? If you started with the bar at 20kg, then you have jumped way too quickly. Can you get one set of 5 and if so, how long are you resting between sets? Are you eating enough?

These are all important things to consider before trying to adapt the program.

[starkarevarjedag]

I eat well and I sleep well.
I can do 3x5 at 41kg now but then at 42kg 3x3 only.
The thing is I could do 3x3 at 42.5kg a month ago but if I have to do 3x5 I dont seem to progress much at all.

Why is 5 magic? If 3x3 works, they why not?

[starkarevarjedag]

I started pressing at 20 kg and progressed all they way up to 40kg in 2.5kg increments.
It got hard at 32.5kg, I was doing Stronglifts and 5x5 didnt work which led me to switch to 3x5.
In general though I feel like I can progress on 3x3 but not 3x5.
But maybe if I do 3x3 that will lead to 3x2?
I rest 5 min between sets.

What has been others progression on press and bench?

I will try adding a light press or bench pass when I do the bench or press.

[Nicholas Rega]

I started pressing at 20 kg and progressed all they way up to 40kg in 2.5kg increments.
It got hard at 32.5kg, I was doing Stronglifts and 5x5 didnt work which led me to switch to 3x5.
In general though I feel like I can progress on 3x3 but not 3x5.
But maybe if I do 3x3 that will lead to 3x2?
I rest 5 min between sets.

What has been others progression on press and bench?

I will try adding a light press or bench pass when I do the bench or press.

With that logic, why not just go straight to singles? You should give up on making your own adjustments to the program until you have read and understand the gray book.

I think you should revisit the fundamentals. When was the last time you had a form check?

When asked about your nutrition, you simply reply, “I eat well.” That really doesn’t tell us much. What is your current height, weight, and waist circumference? How have these numbers changed since you started the program? Read the gray book, and check our Coach Wolf’s reply to this thread for making program modifications: Trying to keep LP alive

[Mike Carlton]

I'm fairly new to the program so take my advice with a pinch of salt. I'm an older, skinnier guy than most SS beginners but have made good progress with all the lifts, especially squats and deadlifts which activate more muscle mass, simply by following the linear progression.
Like you I find progress more difficult with the press because my upper body started weaker than my legs and there's less muscle mass to work with. I think it's also more technically difficult and I would love some coaching but don't live in US. I started at 25 kg, got up to 35kg quite quickly with 3 x 5 sets and stuck there for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I progressed to 36 kg 3 x 5. I believe that if I work hard at the LP, keep it simple, eat more and recover after workouts the progress will continue. My DL has gone from 60 kg to 122 kg in about 6 weeks.
I'd suggest you re-read the book and follow Rip's advice.
Best of luck
Mike