Progress on pressing movements

[wicat3]

Hey everyone. I always seem to fail and unable to progress on the press and the bench. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on ways to progress when you continue to fail and resets don’t seem to work.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[perman]

Hey everyone. I always seem to fail and unable to progress on the press and the bench. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on ways to progress when you continue to fail and resets don’t seem to work.

Increase volume and frequency. Doing either benching or pressing 1.5 times a week for low volume is insufficient after the early intermediate stage. You should prioritize one of them, either bench or press three times a week and use the other as an assistance exercise once a week.

As an example, Texas Method is notorious for being bad for bench progress. It needs severe alterations to the point that it becomes a different program in order to produce bench gains for most people.

[Satch12879]

The solution is not programming changes.

Listen, any of you responding as such need to look at OP’s posting history and training log. At minimum you have to ask basic things like, weight gain, recent training history, age/height/sex/weight.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

This is the answer. This is always the answer.

[Adam Gottstein]

I agree we the Rip and review the first three questions. He also linked to the SS book in your post on warm-ups. If you don't have the book, get it and read it. I think it will answer many of your questions, and will empower you to better execute the program.

I also agree with perman, and when you hit that mid-intermediate stage, you can choose to program with an emphasis on bench or press. That said, based on your 1/31 posting Lp progression question, you are and should stills use NLP to get as strong as you can as quickly as you can.

Now, since your post is lacking any details beyond "bench stalls, please help," let's get some more details.

Need to know the answer to the first 3 questions, so read the article and answer them, and please not with yes/no answers, but with relevant details. What did your bench start at? When did you start back up? What is it at now (what is your sticking point)? Do you sleep enough? What are your other lifts at? Are you regularly hitting your workouts 3x a week, or do you miss some? If missing some, how frequently are you lifting? How much sleep do you get?

To be honest, I looked at your SS log, and outside of the set that is a high single (and shouldn't be done at this time), your fives were not at a weight I'd expect a 185lb male to have major issues, and since you indicate all your lifts went down during the 8 weeks doing the bridge, that would be even moreso the case.

[Michael Wolf]

The solution is not programming changes.

Listen, any of you responding as such need to look at OP’s posting history and training log. At minimum you have to ask basic things like, weight gain, recent training history, age/height/sex/weight.

This is the answer. This is always the answer.

One of the many things Rip has been just so absolutely mind bogglingly right about is the desire and appeal for complexity, when the answer is much simpler. Is it true that at some point volume needs to go up? Frequency? Sure. You will rarely find 500 benchers and 300 pressers who do one pressing movement, 3x weekly for 3 sets, and that's all. But my god, how many times do we have to point out that what advanced lifters do to squeeze out their treasured and infrequent PRs is not the same as what Novices and early intermediates need to do to pop out PRs regularly? I guess at least one more time.

I am amazed - and appalled - at the way this jUsT dO mOaR vOlUUUmE! thing has become the default and defacto answer, without looking into the trainee's actual history and habits first. It's a midwit answer.

[Fulcrum]

I don't think benching three times a week constitutes as wild inappropriate "seductive complexity". That's fairly basic solution IMO.

After the first 3 questions thing is answered, which I totally agree with Rip that that is probably the first place to look, Perman's response probably the next place to go. (changing bench/press to intermediate programming, which might entail more volume and frequency which is just a defacto thing that should happen when you switch)

[Mark Rippetoe]

As an example, Texas Method is notorious for being bad for bench progress. It needs severe alterations to the point that it becomes a different program in order to produce bench gains for most people.

Have you actually read PPST3?

[perman]

Have you actually read PPST3?

Sure. My bench made better progress once I switched to programming with higher volume that grew more pec muscle though.

The consensus has been pretty clear on this forum among users who have tried Texas method for extended periods that it's a poor program for bench gains. The most common tip I've seen powerlifters offer for a stalled bench is higher frequency, and 1.5 or 2 times a week just isn't that much after a while for the less training sensitive.

[Ivan Stepic]

jUsT dO mOaR vOlUUUmE!

The Science did the damage.