Whining About My Crappy Bench

[Gary Gibson]

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.

[blowdpanis]

Two totally separate things that have worked well for my bench...

1) High frequency, pavel-style work (I raised my bench back up to my competition best, like +20 lbs, in 3 weeks doing this). In that you seem to have approached things on this end (i.e. the higher frequency stuff), perhaps this is not for you.

2) A combination of one day dedicated to the bench, and another day dedicated to an "overload" movement in the form of a floor/rack press. Volume accumulated on both with triples/5's. I did overhead stuff on the middle day.

Have you ever played with any rack or floor presses? Getting the bar to start right at/below your sticking point seems to do good things.

[Tom Campitelli]

I don't know, Gary, it seems like you are making progress on the bench. As you know, the bench won't increase like the squat and you are well over your bodyweight at the present. Some obvious questions here:

1. Are you microloading the bench? You are only listing 5 lb increments below.
2. If you were doing a linear progression before and you were microloading, why not try the next simplest thing - Texas Method? I know you like Russian training approaches, but the TM is worth a look.

[PMDL]

If you're a good deadlifter you can expect benching to suck ass.

Best thing is to just accept it's going to be a long, slow process to see improvements. Also benching is like squatting, the heavier you are the better it gets.

Microloading is a good option mainly because it's slow, incremental progress. You can do effectively the same thing with any of the programming strategies that have you chipping away at it over time. Good examples are 5/3/1, or stuff like the Pavel/Steve Justa/Doug Hepburn kinds of routines that have you sticking with a weight until it gets easy and/or you reach a certain volume target.

I never got anywhere with the "grind out sets week after week" method. Unless you count repeated shoulder injuries as getting somewhere.

[LondonTiger]

If you're a good deadlifter you can expect benching to suck ass.

Can you explain the logic behind this to me, thanks

[hbriem]

Long arms are good for deadlifting, bad for benching.

Look at the fortunes of Andrzej Stanaszek in the 2003 IPF Worlds. Stanaszek is a dwarf with short limbs, long torso and very short fingers.

He totally crushed his rivals in the squat and bench with a 300.5kg SQ (663 lbs) and a 182.5kg BP (402 lbs). In the under 52 division! (< 114 lbs). He had a 70.5kg (155 lbs) lead going into the deadlift and still lost! By a wide margin too.

That said, most people I know who excel at either, excel at both. And in fact in the squat as well.

[Gary Gibson]

Wow, thanks for the reply, guys.

PMDL mentioned: "kinds of routines that have you sticking with a weight until it gets easy and/or you reach a certain volume target."

This has been THE most reliable method for me in the squat. The first half of the Russian Squat Routine cycle uses 80% every single time and just waves back and forth, gradually increasing the volume from sets of triples to sets of six. Once you've gradually worked up to x6x6 with 80%, you start tapering the volume and cranking up the intensity and cruise confidently to a new single max or about 105-110% of your old max. It worked wonderfully with my squat a few months ago and seems to be working as planned (and a little better on my squat now).

Mike, the frequency stuff has not worked for me before, but I suspect like most I overdid the intensity. Also I love floor presses, but didn't get much out of them when I devoted myself to them a couple years back (I had a power rack in my kitchen, but no bench). Again, the fault was probably mine, not the movement's.

And, Tom, I will be trying TM...but after I try either the Smolov or RSR in March (leaning toward the incredibly reliable RSR with slight truncation). I will be traveling an awful lot at the end of March and either of would fit the month and then the following forced lay off perfectly. When I settle down in April, I'll be doing a long, drawn out Smolov/Feduleyev for the SQ in preparation for the USAPL Raw Nationals in July (basically cutting the frequency in half so the base cycle is six weeks of work instead of six and intensive phase is eight weeks instead of four). The Texas Method for Bench would work well at that point, using the twice weekly approach.

[Mr.City]

You're doing Smolov again?

[SerusMournstar]

The Starr 5x5 seems to have been the easiest way for me to increase my bench. It only requires 1 heavy set per workout and I haven't had too much trouble adding to my bench from week to week (with the occasional couple week reset).

[Gary Gibson]

Like so:

February 20: Meet

February 22 to March 13: 3-week Smolov Jr for BP, PTTP for SQ and DL
March 20: Test BP
March 22 to April 4: Travel

April 5 to May 15: Smolov base phase SQ done 2x/wk instead of 4x/week. BP TM
May 16 to May 21: Rest SQ
May 22: Test new SQ max
May 23 to May 30: Rest SQ (half rest time "switching phase" because Smolov frequency was half normal so recovery needs should be less.)
May 31 to July 10: Feduleyev Intensive Peaking Phase 2x/week (practice deadlift every second week)
July 11 to July 16: Taper
July 17: Meet