Stalled Bench - Form Check

[Mike Barry]

Hi coaches, I have hit a bit of a wall in my BP linear progression (possibly on the OHP too, will get more data on Friday). On Monday 4/30 I did 172.5lbs for 3 sets of 5. On Friday 5/4 I missed the 5 rep of the 3rd set at 175. I did a 4th set of 5 at 155 lbs. Today is Wednesday 5/9 and I attempted 175 again. I got all 5 in the first set, with the 5th rep being a pretty good grind. Only got 4 in the 2nd set, and here is my 3rd set where I only get 3 reps in and crash and burned. Resting 5-7 minutes between sets. My other lifts went well today, so I think overall nutrition and recovery are OK.

YouTube

This is my first BP video, I was fortunate enough to have another SS follower working out next to me to help with filming.

Do you see an obvious form issue? It's not the best angle to see, but my elbows could be outside my wrists at the bottom instead of staying perpendicular.

Thank you!

[Michael Wolf]

Prior to even looking at your video, my comment is that doing that extra set at 155 was a mistake. You miss 1/15 of your planned reps, what does that mean? You got 93.3% of your planned work in, plus some unmeasurable but still present stimulus from the missed rep, assuming you didn't just drop the bar on yourself and let it lie there. In such a case, you lick your wounded ego and move on to the next lift, trying 175 again the next time.

There has been some discussion of late whether the LP ends because of insufficient stress to continue to drive adaptation, or lack of recovery from workout to workout. My experience is that it is both, but the fatigue factor is a bigger one in the short run. Meaning, your LP won't continue for months and months longer by increasing recovery and reducing fatigue, but it can continue longer for a matter of weeks, often, without doing anything that is a drastic "peaking" volume cut that puts you in a bad place to continue training as an Intermediate.

So what you did was exacerbate the situation with your extra set, and your performance today - worse than last time - actually bears me out. Because you couldn't have gotten weaker since then, right? But you could very well have - and almost certainly did - get more fatigued, by your extra set at 155, and then Monday's heavy presses.

I've also seen this enough times before that a) it's no surprise to me, and b) is one of the reasons and indications that fatigue is a short-term cause of LP's end and fatigue management is thus a useful factor in extending an LP without significant reduction in total work, that messes up your transition to Intermediate programming.

Now I'll get off my soapbox and talk about your form.

There's nothing awful here, so it's not like a major form error is holding you back. I suspect you're just running into the normal LP phase where you miss a rep.

A few small things though:
1. Get yourself fully set, butt on the bench and shoulder blades retracted and held back, before you unrack. Don't still be in process of doing those things as you unrack the bar.
2. Really memorize and sear onto your soul the spot on which you want the bar to touch, and bring it directly there.
3. Your grip width looks too narrow for your elbow angle - but I can't tell from this video whether your elbows need to be tucked more or your grip moved out. My guess is grip is OK and you need to bring the bar down by bringing your elbows down a few more degrees.

[Mike Barry]

Prior to even looking at your video, my comment is that doing that extra set at 155 was a mistake.

Thank you for the response Michael. I actually got the idea to do a backoff set from Sully in response to a question I asked him at a camp about how to proceed when missing a rep or two on the 3rd set. This has helped me breakthrough a barrier before, but obviously not this time. Maybe it was more appropriate early in LP.

My question now though is what should my plan be going in to my next few sessions? The two paths I see are a deload then work back up, or go for a top set and 2 back off sets. Maybe even going 3 x 3 should be considered? I'm leaning toward sticking with one top set of 5 and two backoffs. I'll also get a video straight on to get a better look at my grip width vs elbows.

[Michael Wolf]

Maybe Sully and I disagree, but given the context here, early in the LP fatigue is much less likely to be a factor and you're probably not going to hurt anything by doing an extra set. But generally if you miss a rep, I don't recommend you substitute a whole additional set of five. Psychologically, some people will kill themselves if they don't make up the miss with a single, but don't do another set of five.

I'd say back off and work back up. Back of the press and bench together, since they're overlapping enough that not backing off the press will probably not allow the needed fatigue dissipation, even if the press is still moving up fine. I'd say your next few bench workouts should be:
150x5, 160x5, 170x5, then 175x5 on the fourth one back, and when you get there, sure, switch to top set + backoffs (i.e. 175x5, then 165x5x2), and back to 2.5 increments. When that runs out, you're ready to move past LP.

[Mike Barry]

Perfect, thank you. Presses are NOT moving up fine, I ran head first into a brick wall on Monday. I'll follow a similar reset pattern for those as well.

Once again, thank you for your help.

[Michael Wolf]

Ah ok - that's often the case that bench and press track together, but not always, so just wanted to make sure you re-set both even if one was still moving.