Posted: 4/2/2012 4:55:10 PM EDT
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I consider myself a fairly strong guy. I can do pull-ups for days, I can deadlift 415 lbs. three times, on heavy squat days I can rep 315 lbs. five times for five sets, and I can military press 185 lbs. five times for five sets. My core is strong.
But when it comes to bench press, i suck. I'm disporpotionally weak compared to my other lifts. Right now I struggle to rep 225 lbs. five times for five sets and it's taken me years to get there. I need spots on sets four and five. My form is good, I use my legs and all that, but I've been stuck at this weight for a couple of months now. I'm worried that I've maxed out my potential. Any tips on how to power through this plateau? I'm 6'2, 204 with 8% body fat last time I was measured. Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated. |
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Post a video of you benching. There's some strong bencher's here who can give you good pointers after seeing your form.
Do you have a good arch? (not crazy - but can you get a fist between your lower back and the bench?) Are you trying to pull the bar apart? Are you keeping your elbows in? Are you bringing the bar down do just below your nipples? Is your grip too wide/narrow? These are some of the things a video would help answer. |
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Quoted:
Have you tried supplementing more isolating movements like flys and tricep extenstions? Yes sir. I do both dumbbell flat, decline, and incline flys as well as weighted dips. However I don't really work out (that is, isolate) my biceps and triceps that much. |
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Agreed with seeing a video. At least post your workout. Weighted dips have vastly improved my benching strength.
Are you truly not able to do more weight? If I don't have a spotter I often leave 3-4 reps in my last set because my greatest fear is getting cut in half when I fail on the bench. |
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It's hard to say without video, but if you're OHP is 185x5x5, with a rough max of ~250? on the bench, then I can be 90% sure your weakness is technique. Watch "So you think you can bench" on Elitefts... work on that for a while. MOST often, when I'm coaching someone who thinks they're good at bench, but 'have reached a plateau', their elbows are too far aBducted. Keep your elbows RIGHT next to your body. For the first handful of sessions, your strength might be decreased, but it'll pick up quick. I'd venture to say that 60-70% of the Benchpress (with proper technique) is Tricep. Work on HEAVY tricep exercises (JM press, Close Grip Bench, etc)... experiment with a few different accessory exercises for 4wks at a time. (Tate presses, One hand DB OHP, etc). See which ones work well for your bench. |
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Quoted:
Post a video of you benching. There's some strong bencher's here who can give you good pointers after seeing your form. Do you have a good arch? (not crazy - but can you get a fist between your lower back and the bench?) Are you trying to pull the bar apart? Are you keeping your elbows in? Are you bringing the bar down do just below your nipples? Is your grip too wide/narrow? These are some of the things a video would help answer. I arch my back keeping my shoulders blades pinched and pressed into the bench. Don't know what pulling the bar apart means. When I pull the bar off the rack I do adjust my elbows in at the starting position. I do bring the bar down just below my nipples. On a standard Olympic bar the thumb side of my hands are right next to the outside of the rings. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Post a video of you benching. There's some strong bencher's here who can give you good pointers after seeing your form. Do you have a good arch? (not crazy - but can you get a fist between your lower back and the bench?) Are you trying to pull the bar apart? Are you keeping your elbows in? Are you bringing the bar down do just below your nipples? Is your grip too wide/narrow? These are some of the things a video would help answer. I arch my back keeping my shoulders blades pinched and pressed into the bench. Don't know what pulling the bar apart means. When I pull the bar off the rack I do adjust my elbows in at the starting position. I do bring the bar down just below my nipples. On a standard Olympic bar the thumb side of my hands are right next to the outside of the rings. This could be a contributor depending on how far apart the rings are. I have several bars and all the rings on my York bars are 34.5" apart my Pendlay bars are 35.75" apart. |
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Quoted: It's hard to say without video, but if you're OHP is 185x5x5, with a rough max of ~250? on the bench, then I can be 90% sure your weakness is technique. Watch "So you think you can bench" on Elitefts... work on that for a while. MOST often, when I'm coaching someone who thinks they're good at bench, but 'have reached a plateau', their elbows are too far aBducted. Keep your elbows RIGHT next to your body. For the first handful of sessions, your strength might be decreased, but it'll pick up quick. I'd venture to say that 60-70% of the Benchpress (with proper technique) is Tricep. Work on HEAVY tricep exercises (JM press, Close Grip Bench, etc)... experiment with a few different accessory exercises for 4wks at a time. (Tate presses, One hand DB OHP, etc). See which ones work well for your bench. I can't stress enough how much that video series helped me. I was stuck at 225 3x5 for over a month, watched the videos, completed 225, 230 the next week, and 235 the week after that for 3x5 reps without any misses...(I know that's not a lot, but the improvement is the important part). |
| One big thing that has been helping lately for me is analyzing where my bench starts to decelerate and then spending time in that position, pauses or just plain reps is the simplest way for me. It is best decided from a 1RM or near 1RM video. That and because I can blast weights off my chest, struggle at mid point and then lock out relatively fast I am doing 3-5 rep max weights, sometimes to a rep max or stopping with one rep left. If speed was pretty much the same throughout the ROM my focus would be more on dynamic effort protocols for benching. |
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Raw lifters put themselves at a disadvantage if they widen their grips too much. On a texas powerbar, If I'm lifting raw, my grip is ring finger on the rings with my 74" reach, it's relatively narrow. Wider than that and I lose a lot of my tricep drive at the transition, which causes me to stick in the middle and fail the lift. The "ultra wide" grip which geared lifters use maximizes the benefit of the bench shirt, which helps build momentum to push through the transition range of the lift. Raw lifters don't have this, so a narrower grip is needed to maximize tricep leverage. Play with grip width, watch SYTYCB, and throw a video of your bench at a light and a near maximal weight. Myself and others will throw some advice at ya. |
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Quoted:
MOST often, when I'm coaching someone who thinks they're good at bench, but 'have reached a plateau', their elbows are too far aBducted. Keep your elbows RIGHT next to your body. For the first handful of sessions, your strength might be decreased, but it'll pick up quick. Is this something you see as something to teach someone to not abduct their arms to the extreme and once they get over their bad habit it can be discarded? Or is it something that you recommend to do all the time? I remember starting out benching for powerlifting and doing that because I interpeted "tuck your elbows" to mean tuck them as much as possible. For me overtucking has been a bigger problem than over abducting ever was. |
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When I train with the big boys (600-800lb benchers), even they all tuck pretty close to their body (not pinned tight though...) Raw or geared, they still do the same pinning, but most of their training is geared towards increasing their bench w/ equipment... With that said, there is an inherent mechanical advantage to having your forearms perfectly perpendicular to the ground in all 4 planes... and that should take precedence over the 'tuck' Simple concept, Right?... Lowering the bar to your lower chest/upper abs is how you stay perpendicular in the Superior/Inferior plane- Easy enough. When you look at "tucking your elbows" and "Grip width", they fight each other. Finding the balance of Elbows and grip is a personal thing, but this keeps the forearms perpendicular in the Lateral/medial plane. Watch some videos of Scott Yard's raw pressing. He's an ex-geared lifter (Highest total ever in a meet), but lifts raw now. 500+ raw bench. He shows a good example of 4inches or so between ribs and elbows... paired with his grip width, it keeps his forearms perpendic. Another consideration: More aBduction leads to more shoulder problems, due to the lateral sheer force and torque on the joint/rotator cuff. |
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I was right about where you are. I watched the So You Think You Can Bench videos and reevaluated my form. My biggest issues were with not pulling the bar apart (grip the bar and literally try to pull it apart) when I was setting up, not focusing on keeping my forearms perpendicular to the floor, and not keeping my elbows tucked enough. Basically, everything Darktide said.  When I fixed those things, the rest of my form fell into place easily, and over the course of the next month or so, I went from barely repping 225 to repping 265. Huge jump in short order. Those videos alone are responsible for getting my motivation back. I was stuck at 225 for so long I almost felt like completely giving up on barbell bench.
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Quoted:
It's hard to say without video, but if you're OHP is 185x5x5, with a rough max of ~250? on the bench, then I can be 90% sure your weakness is technique. Watch "So you think you can bench" on Elitefts... work on that for a while. MOST often, when I'm coaching someone who thinks they're good at bench, but 'have reached a plateau', their elbows are too far aBducted. Keep your elbows RIGHT next to your body. For the first handful of sessions, your strength might be decreased, but it'll pick up quick. I'd venture to say that 60-70% of the Benchpress (with proper technique) is Tricep. Work on HEAVY tricep exercises (JM press, Close Grip Bench, etc)... experiment with a few different accessory exercises for 4wks at a time. (Tate presses, One hand DB OHP, etc). See which ones work well for your bench. spot on. i would add that when you bring it down use your lats. |