I need help with bench press. HELP PLEASE!

[SSAlexSS]

Ok all.

I royally suck :


No matter what, I can't seem to be able to gain strenth on bench press. I am stuck.... I tried low reps, middle reps, high reps,.... but it all doesn't work. Weird is that my deadlift shoots through the roof, and my squat is OK .... but my stupid bench is so small and plateued (worst.... u noooo!!!!)

Don't laugh.... I bench 135p for 10 reps 140 for 8 reps....

while I easily deadlift 315+ pounds.... or squat in 225-275 ange...

any ideas? my chest routine is

1 set of flat bench press (or couple sets)
1 set of incline/decline/flat dumbell presses (sometimes)
Sometimes chest flies with cables....


any ideas?

thanks!

 

[k1401]

Gotta go WESTSIDE!

Do a search on it you'll find tons!

The Mann (my Bro) got me hooked and I'm progressing nicely.
There are many guys here that follow it. Also check the Powerlifting Board for info.
Also this site.........http://www.elitefitnesssystems.com/ go to the articles section

 

[ZZuluZ]

Could it be that HIT simply doesn't work for you? Have you tried more sets? Speed work?


-Zulu

 

[needsize]

A strong bench also requires a lot of assistance work, ie, if your tri's aren't up to par then you will have trouble locking out, are you doing heavy sets for tri's on some good compound movements?

 

[gymtime]

A strong bench also requires a lot of assistance work, ie, if your tri's aren't up to par then you will have trouble locking out, are you doing heavy sets for tri's on some good compound movements?

I agree. Same deal with shoulders, front delts specifically.

 

[needsize]

I agree. Same deal with shoulders, front delts specifically

I believe the delts are responsible for the bottom half of the press, from chest to midpoint, so you're right, also important!

 

[SAGAT]

i had exactly the same problem as you...even the same weights! i just worked my tris and delts (like some of the other guys said) really hard, and checked again after a few weeks...and all of a sudden, i could manage 165 for 5 reps...so it increased quite a lot.

 

[sysopt]

I agree. Work the weak points and your bench should go up. Consider working your arms (tris) and delts on a separate day in your routine.

 

[Test boy]

Try 5 sets of 5 reps for 5 weeks. See what happens.

 

[SSAlexSS]

A strong bench also requires a lot of assistance work, ie, if your tri's aren't up to par then you will have trouble locking out, are you doing heavy sets for tri's on some good compound movements?

I dont work my tris directly...

The only thing that works my tris is overhead press and bench press (or variation of bench press, using either db's or bb's).

I guess I should try to strenthen tri's right¨?

 

[ZZuluZ]

You will not get strong using H.I.T.

You've got to add volume, you have to find your weaknesses and improve upon them.

-Zulu

 

[The mann]

you are going about it wrong....instead of only changing your reps around,you need to focus on tri's,lats,upper back..these arethe muscles that will bring your bench up...i guarantee it.break the bench dowyour lats wil kick in at the bottom and get the bar moving,your shoulders will start to take over more in the mid part then your tri's will come in and lock the weight out...
try bringing the bar a little lower on your chest,tuck your elbows towards your sides a bit,stay tight with your lats while you lower the bar,come off your chest fast nad straight to the top.......also bring this to the powerlifting board,alot of my buddies post there and can also help you with this..............

 

[Blood&Iron]

You will not get strong using H.I.T.

I think Dr. Ken Leistner, Stuart McRobert, and Dorian Yates, among others, might beg to differ.

 

[Mesofreaky]

I have alot to say about this.

1)You cycled and thats how strong you are?
LMAO
2)might not wanna do 102 sets for arms out of the blue when you usually don't even train tri's directly.
3)in my opinion H.I.T. is girly so is westside, I'm a big fan of 5x5 it has served me well
4)have you tried light days, the only thing westside says that really means anything has to do with maximum force output which believe it or not can be hindered by the lifting of weights that are too heavy because of lack of bar accelleration, you need light days to work on bar speed and give your neuromuscular systems a rest
5)if it weren't for factors such as neuromuscular adaption and training specificity I wouldn't even do the core lift, in this case bench, I would rely totally on assisstance. now because of the reasons mentioned I have to bench but I still rely heavily on assisstance work, because you can go heavy longer on assisstance lifts and it not effect your coordination in your core lift ( I'm referring to the fact that training with weights above 90% of a 1rm in a movement will result in a drastic loss of coordination in that movement ) so I can hit limit triples on incline every week for allmost 6 weeks and eventually I'll lose coordination on my incline but my tris and delts will be much stronger without loss of coordination on flat bench. and even with the loss of coordination it won't matter cause by that time what was my weak link will now be my strongest and I'll have to cycle in a new assisstance exercise anyway.

so its not just a matter of sets and reps its much more,muscular strength is a whole different animal than muscular size.

 

[Blood&Iron]

in my opinion H.I.T. is girly

HIT is the toughest, most mentally and physically challenging thing you can do in the gym. Whether it's good for hypertrophy is debatable, and personally I prefer not to do it as puking, passing out, and feeling like my head are going to explode are not high on my 'favorite things to do' list. But the one thing it ain't is girly.

 

[Abbaddon]

Ok all.

I royally suck :


No matter what, I can't seem to be able to gain strenth on bench press. I am stuck.... I tried low reps, middle reps, high reps,.... but it all doesn't work. Weird is that my deadlift shoots through the roof, and my squat is OK .... but my stupid bench is so small and plateued (worst.... u noooo!!!!)

Don't laugh.... I bench 135p for 10 reps 140 for 8 reps....

while I easily deadlift 315+ pounds.... or squat in 225-275 ange...

any ideas? my chest routine is

1 set of flat bench press (or couple sets)
1 set of incline/decline/flat dumbell presses (sometimes)
Sometimes chest flies with cables....


any ideas?

thanks!

OK and your the guy that gave me shit on my overtraining thread right.

Well I will put that behind me eventhough you are in no position to be opposing anyones views if this is the extent of your knowledge on lifting.

Try a warmup set very light for 15

then try sets of 8,6,4,2
with weight increasing every set and heavy enough were your last rep of each set may need to be forced by a spotter.

 

[ZZuluZ]

My views on HIT (and yes I'm a beginner, my opinion is worth little):

I don't think it's girly at all, I presume it's very intense. However I don't see how you can possibly attain maximal strength with it. How do you bring up your weaknesses?? How do you do speed work? How do you SETS (notice the plural) with max poundages? It simply isn't possible. That's what strength is all about.

For hypertrophy it may work to a certain extent, although it probably doesn't give you the striations and sculpts the body with various isolation movements.

-Zulu

 

[Mesofreaky]

yeah, HIT is pretty girly its like "look at me I know jackshit about training, I think I'll load up enough weight for my ego and push it till I can't anymore" now I'm all for failure for hypertrophy specific training but you don't have to fail every set as a matter of fact there has been a study to show that there is no significant difference hypertrophy wise between doing one set and three sets to failure, so why risk killing yourself every set.

 

[Guinness]

Mesofreak,

So let me get this straight....It's girly to train in 1/3 the time to achieve the same results? Hmmmm, that's interesting logic....

Not that I'm a HIT guru, or even advocate, but taking what you just said, doesn't it seem kinda silly to waste all that time in the gym when you can achievet the same results by doing less work? I mean, unless you love living in the gym, it doesn't make much sense to me....Just my .02...playing devil's advocate here.....

 

[Mesofreaky]

Maybe you should read my post, HIT advocates doing like 3-4 exercises per bodypart to failure which is not neccesary. If you are gonna train like that than one set to failure will suffice. HIT is like "hey we'll save you time" but then you do stuff thats dangerous and uneccesary that also takes up time, the whole system is a contradiction.

training but you don't have to fail every set as a matter of fact there has been a study to show that there is no significant difference hypertrophy wise between doing one set and three sets to failure, so why risk killing yourself every set.

that was in my second post see look I say that 3 sets, advocated by HIT, is no diff. than 1 set. Now I'm tryin to figure out how you got from that comment that HIT is 1/3 the time to train. I say that it is 3/1 not 1/3. You insult my logic but you compute 3/1 as 1/3 now that is interesting.

 

[Blood&Iron]

Maybe you should read my post, HIT advocates doing like 3-4 exercises per bodypart to failure which is not neccesary. If you are gonna train like that than one set to failure will suffice. HIT is like "hey we'll save you time" but then you do stuff thats dangerous and uneccesary that also takes up time, the whole system is a contradiction.

Obviously, you are not well acquainted with HIT. HIT is not a single modality of lifting. Various HIT advocates disagree on minor and even major points, but the various systems ARE self-consistent. I've seen no subset of HIT that advocates anything as dangerous as typical bodybuilding routines, or plyometrics. All types of HIT emphasize using perfect form, a non-ballistic lifting speed, and they are among the SAFEST type of weightlifting one can do. They are also among the least time consuming type of lifting, due to a reduced volume.

you don't have to fail every set as a matter of fact there has been a study to show that there is no significant difference hypertrophy wise between doing one set and three sets to failure,

That's why many HIT advocates suggest only one set, rather than multiple non-failure sets. While some HITters do multiple exercises, if they do more than a single set of an exercise generally only the final one is to failure.

so why risk killing yourself every set.

Because I want to grow.

 

[Guinness]

Meso,

Couple of issues here...I'll address them in order:

1.

HIT advocates doing like 3-4 exercises per bodypart to failure which is not neccesary.

I just went back and re-read a good portion of the HIT FAQ out at Cyberpump http://www.cyberpump.com/training/hitfaq , to see if I had missed something....where do you read that HIT advocates 3-4 exercises per body part, per workout? Strict HIT advocates 1 exercise, 1 set to failure per body part, per workout. I don't read where it says anything about doing multiple exercises per body part. Now, they do say you might want to do multiple sets per exercise, per body part as you advance, but that's the only place I see anything about multiple sets. Are you sure you aren't getting confused about this? They do say something about doing 10 total sets per workout, but here I think they are talking about doing 10 different exercises, one for each body part, if you are doing a full body routine and not a split routine. Might want to check your facts on this one.

2.

HIT is like "hey we'll save you time" but then you do stuff thats dangerous and uneccesary that also takes up time, the whole system is a contradiction

Nothing could be farther from the truth here. Read HIT FAQ's. They are all about safety. Like Blood and Iron said, they emphasize, slow, controlled movements (non-ballistic) and even go so far as to recommend not doing some movements which are staples in most body-builder routines (like T-Bar, Lunges, and behind the neck, overhead press) because they are "orthopaedically unsound" - See HIT FAQ General Guidelines #7 and #20

3.

that was in my second post see look I say that 3 sets, advocated by HIT, is no diff. than 1 set. Now I'm tryin to figure out how you got from that comment that HIT is 1/3 the time to train. I say that it is 3/1 not 1/3. You insult my logic but you compute 3/1 as 1/3 now that is interesting.

Well, I guess I just missed the boat here....But to be really honest with you bud, from the way your statement above is phrased, it's damn hard for me to figure out which way you are leaning. I thought you were leaning towards more sets, not fewer sets, because I know that HIT advocates fewer sets. For some reason, you think HIT advocates more sets (3), which was not readily perceptible in your first post. Now that you have clarified your very confused position, I understand what you meant.

So, let's set the record straight once and for all. If you believe what HIT advocates-and this is a big if, because most folks in the iron game are volume/periodization advocates, then you believe in A. less volume, not more, B. Higher Intensity per set C. Less training frequency D. Slower rep cadences with full range of motion in a controlled manner for safety, not ballistic partial movements that might injure. Finally, as you have quoted on two occasions now, there have been studies to show that the HIT methodology is at least as effective as higher volume, periodized approaches when it comes to increasing muscle hypertrophy.

Let take one last opportunity to apologize for "insulting your logic". That wasn't my aim. I think you are a little bit confused on what HIT advocates, so I suggest you go back and re-read the HIT FAQs one more time before you post what they advocate. Confusion like this can be avoided in the future.