how do people bench so much? :S

[b0ngman]

i have been working out for 5 years and my bench has not progressed much. Dont get me wrong, I dont dwell on my bench 24 hrs a day and focus on it superhard when i work out. Some of it has to do with my shoulder being a little loose in the socket, and also i am more of a puller than a pusher. I am more of an ahletic oriented trainer so bench isnt a big deal. Military press is much more useful to train the pushing motion in sports than is the bench press.

[alixdizzle]

Originally Posted by eedre

It's more about creating a firm foundation for your chest to push from. Bench press is a full body lift, believe it or not. Your back should be arched, shoulders pulled back and pressed into the bench, glutes contracted, feet pressing into the floor.

Makes perfect sense to me, I'll have to try that out

So your saying move my feet way in ? I usually just lay them comfortably on the ground

[eedre]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

Makes perfect sense to me, I'll have to try that out

So your saying move my feet way in ? I usually just lay them comfortably on the ground

I really wish I could find that bench press form video that has been floating around - it really explains everying better than I could... anyone have that?

EDIT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcjOIZc80c

[natescope]

OP i think your problem is you get the weight into your hands and your arms are doing all the work. on the way down get the bar in front of your shoulders, this helps you support the weight with your lats and allows you to really squeeze your chest at the bottom

[dkfan9]

stop training to failure every week and do a google search for perfect bench form and read a few of the articles to get a clear idea of what to do.

doing those two things should help you increase your bench. also, what rep ranges are you working in and what specific exercises are you doing for chest, triceps, and shoulders?

edit: ah, nevermind on the articles, that video does a very good job.

[Kion]

Yeah I'm the same way when it comes to benching. I've switched over to Madcow 5x5 around Dec 2008 and I've been making insane gains with my squat and deadlift but it's done pretty much jack **** for my bench. I don't care that my dead is 2x my bench press and my squat is getting close to that as well. I will be happy if I can put up 175*5 by the end of the year. That will be 15lbs from what I've test as my best BB bench.

[TheHitStick]

im the same, ive been on 185 for like 4 months and it's frustrating me. im starting to eat more and take in more protein, hopefully that'll help a little. don't ask what my diet is cause i dont know how much i eat.

i went from 189 to 196 in a few weeks and ive been stuck at 196 ever since. but i go clean, i eat very healthy and dont drink soda's or eat candy or chips. i just had a soda yesterday for the first time in forever aha

[alixdizzle]

Originally Posted by eedre

I really wish I could find that bench press form video that has been floating around - it really explains everying better than I could... anyone have that?

EDIT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcjOIZc80c

This video opened my eyes to so much that I wasnt doing before.. Thanks a bunch man!

[cramron]

OP you're never gonna bench more than 160 lbs unless you end your addiction to masturbation and porn.....your life force energy is vital to bodybuilding success and it just so happens that masturbating taps that source dry

[Walk0n]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I honestly don't see how people bench 230+ ...

I'm 6'2 and 190 pounds, I'm a decent size, and i STRUGGLE with benching 160.. I have pretty strong delts.. strong triceps... A weak chest obviously

but still, I honestly cant see myself pushing over 200 pounds within the next year....

can anyone relate?

I use to never understand it either when I started lifting. I thought 225 was huge! It goes like this: Your like" ok ill get 225 and that will be good" then you get it and then your like "ok 315" then you get that and your like well might as well get to 405 now... etc etc at least this is my progression. You will get it just put the time and effort in and it will come!

"Just keep swimming... just keep swimming..."

[rjdumas]

I was the same way couldn't lift much 160. Now I'm up to 205 3 times. Its only taken about 2 months.

I think what helped me the most. Was an all around good workout that hit all my mus. and once I started using good form. You just have to keep working at it and have a spotter pushing you. Good luck

[Bnk]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I honestly don't see how people bench 230+ ...

I'm 6'2 and 190 pounds, I'm a decent size, and i STRUGGLE with benching 160.. I have pretty strong delts.. strong triceps... A weak chest obviously

but still, I honestly cant see myself pushing over 200 pounds within the next year....

can anyone relate?

Everybody is built different. I am closing in on double my body weight on the bench, but my bench is higher than my squat and I seem to make no progress no matter what I try for legs.

[KuruptLifter]

Takes alot of time is all.

Some people naturally gain quickly others struggle.

Took me about a year to go from 225x4-5 to 225x11-12 thats without even increase in weight!

[Guai]

Originally Posted by eedre

It's more about creating a firm foundation for your chest to push from. Bench press is a full body lift, believe it or not. Your back should be arched, shoulders pulled back and pressed into the bench, glutes contracted, feet pressing into the floor.

Well yes that's a powerlifting bench. Most people don't PL so there'd be no reason to be doing this style over a regular bench. Of course I can bench more when benching like this but I don't feel my chest working as hard and I therefore prefer using less weight with a regular BB bench.

[htes]

i didn't start seeing gains in strength untill i made a routine and wrote all my lifts down.
to get better lifts you need great form and you have to give it everything you have. don't hold back on the set yer doing to keep your #s up on your next set.
lifting till you puke is a good sign.

[TheStreetKing]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I honestly don't see how people bench 230+ ...

I'm 6'2 and 190 pounds, I'm a decent size, and i STRUGGLE with benching 160.. I have pretty strong delts.. strong triceps... A weak chest obviously

but still, I honestly cant see myself pushing over 200 pounds within the next year....

can anyone relate?

I can relate a lot, When i first started lifting i couldn't see being able to ever bench 185, Then i hit 185 and didn't think the same was possible with 225 then i remember doing 225 for the first time a month or two later and that totally changed the way i look at Training! You need to set small attainable goals, Never set a goal thats out of reach or that will mess with your mindset and make you not want to lift.

[Anthony.b]

I weighed in at 171 lbs today. Put up 2 sets of 225 x 5, 1 set of 235 x 5, and finished with 245 x 3.

For my size, I seem to have a relatively strong chest, I always have, I can throw around my bodyweight on bench like it's nothing, I'm actually still warming up at 170.

Like everyone has suggested, work hard, eat clean, and sleep!

[HulkHagen]

Originally Posted by Walk0n

I use to never understand it either when I started lifting. I thought 225 was huge! It goes like this: Your like" ok ill get 225 and that will be good" then you get it and then your like "ok 315" then you get that and your like well might as well get to 405 now... etc etc at least this is my progression. You will get it just put the time and effort in and it will come!

"Just keep swimming... just keep swimming..."

This is true. I remember I used to idolize a guy I knew because he could bench press four plates on each side and now I can do it. I would've never imagined like 3-4 years ago that I'd be striving to bench press 500 lbs.

[raz1875]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I honestly don't see how people bench 230+ ...

I'm 6'2 and 190 pounds, I'm a decent size, and i STRUGGLE with benching 160.. I have pretty strong delts.. strong triceps... A weak chest obviously

but still, I honestly cant see myself pushing over 200 pounds within the next year....

can anyone relate?

When I was your age I couldn't bench 150 :-D

Now 315 is nothing...just takes time.

[TinyK]

I just started lifting a few months ago and it seemed my bench was not going up at all even though I was a newb. I changed my form by tucking my elbows in, dropped the weight, went almost all the way down to chest. Tried imagining my elbows pushing the weight up and not my arms. Progressively increased my weight in small increments every week. This change in form made me feel a lot more "burn" on my chest than my arms.

Now my bench is going up like it hasn't been before. OP try seeing if your form is off, because it def. has helped me. I saw a few videos of the milos guy teaching bench press form, and it totally screwed my form, gains, and shoulders. lol so maybe changing your form will help.

[BenReilly]

Originally Posted by Big_Pete1000

I was the same way when I was your age. I was 6'0" weighed about 200 but could not bench at all. When I turned the ages of 21-25 my bench really shot up. Now I am putting up over 300 on bench which is nothing compared to a lot of people on here but it is still a lot of weight in my mind compared to what I used to be doing.

I used to be the exact same way. 135 used to be a lot for me and 155 I thought I was doing good haha. I used to DREAM of 225. Then just about the last two years my bench really shot up. Gonna try for 260x3 tomorrow in my last set. 300 here I come!

Something that worked for me (disclaimer::i'm not saying this will work for everybody) is that for a long time I didnt have a spotter, but instead of using DB, I would use the Hammer Strength machine, and save DB for my second exercise. But with HS you can really load up the weight, and it is encouraging to load up plates on it. Who knows, try it, it might work for you.

[Canz]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I honestly don't see how people bench 230+ ...

I'm 6'2...

that also affects it, you are the same height as me and i can assume you have long arms. mine are very long and with my longer arms the weight has to travel in a much longer path to get the full ROM

my friend i lift with, when he does bench press has to push the weight a foot less than me to get to lockout, that makes a big difference

[Sir_Malak]

Mentally it is best to prep yourself into knowing you can lift a certain amount for X amount and not thinking you might. Also keep your lifts real that day for example if you did 100lbs for 10 reps last week try 105lbs for 10 reps not 150lbs for 10reps etc..you get the point. I am assuming your goal is strength.


Keep it real. Keep it positive. Keep training.

Good luck.

[alucidinterval]

yeah i've always been bad at benching. i finally got 225 back in december and have gained like 10 pounds on my bench since then. while i'm still stuck here on bench, i'm just over a 2x bw squat and almost at a 2.5x bw deadlift. of course, no one that doesn't lift seriously cares at all about those two haha.

[dabiggest]

Some people just have bad lifts...or bad to them, anyways. Just stick with it and go as heavy as you can. I like doing my 5x5 and pyramid routines to help with strength. See here: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/da...workoutprogram

I know this may sound like "unsound" advice, but try going as heavy as you can for about 6-8 wks and you'll be amazed.

[aleeboy]

I came back to working out in the middle of last year. In four months, my bench went from 60kg to 80kg. Then it took another two months to bench 100kg. This was much faster than my previous progression.

I changed two things:

- Employed a split routine, with an arms specialisation day
- Ate a hell of a lot

Believe these two made the difference in helping me progress quicker than in the past. I'm sure others may have different views.

[JoeyDaFool]

time. bench press won't move easily like squat and deadlift. also try different exercises, pauses, rep ranges, rest between sets, etc. do isolation for delts, arms and most importantly, chest. also do rotator cuff work, it's very beneficial.

if something isn't working, IT DOESN'T WORK SO SWITCH IT UP. doing the same thing over and over is the worst thing you can do in bbing

[Ironlife]

Originally Posted by Big_Pete1000

I was the same way when I was your age. I was 6'0" weighed about 200 but could not bench at all. When I turned the ages of 21-25 my bench really shot up. Now I am putting up over 300 on bench which is nothing compared to a lot of people on here but it is still a lot of weight in my mind compared to what I used to be doing.

Actually its a lot compared to a lot of people on here.

[-Lucifer]

Originally Posted by Ironlife

Actually its a lot compared to a lot of people on here.

^^^^ This.

When I was 190, I was struggling with 160 lbs as well.

[Ironlife]

Originally Posted by DaRk LuCiFeR

^^^^ This.

When I was 190, I was struggling with 160 lbs as well.

Hey man good to see you online how was your weekend?