how do people bench so much? :S

[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?

[spirit3530]

Over time through progression you get stronger, if you have a workout plan geared to make progression.

No plan... plan to fail.

[elmariachii]

IM like The oP, every other exercises are progressin, except the bench press, thats why i stopped doin BB flat bench and i started with DB

[DJAuto]

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?

Have you seen any type of progression with the bench press?

[alixdizzle]

Originally Posted by DJAuto

Have you seen any type of progression with the bench press?

I have seen the slightest progression over the last.... 8 months?

Ive gone up maybe 20 pounds? If that...

Ive been from DB to BB... then BB to DB and back countles times. I usually stay with one or the other for about a month or so, I do chest twice a week (Once heavy to failure and once lighter for high reps)

I know what I'm doing in the gym, and I'm not one of those newb kids who come on here asking why my bench isnt getting bigger, and this is kinda what bothers me lol..

Just weird to me.. elmariachii I know what you mean bro, my biceps/back/triceps and delts blow through the roof, I'm seeing constant progression in those areas, but still the chest doesnt seem to work out

How ever, I am seeing BODY progression, my chest is getting bigger and developping more then ever, which I shouldnt be complaining about really, but still some how my bench is low.

Thanks for the replies all, this wasn't really meant to be a cry for help post, it's more of a discussion. But I will take any advice given to me!

[alixdizzle]

Originally Posted by elmariachii

IM like The oP, every other exercises are progressin, except the bench press, thats why i stopped doin BB flat bench and i started with DB

Not that I looked at your pic, I realize that my chest is very similar to yours for some reason.

I'm guessing that this has something to do with genetics?

[brous47]

im the same way, I got a weak chest, i struggle with 135. I haven't done it in a while cause i dont have a spotter with me often, so I've been doing decline dumbbell press, flat fly and press, pushups, and cable crosses. with anything, it just takes time and patience, unfortunately its easy to want to give up when you dont see results as quickly.

[alixdizzle]

Oh yeah?
Yeah I've been doing alternatives as well, I'm seeing results.. just not seeing the weight move up on the bar lol

[Jincredible]

It takes a while, once I was done with my beginner gains everything slowed down. I gained about ~70lbs in 3-4 years.

[MWheatley]

You said you are doing chest twice a week. Your problem could be that you are over training. I would do chest every 7 days or so and try to have fresh shoulders for that workout. See if this doesnt help over time.

[burningNun]

Normally when someone has a particularly glaring weakness in a lift it means they need to gain weight. I'm the same way. 5'6 and 145, 6'2 and 190 and 5'10 and 181 are all quite light, so it makes sense that we all need to gain more weight. My training partner is the same with squats.

[Big_Pete1000]

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 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.

[Turboboy]

Try one of the 5x5 workout programs. I'm doing it right now and I'm making some gains after 15 years of consistent lifting. Plus, it's all written out for me so I don't have to guess at what I'll be doing today.

[ddavis91]

used to be my problem too. i switched things up and did incline before i would do flat for a while and my bench really seemed to improve, might just be me though.

[lightningguru26]

Originally Posted by ddavis91

used to be my problem too. i switched things up and did incline before i would do flat for a while and my bench really seemed to improve, might just be me though.

same for me, a guy seen me struggling on the bench and said do some inclined for a few weeks then come back and try that same weight on the flat and see what happens... sure enough, i wasn't struggling

[Squats In Socks]

try doin Max-OT. Are you also using good benching form?

[Guai]

Switch from full ROM to a bottom partial, 6 to 8 rep program for a couple of months and see how that goes. Bottom partial would of course be from full chest stretch (bar touching the chest) to about a 90 degree angle on the elbow.

[theapexxxx]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

I know what I'm doing in the gym, and I'm not one of those newb kids who come on here asking why my bench isnt getting bigger, and this is kinda what bothers me lol..

!

Apparently you don't if your not seeing any progression.

[sprint400]

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?

im a 17 year old kid who runs cross country and track. im 5'8 and 155 pounds. my 1RM bench is 250...is that good?

[alixdizzle]

Yeah man, that is very good actually ( in my opinion )

see I've tried all of the above... somebody told me that training chest twice a week might help me get it up to par with the rest of my training..

My split is perfect, imo, it allows me to have 2 days between shoulders and BOTH chest days, and 2 days between triceps and chest aswell, so I'm fresh when it comes down to that

I guess ill just have to keep working on it.. I'm going to try to do some partials for a bit, and see how that works

anyways, off to the gym for my main chest day, wish me luck!

[jacpot]

The only way to get stronger on the benchpress is to benchpress. Why are you guys switching to db's if you want your bench to go up?

Fuk that 7 day between chest workout sh!t. Thats too much rest. Hit chest again once you stop being sore. every 3-4 days. Thats if you want your max to go up

Back when I was benching 3 days a week my max went up to almost 375.

Since then I've started benching only 2 days a week. Because I dont care about how much I benchpress, im focusing on getting the rest of my muscles caught up.

[Peace_Sells]

I once had a problem very similar to this where I was stuck bench pressing 155lbs and only wrenching maybe 8 reps. I had people tell me a long list of things to do such as train to failure, have only heavy days, and such. The one thing that I did that nobody ever recommended to me was using the hammer strength press machine. They have flat, incline, and decline. I cant promise that this will work for you but its worth a shot. Substitute those in for your normal workouts on flat, incline, and decline and pick up from the rest of your routine.

[eedre]

Use to think any kind of chest press wasn't my bag. I adjusted my form, stuck to lower reps, and am now religiously increasing the weight at 10lbs/week on madcow. Now, don't go trying this until you know you can handle drastic increases like that. I had to listen to my body and judge how easy the 5lb increases were - then I decided to up my PRs to 10lbs/week.

Basically:

1) Check your form
2) Lower the reps
3) Up the weight
4) Come back and do your 8 rep sets after a full cycle of 5x5

[alixdizzle]

That's what I am going to start to do
Today I basically did a good 3 sets of 1-2 rep max, just to see where i was. I ended up doing 165 for 1 and a half reps, touching chest and full extension.
I did this for 3 sets then I took off 20 pounds and did 145 for 5 reps x 3

I had a very good chest day overall, I can feel it...

The hammer strength machine is a good idea, I usually throw in a set of that at the end of my chest workout just to get a bit of extra pump in there.

Thanks for the ideas, I will try them gradually.. For anyone else who has chest problems, keep posting and I'm sure people will yell out the solution to it

everyone rep'd

[HulkHagen]

How long have you been lifting?

Benching to me was one of those lifts where it took me a very long time to get to where I was happy with it. When I first started lifting in '03 I was probably 310-315 lbs of pure fat and it took me at least two years to where I could bench 315, and I was probably at a body weight of 280-ish when I finally did it. It's just something you have to work towards, just try to add 5-10 lbs to your max every few weeks or something.

Eat big and lift consistently and chart your progress and you'll get there.

BTW, incline bench and close grip bench press helped me improve my regular bench a great deal, and dips helped me out too.

[Steeltoe]

Originally Posted by uranium3825

try doin Max-OT. Are you also using good benching form?

i was just about to say, form is really the reason why people can bench so much. it isnt as simple as laying down and just pushing the bar up and down. i mean just a week ago i moved my feet back alot, and figured out how to drive with my heels, right afterwards i was able to slap 50 more pounds on the bar. cant believe i didnt drive with my heels sooner

[alixdizzle]

Originally Posted by Steeltoe

i was just about to say, form is really the reason why people can bench so much. it isnt as simple as laying down and just pushing the bar up and down. i mean just a week ago i moved my feet back alot, and figured out how to drive with my heels, right afterwards i was able to slap 50 more pounds on the bar. cant believe i didnt drive with my heels sooner

drive with your heals? I've never heard tell of that, but wouldn't that make it so that your using momentum to get the bar up, which requires less chest?

[eedre]

Originally Posted by alixdizzle

drive with your heals? I've never heard tell of that, but wouldn't that make it so that your using momentum to get the bar up, which requires less chest?

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.

[Chicago1287]

Originally Posted by Turboboy

Try one of the 5x5 workout programs. I'm doing it right now and I'm making some gains after 15 years of consistent lifting. Plus, it's all written out for me so I don't have to guess at what I'll be doing today.

LINK PLEASE!....I used to have the page that comes up with the numbers for you but I can't find it anymore.

[-Lucifer]

I just did 170 x 5 today. Am getting closer to my bodyweight and that's pretty awesome because my upper-body is not as strong as my lower-body.

You will get stronger as you progress. Make sure your diet is clean and you get enough sleep.