How can I get my bench up?

[MrShadyLP]

I'm 17, I've been lifting for a while now and I usually do it at home. I don't have that much money for a gym membership or big workout equipment at home so I can't bench at home. At school my friends and I lift in our weight room and I feel like my bench is lacking too far behind. How would you recommend getting up my bench when I can't bench at home and have a limited time at school to do it? I can do heavyweight one arm dumbbell press? But I feel that all in the shoulders for some reason. I also have a chest press machine at my house... Would that work? What do you guys recommend?

[cartermathis]

Do a beginners program. Fierce Five is a good one, but with your lack of time you should do Starting Strength IMO.

[Get-n-fit]

As Carter said, get on a good program. Also, don't compare yourself to other, just focus on your weights and your progression.

[Yodums]

I'm 17, I've been lifting for a while now and I usually do it at home. I don't have that much money for a gym membership or big workout equipment at home so I can't bench at home. At school my friends and I lift in our weight room and I feel like my bench is lacking too far behind. How would you recommend getting up my bench when I can't bench at home and have a limited time at school to do it? I can do heavyweight one arm dumbbell press? But I feel that all in the shoulders for some reason. I also have a chest press machine at my house... Would that work? What do you guys recommend?

Ultimately, you're only going to get better at benching by benching. There's a skill and strength component to benching, and using a chest press machine might provide some carryover in strength, but it's not going to build on the mastery of the lift. The best you can do for now is to follow a program using your school gym, but with limited time and resources, your gains are just going to be slow until are able to have more flexibility.

If you want to get more serious about your progression and the money's not there, you're going to have to consider getting a part-time job to pay for a gym membership and buy enough food to make progress in this sport.

[polishedball]

I would recommend doing incline decline and reg push ups at home as well. They can be done of a stair case landing most of the time and can be weighted as well if your creative.

[Garage Rat]

I agree,get on a good program and follow it.
It can be as simple as Wendlers 5-3-1 program.
The other thing is i would try to get everything that helps your bench press stronger.
Triceps,front & rear delts,upper back are the main ones.
Also you might want to save for a gym membership or for your birthday or maybe christmas ask for one.

[TheShadowMan]

Aside from training in the 1-5 rep range to hit more of the slow twitch fibers(although I see rep range alternation as ultimately more effective), i've always found chest dips, dumbbell benchpress, pullovers, board pressing, floor pressing, and perhaps sled/car pushes to have the largest effect on benchpress. Expose your weak points, and work them until they're your strength.

[ironsheik7]

I'm 17, I've been lifting for a while now and I usually do it at home. I don't have that much money for a gym membership or big workout equipment at home so I can't bench at home. At school my friends and I lift in our weight room and I feel like my bench is lacking too far behind. How would you recommend getting up my bench when I can't bench at home and have a limited time at school to do it? I can do heavyweight one arm dumbbell press? But I feel that all in the shoulders for some reason. I also have a chest press machine at my house... Would that work? What do you guys recommend?

Can you work out at school at least once a week for say 15 mins?

Get a note book, write down weight you used, and reps done

Generally a person can do two more reps than he done last time.

Example: Bob, Bob can bench press 110 lbs. for 8 reps

week 1 110 lbs 8 reps
week 2 110 lbs 10 reps
week 3 115 lbs 8 reps
week 4 115 lbs 10 reps
week 5 120 lbs 8 reps

5 weeks = 10 lb bench press gain

The main thing is whatever weight you use and numbers of reps you use, you have to increase weight to get stronger. This happens so many times in life where a guy sets out to get stronger and after 1 year of lifting he is still lifting that same weight for those same reps he did 12 months ago. You may already know this stuff being on a bodybuilding forum, but I thought I'd throw it in just in case.

Bodybuilding.com has a bit of a different way of doing it. In an article titled"How To Increase Your Bench Press: A Short-Term Plan."

It won't let me post the link though.

[Clarko]

I'm 17, I've been lifting for a while now and I usually do it at home. I don't have that much money for a gym membership or big workout equipment at home so I can't bench at home. At school my friends and I lift in our weight room and I feel like my bench is lacking too far behind. How would you recommend getting up my bench when I can't bench at home and have a limited time at school to do it? I can do heavyweight one arm dumbbell press? But I feel that all in the shoulders for some reason. I also have a chest press machine at my house... Would that work? What do you guys recommend?

You probably feel the dumbell press in your shoulder, because of how you are lifting it. Many people bench over their shoulders instead of chest, which is a big mistake. I say work on your shoulders, back, and chest. Then study bench press form, and eat like a machine and bamm you got it. Benching isn't the most important thing though. Don't worry so much about your friends in the weight room. You'll just end up not looking proportionate across your whole body (and being strong in all areas), if you don't get on a good beginner program like others have mentioned. Hell sometimes a begginer program is even good for advanced lifters, sometimes they stray too far away from the basics. So yeah try and get a gym membership..

Form is so important though. When I was 16 I thought I had bench press form down. Now, looking back, my form wasn't completely perfect on all of my lifts. Even if you think you've got it, keep watching form videos of experienced lifters, and reading up on form.