slow gains in chest/flat bench

[abone114]

hi, i've been lifting since i was about 17 im now 26 and i've always had a hard time with the flat bench bar bell press. right now my level is at 225 lbs and i can put that up about 2-4 times. im not satisfied with this at all. i feel like im relying on other muscle groups such as my shoulders to push the weight up as opposed to my chest muscles.

are there any exercises/techniques that will help my strength significantly in this area? id really like to be able to lift about 50 lbs more on the flat bench. thats my goal. thanks a lot!

[telega C 33]

stop barbell pressing. switch to dumbbells, and leave ur ego at the door.

make sure u really pinch ur shoulder blades back the whole time, even at the top of the rep, and really focus on flexing ur pecs the whole movement. do that and report back

[pumped12]

agreed, hit the dumbbells. they help soo much

[abone114]

awesome, ok will do, thanks!

[SDFlip]

what's your goal? a bigger chest or a bigger bench?

if you want a bigger chest, switch to dbs. all versions - incline, flat, and decline. db flys, too. make sure you're moving the weight with your chest and not your shoulders/tris. this may mean you have to use lighter weights at first to feel it in your chest. stick out your chest, pinch your shoulder blades back, and keep your arms wide. try pressing in an arc, not straight up and down. with flys, focus on leading with your elbows and keep the arc wide.

if you want to increase your bench, strengthen your triceps and shoulders. keep flat benching, too, but lower the reps around 3-5. increase the weight each time you bench, slowly, 2.5lb plates are your friend. tons of front delt work. front raises and military presses. skullcrushers, cgbp, dips, and pressdowns for triceps.

[pumped12]

what's your goal? a bigger chest or a bigger bench?

if you want a bigger chest, switch to dbs. all versions - incline, flat, and decline. db flys, too. make sure you're moving the weight with your chest and not your shoulders/tris. this may mean you have to use lighter weights at first to feel it in your chest. stick out your chest, pinch your shoulder blades back, and keep your arms wide. try pressing in an arc, not straight up and down. with flys, focus on leading with your elbows and keep the arc wide.

if you want to increase your bench, strengthen your triceps and shoulders. keep flat benching, too, but lower the reps around 3-5. increase the weight each time you bench, slowly, 2.5lb plates are your friend. tons of front delt work. front raises and military presses. skullcrushers, cgbp, dips, and pressdowns for triceps.

agreed i did dumbbells and they help raise my bench also. i used to do close grip then switch to wide grip with no rest usually did it with like 225 or so do it 5 times each way then rest one minute and repeat.

[abone114]

my chest i think is the size i want it to be, but im not against making it bigger either. i think id just like to be stronger overall in my chest. those are great suggestions, i will focus on that.

[spirit3530]

what's your goal? a bigger chest or a bigger bench?

if you want a bigger chest, switch to dbs. all versions - incline, flat, and decline. db flys, too. make sure you're moving the weight with your chest and not your shoulders/tris. this may mean you have to use lighter weights at first to feel it in your chest. stick out your chest, pinch your shoulder blades back, and keep your arms wide. try pressing in an arc, not straight up and down. with flys, focus on leading with your elbows and keep the arc wide.

if you want to increase your bench, strengthen your triceps and shoulders. keep flat benching, too, but lower the reps around 3-5. increase the weight each time you bench, slowly, 2.5lb plates are your friend. tons of front delt work. front raises and military presses. skullcrushers, cgbp, dips, and pressdowns for triceps.

Good post would rep but I gotta neg you for your comment about pizza

[ZiPP]

keep your mind on the chest and work it so the chest is being used the most, dont let stronger secondary muscles take over

[Antz1980]

Make sure you recover properly too. Get enough Protein in post training. Also, what u got for Pre Workout fuel? Might help if u eat something 60-90mins before lifting. Sandwich. Half cup oats. Something.....

[XXX666]

whats your form like?

what how this guy benches, right around 50 seconds he does the lift, pay attention to how he lowers the weight and were his elbows end up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fktuP...layer_embedded

don't pay attention to how hairy and fat he is, just look at how he collaspes his elbows into this torso and then how he presses the weight up off of himself. you want the mimic the exact same motion and i PROMISE you will see strenght and mass gains by benching like this.

My bench SUCKED for the longest time *years* until i started to bench like this about 4 years ago and i have done nothing but grow and gain a lot of strength.

[stephano5]

i had same problem as you, i kept using barbell and my strength skyrocketed too upto 80kg (considerign i used to just do the bar lol), sometimes more... but i had a **** upper chest, my lower chest wasnt bad

so i started doign mixing up exercises, sometimes machine, sometimes dumbell, did final exercises as pushups till failure, i also focused more on incline..my upper chest is well underdeveloped while the middle and lower is fine... so like these people said mix it up

[Be_Easy]

abone, here's what I'd do: for the next three weeks, stick w/ dumbells ...do four sets 12-10-8-4 increase by 10 lbs with each set. Let's say you start with 60lbs and end with 90 next week, start with 70/end with 100 next week and continue. Then on the 4th week, get back on the barbell and do 245 or 250lbs on your last set-even if you can only do it one rep.

I believe that when you push yourself on the last set-even if it's only one rep, your brain tells your muscles to build itself to be able to handle that weight. Eventually when you're pushing 290 (1 rep), you'll find yourself doing 260 8 reps. I'm not an expert-it's just an idea I realized b/c if you're not pushing your muscles, then there's no need for them to conform to a higher weight b/c the body is a very efficient machine. The opposite is also true, what your body doesn't use, you'll lose.

Hey, I'm not an expert, but I've been doing this strategy and it works for me. I make sure I increase incrementally every week. Even if it's just 5 lbs - 10lbs. By the end of the month, that's 20-40 pounds gain. Now of course you can't do this forever. You eventually have to hold a certain weight (without gains) for a few weeks to maintain and increase reps.

Hope this helps!

[Archangel12580]

It took me a while to figure out a routine that worked for me in terms of adding mass to my chest. I started out doing flat BB, incline BB and pec deck. My routine now looks like this (this is my log from today actually)

Flat Bench BB
275 x 12
315 x 10
335 x 8

Incline DB
75's x 12
80's x 10
85's x 8

Decline DB
75's x 12
80's x 10
85's x 8

Pec Deck
165 x 12
180 x 10
195 x 8

Forward Leaning Dips
Non Weighted x 15
Non Weighted x 15
Non Weighted x 15

On occasion Ill ditch the peck deck in exchange for a flat bench fly 3 set, but if its a hassle to get some assistance handing me the DB's, like today for example, I just stick with the pec deck.

Diet is also important for chest mass, for any mass really. You can lift big and see minimal gains if your not matching the lifting with the appropriate nutrition.

Beleive it or not, I started out in August of last year maxing out at 135 lbs on the flat bench (barbell) and 95 on the incline (barbell). I used a little routine I came up with after deciding I wanted more out of my performance and physique to help gradually increase my strength to where it is now, here is how it looks. Ill use 225 max to give you an example:

Days 1-5
Set 1
(Roughly 70% of your max) 155 x 8 reps
Set 2
(Roughly 80% of your max) 185 x 6 reps
Set 3
(Roughly 90% of your max) 205 x 3 reps
Set 4
(100% of your max) 225 x 1 rep

Days 6-10
Set 1
(Roughly 80% of your max) 185 x 8 reps
Set 2
(Roughly 90% of your max) 205 x 6 reps
Set 3
(100% of your max) 225 x 3 reps
Set 4
(roughly 110% of your max) 245 x 1 rep

..... And so on and so forth.. That formula worked miracles for me. My strength grew immensely and quick using that method, I didnt always use 5 days, more like 3 for me, and I didnt always stick to 10%, often going beyond that, but the formula remained the same... Just a slight altering of variables.

[abone114]

wow so many great techniques, ill definitely be going through all of what you guys said and working on it all. thanks a lot!

[PulseTraining]

It's wild to me how many people are suggesting that in order to get better at a specific task, you should perform a different task. There is a lot to be said about Specificity when choosing how to make progress in a particular skill. Rather than explaining it all myself and getting negged into oblivion even though I am right, I would suggest you go search for "Progressive Overload" and "Specificity Principle for Weight Training" on any search engine.

Hope that helps.

[wowter]

It's wild to me how many people are suggesting that in order to get better at a specific task, you should perform a different task. There is a lot to be said about Specificity when choosing how to make progress in a particular skill. Rather than explaining it all myself and getting negged into oblivion even though I am right, I would suggest you go search for "Progressive Overload" and "Specificity Principle for Weight Training" on any search engine.

Hope that helps.

You won't get negged because all those guys from 7 years ago are probably mostly gone.