Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 and bench press

[willsong]

To all those who have tried Jim Wendler's 5/3/1, has your bench press numbers hit a sticking point while the rest has taken off? I am in my 4th wave of 5/3/1 and for some reason my bench press is not budging. I am on the 4 day a week template with floor presses rather than military presses on MP day and doing my flat bench on its own day as well. Floor presses have always helped me improve my bench strength and technique, but this time around I can't seem to find out why my bench isn't improving whereas my squat and deadlift seem to be progressing slowly, but surely. I'm thinking it may be due to the lack of volume that may be holding me back and now a trainer byt he name of Derek Charlesbois(Team Scivation) is telling me that it may be due to my delts and tris being overtrained from the floor presses. Anyone experience this and find a way to get their bench up?

[StLRPh]

To all those who have tried Jim Wendler's 5/3/1, has your bench press numbers hit a sticking point while the rest has taken off? I am in my 4th wave of 5/3/1 and for some reason my bench press is not budging. I am on the 4 day a week template with floor presses rather than military presses on MP day and doing my flat bench on its own day as well. Floor presses have always helped me improve my bench strength and technique, but this time around I can't seem to find out why my bench isn't improving whereas my squat and deadlift seem to be fine?

What other accessory work are you doing? What makes you say your bench isn't improving?

[Entkommen115]

I am having the exact same problem right now. Everything is going up except for my bench simply because there is not enough volume.

Considering you deload once a month with 5/3/1 I would highly doubt overtraining would be the culprit. My bench has always needed more volume in order to get anywhere and this program is really illustrating that.

[NewbieX2]

I am having the exact same problem right now. Everything is going up except for my bench simply because there is not enough volume.

Considering you deload once a month with 5/3/1 I would highly doubt overtraining would be the culprit. My bench has always needed more volume in order to get anywhere and this program is really illustrating that.

I'm in pretty much the same boat. Squat went up 20, deadlift 55, but nothing on bench yet but maybe 5 pounds. Switching to BBB this week, though, so that should help.

[swolegantor]

What is your

Heaviest bench
Your current bench
your weights used in during 5/3/1
What reps are you hittin during workouts.
show me your past 10 workouts
what is your accesorry work like.

I really cant answer you if the only info i have is that you are doing 5/3/1

[swolegantor]

My general advice is this


Start LIGHT

and

VOLUME


volume and lighter work is incredibly important at a begginers stage. Think about how small the working muscles are in a bench press vs....a squat say? Alot of people can get away with Heavy high intensity work right away with squats because they already have huge muscles which are getting enough from the fairly low amount of TUT.

Now think of your bench muscles...realistically its what...chest, triceps, shoulders? Most peoples are SMALL. How are you goin to lift huge weights if you have never conditoned your muscles/added a good amount of size.

Again this is not a ****ing absolute but its a pretty accurate generalization.

Look at most (again not ALL) bodybuilders. Alot of guys who are into bodybuilding seem to out bench alot of powerlifters (well people who train like them) off the gate, then all of the sudden after grinding away for a few years the powerlifters seem to finally start outclassing the bodybuilders. Why could that be? Because the bodybuilders were focusing on building lean body mass which was enough to increase there strength. Once they reached a peak in weight their bench stopped moving as much. Then at that point I believe CNS intensive training is required.

[willsong]

I am having the exact same problem right now. Everything is going up except for my bench simply because there is not enough volume.

Considering you deload once a month with 5/3/1 I would highly doubt overtraining would be the culprit. My bench has always needed more volume in order to get anywhere and this program is really illustrating that.

Good point. I really feel the 5/3/1 really lacks the volume for the bench in order to help with making your body learn the motor patterns, reinforcing good technique, and building confidence with heavier weights.

What is your

Heaviest bench
Your current bench
your weights used in during 5/3/1
What reps are you hittin during workouts.
show me your past 10 workouts
what is your accesorry work like.

I really cant answer you if the only info i have is that you are doing 5/3/1

1-300 touch N Go in the gym @ 195lbs back in September of '09.
2-Right now probably 275 TNG. Got sick in January and lost weight and was MIA.
3-In all of my weeks the most reps I've hit was 9 reps, but the majority fall within the 3-7 range.
4- Look at my log.
5- Accessories are just close grip bench and military press after floor press days and deadlifts after bench press days, j/k I do DB/BB rows, DB floor Press, and side laterals usually.

[BEhave]

I've read in many places that people's bench stalls on this program, I even had a friend who had the same problem, he said his other lifts were going up though too.

[taffer]

If you feel you need to bench more, why not just add in some dumbell bench as accesories, or do the boring but big accessory work
Also I remember reading an article, where wendler said that if you want to add more volume, just go like.... 65% 75% 85%+ (as normal) then go back down 75% 65%+

[Chad777]

I would lower your bench training max a couple more pounds. Its a hit to your ego, but I think its helped me a lot.

And I would say ditch the floor presses and go back to military press. I've gained a lot of mass and strength doing these, definitely helping my bench.

[Fluster]

3-In all of my weeks the most reps I've hit was 9 reps, but the majority fall within the 3-7 range.

Er.. surely if you beat the prescribed reps you are improving? How long have you been doing it and are you back near your original 1RM on the 1 weeks yet?

[Retardo-pex]

To all those who have tried Jim Wendler's 5/3/1, has your bench press numbers hit a sticking point while the rest has taken off? I am in my 4th wave of 5/3/1 and for some reason my bench press is not budging. I am on the 4 day a week template with floor presses rather than military presses on MP day and doing my flat bench on its own day as well. Floor presses have always helped me improve my bench strength and technique, but this time around I can't seem to find out why my bench isn't improving whereas my squat and deadlift seem to be progressing slowly, but surely. I'm thinking it may be due to the lack of volume that may be holding me back and now a trainer byt he name of Derek Charlesbois(Team Scivation) is telling me that it may be due to my delts and tris being overtrained from the floor presses. Anyone experience this and find a way to get their bench up?

I got through 5 waves before it started becoming obvious my bench was slowing down before my other lifts, but my bench has always been a weak point so I didn't really think anything of it. Even at the point I got to, honestly it wasn't THAT much of a stall, I was just used to shooting for at least 5 reps on the 3+ week and 3 on the 1+ week so when I started only being able to do 3 or 1 rep on those weeks it seemed like I was failing, even though I was clearly still hitting the minimum reps.

[buffryan45]

go to 3 days a week. and do BBB. you're not over trained, your just not recovering enough from MP day to bench. and if another 5x10 of bench doesn't help, add in incline bench for the 5x10 instead of military press on that day. I do bench then close grip, MP then close grip incline

[swolegantor]

You are using way too much weight. I generally like to hit 12/10/8 on 85%/90%/95% respectively.

Also Boring but big. Trust me. Start with light ass weight and slowly slowly slowly move up.


On your bench days you are doing too much heavy assistance.

On your floor press days you are also doing too much heavy assistance.

Your not supposed to Fail and miss during assistance work. Unless you are on like your 20th rep or something ridicoulous. Failing around your 6th or 7th rep mean you are using heavy ass weight for your current strength.

Try making ALL your assistance work 5x10 at a weight you can hit for all the sets. Then add 5 pounds a workout until it gets too heavy.

[mangiventofly]

i used to use the 5/3/1, but i have modified my training so much that it probably barely resemble s that now. i had the same problem. everything went fine except my bench. now i do ME bench on mondays, squat and deadlift on tuesdays, and an upper body rep day on thursday (i work 12 hour shifts fri-sun). i use the 5/3/1 rep ranges for the heavy stuff except i do the 3 reps week first, then the 5 rep week, then the 5/3/1 week. the squat and deadlift are staggered, it would take a while to explain. i use mainly board presses for my ME bench work. i may cycle in some floor presses just for fun once in a while. for my rep day i do flat DB bench. i just do three sets, i start heavy enough to get 9 or 10 (this being 1 rep shy of failure with this weight), then each consecutive set gets 5 pounds heavier and one less rep. sometimes i'll do weighted dips. this stuff has worked REALLY well for me. my bench has gone up by about 20 pounds this way, without gaining any bodyweight, which is good for me. i could go into more detail if you're interested, but if so, please PM me for that.

[Mousey]

i've done many waves and have been switching exercises after a couple months. instead of the flat, i'm now doing floor presses. nice carry over when I put the flat back in the rotation.

[Xplodinmongoose]

Thats weird, my bench has gone up 60lbs in 2 months on this program (also changed diet and was probably over training b4) but DL and Squat seem to really be lagging for me haha.

[EinMassengrab.]

it's different for everyone. i tried 5/3/1 for a few months and ALL my lifts actually went down (except OHP because i've never even done them before. hah), because i also need a lot of volume.

[BigRagu]

I'm in the process of switching programs away from 5/3/1. i have been on it for about 10 months and i really don't have much to show for it. i really do think i could have gotten much more out of another program. might run 5x5 or powerbuilding.