So I'm 8 months or so into lifting out of skeleton mode. I know, I'm weak as shit. Anyway, I'm currently benching 165x6 as a max with somewhat ease. Has been this way for about a month. I usually do double progression, but my bench isn't going up in reps.
Now here's the kicker. According to symmetric strength, which has been pretty accurate in my strength and maxes, I should be pushing 185x3 with about the same amount of effort as 165x6. However, I can hardly, just barely move 185 for a single fucking rep. I can't get passed 1. I have tried to get passed 185 for the last two weeks, and yet 1 rep is all I can push up, and I always find myself barely getting the bar up enough to rack it. 165? Blow that shit out for 6 reps like nothing.
So far I tried adding additional volume sets after my workout is over. Go to bench and incline and bust out an extra set or two at 135. My chest is getting more sore after the workouts, but I'm seeing no difference in strength.
What do?
In case anyone cares, stats are: 5'8 140 bench 165x6 squat 225x3 deadlift 275x4 ohp 100x8
>8 months >only 185 bench what have you been doing? fix diet, up the calories.and post form video
Brayden Moore
Strength calculators are inaccurate to your true strength. And as a rule of thumb, all of them will generally overestimate your current level of strength. In order to truly know your strength, simply take a deload week and test your bench press one rep max with strict form.
Brody Allen
I started at 120lbs and was incapable of benching more than 40lb dumbbells. I could not bench 115 for a single rep when I started.
I thought I was doing pretty good desu.
>fix diet and up calories Lmao I already take half my calories in liquid form, and I hit 3k calories/day. If you don't believe me I can post a picture of my weight gainer?
Nicholas Jenkins
Also a month of stalled progression is literally nothing. I've been training for about 4 years and I've gone much longer without a P.R. Sometimes the answer is to simply work through it.
Christopher Smith
>According to symmetric strength, which has been pretty accurate in my strength and maxes, I should be pushing 185x3 with about the same amount of effort as 165x6. However, I can hardly, just barely move 185 for a single fucking rep
a website cannot tell you how much you can lift
Samuel Cruz
>Eat More The more you weigh the more you can put up, son.
Carson Myers
Now that that's out of the way...
You must understand OP, a lot goes into account when trying to increase strength. Your lack of progress could be from your body accommodating to the bench press. It could be from a lack of sufficient sleep, diet, it could be from shitty form. It can be stalled by specific weak points.
Give me more info OP and I'll be able to help you further.
How do you eat? What are your sticking points? What does a typical "Chest Day" look like for you? Are you sleeping well? etc.
Gabriel Bailey
#1 trick that helped me was form. you basically want to try and rocket yourself headfirst off the bench by digging your heels into the ground really hard. dont spread your legs too wide you whore.
then arch your back and pinch your shoulders like someone just put an ice cube down your back and you should be stable as fuck. after a set your shoulders should feel like my cock - untouched. its all in the arms, chest, and core.
adjust your grip. too wide or too narrow will make it harder. theres a sweet spot in the middle. try moving slightly narrower to start because anecdotally most people are retarded and start close to max width.
hit chest 3x a week if you want to erupt like a fucking volcano. incline and decline bench as much as you can. dumbell press but dont do that fuckin foo foo lame shit 90 degree airplane arms like a faggot. keep the elbows tight and and your palms facing each other and only twist your palms towards your feet at the apex of the push. try to keep your arms in a straight line because thats all chest. more stable you are the easier it gets.
also eat more and do steroids.
source >it took me 12 mo. to go from 175 to 315 bench
Ayden Reyes
Muscles are weird. Your THEORETICAL max is 185x3. However, there's a certain point for muscles where they are able to push x weight for y times, (165x6 in your case) but are incapable of pushing only slightly more weight for a comparable amount of reps (185x1). This happens to powerlifters all the time. ALL THE TIME. Best bet is to load the bar to 175 and try to hit 2-3 reps. Build up every week until you can hit 5. Then go for 185. Getting your max over a hump is a problem for all lifters. Everyone at almost every level can experience lag because their muscles don't want to keep up the strength to volume ratio. I wouldn't even touch 165 your next few routines, load up to 175 and bust out the couple reps you can. You might find yourself adding an extra rep almost every week.
This happened with me on squats a few years ago. I had lagged at 295 for the longest time. I went to 285 and busted out 1 rep that week (not including working sets). Next week, new max attempt, busted 2 reps. Next week, new max attempt, busted 3 reps like nothing. Went back to 295 and busted that out for 2, then the next week for 3. Then my strength gaining got back on track with standard working sets. >reading comprehension >autism
Carter Morales
Bench 3 times a week but do way less volume per workout. 3 or 4 sets instead of 5. Don't kill yourself each workout either. You are not giving yourself enough time to recover. You should not feel like your chest is blown at the bed of the workout. In fact it should still feel like you could do a lot more. Just resist the urge. Frequency is key. Look up 'sub maximal training'
Ryan Gomez
>How do you eat? >What are your sticking points? >What does a typical "Chest Day" look like for you? >Are you sleeping well? >etc.
Diet consists of strict calorie counting with a minimum goal of 3kcal/day. Usually it's eggs, sausage, or chicken breast in the mornings. No matter what, I try to account for 600 calories in the mornings. Any less and I'm usually restraining myself from hitting my daily minimum.
Noon is prep meals of chicken breast, teriyaki sauce, rice, and either steamed carrots or broccoli. This meal prep is 800 (give or take about 40) daily.
Mid afternoon (around 3) I make a 300cal smoothie with strawberries, bananas, and milk.
After that I hit the gym. I'll explain chest day after my diet.
My power-workout looks like a good scoop of ON Pro Gainer (650 calories in 1 scoop) + 2 cups of whole milk (300 calories).
At night I usually throw in a good small dinner that consists of anything in the 4-500 calorie range. Can be chicken, beef, burger, a quick pot pie, anything really. I'm not strict on dinner, as long as it isn't really protein concentrated since I feel like I get too much from the weight gainer to warrant something protein heavy at night.
Kevin Smith
>chest day So I recently changed from 5x5 working sets on bench to 3x5 bench and 3x5 incline. That was this week, actually. Chest day used to be:
I recently changed to consider incline a compound instead of an accessory, and switched dips to decline because my right shoulder seems to be getting upset with dips.
I'd also like to add I only started really counting calories in the past 3 months. That's where much of my gains also come from. I'm really happy to be 140lbs, I was a twig before. My short term goal was 150, and now I feel close. My long term goal was 175, along with a list of short term and long term strength goals I have that I want to believe are getting closer.
Pinch scapula, plant feel, I know the routine bro. I let the bar just barely touch my chest, where I can feel it hit the shirt. Otherwise I'm afraid of "bouncing" off my chest and ruining a perfectly good rep.
Lucas Parker
Before I get into it, I'm gonna refer you to some resources and explain some of the form to you because the bench press is a very, very complicated movement. I'm still learning how to do it to this day.
A few things that aren't commonly discussed about form that I'll let you in on is:
>You should be squeezing the bar so hard that you feel you'll leave your finger marks in it. Not only that but the bar should be in line with your forearm. Not resting on the balls of your hand. Seat the bar in the heels of your palm.
>When setting up leg drive, it's going to be a personal thing that you'll have to figure out. But I find that most guys tend to really get a lot out of leg drive when they wedge their feet deep under their buttock/lower back.
>Contract your glutes hard throughout the entire movement.
>Contract your lats hard to the point they almost cramp. You'll feel them very easily once you've found proper arch and back tightness.
>Your elbows should be somewhat 'tucked' and pointed out at a 45 degree angle or so at the bottom of the movement. Almost as if you were trying to touch them to your sides while maintaining your grip width. And as you press upwards you want to 'unwind' this tucking to the point where your elbows are flared out at the very top of the movement.
>Don't lose back tightness at any point. This happens to a lot of people when unracking the bar and when they touch it to their chest.
Watch the above vids and you'll learn a lot.
Camden Parker
Do you know a good video for dumbbell press?
I can bench press np but dumbbell press hurts my shoulder so I'm doing something wrong
Austin Wilson
why do you do cable flies? is that a meme? get rid of that shit.
im not seeing dumbell press anywhere. do it. also do less pulldowns and increase the weight. or instead do skullcrushers for low reps high weight. standing, sitting, lying down whatever. just grab an 80 and toss it over your head instead of doing 20 pulldowns.
for main bench try 3x5 and then a 3x3 or 2x3 at 175. also ask someone for a spot and try a 1x1 185 at the end of the set. get a feel for it. most people dont realise how their stabilizers will react to heavier weight until they try it.
also eat more and do steroids.
op is that you?
Gavin Brown
Now that that's been covered, I think it's important that you vary your training. Don't just go in and do the same 5x5 or 3x5 routine every week if it isn't working.
Maybe start doing more sets of heavy singles or doubles.
There's a lot more variation you can do in rep/set schemes.
I'd personally recommend you get on a program like Starting Strength or Greyskull. These programs are great for beginners and have been proven time and time again to be successful.
I've had a lot of success with 5/3/1 in my intermediate stages if that's where you feel you're at.
But I definitely recommend you follow or build your own structured program.
Hunter Collins
If you're having trouble in certain areas of the ROM, then I can give you a few very good exercises to help target those areas.
>Lockout: Close Grip Bench, Floor Press, JM Press, Pin Presses (set at a higher position), 3 board press, Benching with Bands/Chains.
>Mid Range: Spoto Press, Pin Presses (set at a midway positon), 2 Board Press/1 Board Press.
>Low Range: Dead Pause (this movement is the fucking king and will definitely help you off your chest), Pin Press (set at a position as close as possible to your starting point), Incline Bench Press, Heavy Pause DB Bench.
Those are just a few of the things you can do. I know I reference pin presses a lot, but they're really great at building up sticking points because they take momentum out of that specific range of motion.
You can do these as your main movements or you can do them after your Bench Press sets.
The form cues from the bench press actually have a lot of carryover to Dumbbell work.
Kevin Stewart
lmao, that's what I was thinking. I haven't been lifting in a while, so I had to do the math and then I realized that that's only 27.5 on each side. WEAK.
Easton Phillips
Damn, a lot of really solid advice! I'll look at transitioning into a 5/3/1. Thanks a bunch!
Gavin Nelson
you have the wrong mindset my dude i got fooled at first and Veeky Forums is very easy to fool you because people are casual about fitness
the gym isn't about oh let me pick up this weight 3x5 times and i'll do this 4x a week and after 2 years i'll be swole
you're not going to get anywhere with that thinking
you need to go into the gym thinking I AM GOING TO CRUSH MY ARMS TODAY THEY ARE GOING TO FUCKING BURN AND HURT FOR 2 DAYS I AM GOING TO FUCKING SHRED THEM AND CREATE MICROTEARS AND FORCE THE MUSCLE TO BUILD I AM GOING TO PUSH MYSELF TO MY ABSOLUTE LIMIT I HAVE 5 REPS, HOW MUCH WEIGHT CAN I ADD TO TORTURE MYSELF AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
Nathan Harris
Don't worry, neither of you know ass about lifting, so I wouldn't worry about giving advice anyway.
Henry Powell
probably bad form and not eating enough
Jack Bell
you're doing like 80% my dude that's not how you make progress you're like a fucking DYEL cardiobunny, that's why they never get anywhere and then quit
you need to go into the gym, load up 125% of what you can lift, and strain to get it off the ground until you're fully flexed
then, decrease the weight to 105% of what you can lift, and spend every fiber of your motivation to lift it
if you're not doing over 100% of your capability and pushing yourself farther than you think you can go or how far you've went previously, you're not going to make progress
also you need to want to shred and abuse your body, it's a bit masochistic
Leo Morgan
Faggotry: the post
How much you hurt after a workout has literally no bearing on how much progress you make.
Ryan Hernandez
>not eating enough I already posted my diet
Charles Howard
I don't believe you
Ryder Reyes
Before I go OP.
This piece of advice won't be relevant to you for now, but later on down the road if you find yourself stalling in an advanced stage, you'll be happy to know of it.
An advanced lifter (not you now, but you in the future) will suffer from something known as the "Law of Accommodation."
When your muscle is introduced to a new stimulus (such as bench pressing), it "adapts" to it by growing bigger and stronger.
But let's say you continue to give it that stimulus over and over (aka you've been doing bench press on chest day every week for 3 years), eventually your body will "ACCOMMODATE" to the bench press. This means that the stimulus given (benching) will yield lower results from your body as it is continually given over and over again. This will happen to the point where your bench press almost stops improving entirely. This is the full circle of the Law of Accommodation.
A simple way around this is to vary your selection of main movements for given workouts.
Don't worry about this now, but keep it in the back of your mind for when the time comes that it must be addressed.
Nolan Ortiz
>you need to go into the gym, load up 125% of what you can lift, and strain to get it off the ground until you're fully flexed
>squat 405x1 >how much weight should I add to try a new 1rm? >better just go to 520lbs. I should be able to do it >I'll just be like goku and shatter my previous PR like nothing
Stop giving advice, some people want legit help here.
It's been proven light weight sets result in more hypertrophy. Doing both 6x6 and 12x4 will significantly helps with gains.
Shit even doing some pushups could help dude.
You need to mix up rep schemes. Start using dumbells, use bands and just bench 1 pl8 as much as you can. Chains are cool to.
Arnold was sorta right when he said you gotta confuse the muscles. You need to work your chest with a variety of exercises using progressive overload.
Try bench using bands and progressive overload, if you can work past failure on that you just increased your overall bench.
Changing grip width and isolating all the muscles in the movement (Triceps, chest and delts) will really help.
Another thing, you didn't post how much you row. That could mean it is actually your back stalling your progress more than the chest itself. Incorporate fts-7 stretching when you workout, also proven to increase size and growth.
This is not the way to do it at all. Adding variety to workouts and getting strength gains in those areas will really help funcitonal strength and PRs.
Matthew Wright
My bench stalled because my upper pec was lacking and my delts werent that developed
Zachary King
Look into the yates row OP, you'll love it. That shit will get you the thickest lower lats you've even seen. Helps with the diddly lift aswell. youtube.com/watch?v=rNjwZ1fxtCQ
Oliver Campbell
I was referring to someone who's doing their routine correctly and just being impatient. Many lifters, especially intermediates think they need to hit a PR in every session. Sometimes there will be bad days, sometimes there will be bad months.
Now if someone is legitimately stalling and not being impatient, then yes, working through it is not proper.
Bit of context.
Austin Stewart
Definetly, you posted some really valuable stuff there. I personally quit lifting for the past month or so until I can hire a personal trainer in the upcoming weeks.
I don't trust my form on any of these lifts. Just been doing HIITS, pullups, cable rows, yoga and some postural stuff until I can work with a trainer.
I think it's important to have fun in the gym and grinding through a PR is too much like work for me. I mean who doesn't love overhead pressing than killing some battle ropes?
That's why I think shit like stongman, MMA, yoga, gymnastics and swimming are so cool. Mixes it up and gives you that real as fuck functional strength.
Christian Russell
Contracting glutes is a misleading cue
Tucking elbows to something as extrem as 45 degrees makes you weaker
Consider bar path
Apart from that, good instructions
Jacob Lee
symmetric strength says your 3rm is 182, not 185. also, calculators are nice but you've got to train for your strength to reach that level.
muscles take 7-14 days to heal. give yourself a week off for those lifts with respect to intensity. Sometimes the best way to get stronger is to go light. After the week, if you still can't get 185 for 3 reps, take your 3x6 rep max, add 5lbs (170) and do 3x3, increase the weight by 5lbs each new session, day of rest in between. You should be able to get to 185x3 after 5 sessions at most. If you fail 3x3 before you get to 185, just try it again the next session, make sure you've properly stretched, warmed up, hydrated. If none of this works, drop the weight to 150lbs, do 3x8, adding 5lbs each session till you can't finish a set (also make sure to give yourself at minimum 3 minutes of rest time between sets), then switch to 5x5 at the weight you failed at for the 3x8, add weight as above, once you fail a 5x5 set, switch to 3x3.
You will probably be at 195+ when you reach the end of your 3x3 sessions. then deload to 170 and work you way up with your typical 3x6 sets.
Jace Watson
Someone with a sub 4 pl8 bench shouldn't do any of the shit you write about. Someone like that just should do more bench volume desu.
Brody Robinson
I dont know the explanation for your inability to do your calculated 1rm, but I've recently broke through a 2-months long plateau on bench. Previously 95kg for reps (im doing SS), I can now finally do 2pl8 reps.
1. fixed eating and sleeping - did nothing, apparently theres nothing wrong with it 2. bought microplates - managed to add 1kg/week 3. added tricep pulldowns - helped a lot 4. paused reps - this is where the magic happened.
basically when i began to incorporate pause reps as a side exercise, I gained better control at the lower part of the lift, as well as more strength independent of the recoil. to emphasize to you how important that was for me, i have no gym buddies and is too autistic to ask anyone to spot for me. Injured myself on the bench 3 times.
also, I think your tricep extension rep range is way too much
Lucas Taylor
your bench isn't weak, your entire body is weak
you will get stronger by lifting consistently and gaining weight
165 bench and 275 deadlift at 5'8" and 140 is not unreasonable at all, try getting your BW up to 185 (not too fast don't get fat, maybe a cut in between)
Jackson Williams
Almost every time I plateau, the answer is to stop trying to hit PRs and just put in some WORK and do more sets at lower intensities.
Grayson Watson
>op is that you? Nope
Also, just remembered that for the last two weeks I have been sick and had to deload and take it easy lifting since all my energy was going to recovering. Perhaps that's why I haven't been progressing for a bit.
Dylan Rogers
Where do you stall? At lift off, or mid way? Figure out the lagging muscle group, and add in one exercise for that group, with an emphasis on explosivity. You are trying to build the mind muscle connection not mass. It works even better if you Grease the groove. Grease the groove push ups, either wide or close grip, will help a lot.
Asher Martin
I don't think tight glutes are a bad idea. Everything should be completely rigid under heavy weight.
And I meant that the angle of the arms from the torso should be 45 degrees. AKA, you shouldn't have them flared out really far away from your body. But you also shouldn't have your arms pressed up against your sides either. You should be somewhere in between.
It's very hard to explain in words alone. If I was there I could do a much better job. Luckily those videos I posted explain 90% of it.
Bar path is very individual and hard to explain. Luckily there's a video I reference a lot on bar path on an individual level that explains it perfectly:
do dumbell press mostly like this. except you dont need to be on an incline and you can bring your elbows even closer to your body. think more like cable rows but backwards. pinch shoulders and arch back.
