Bench Just Won't Move

Variety and preventing adaptation is key. If you’ve been doing regular bench, do either wide grip, close grip, incline, decline, or any other variety for a month or two. Then go back to regular bench. I’ve found that this breaks plateaus on any type of lift.

[quote]Food wrote:
TNT-CDN wrote:
How are you in the pull-up department??

TNT

I can do around 3. Yea I know its horrible.[/quote]

Two more questions:

  1. how many dips can you do?

  2. how many “good” push-up can you do?

TNT

[quote]TNT-CDN wrote:
Food wrote:
TNT-CDN wrote:
How are you in the pull-up department??

TNT

I can do around 3. Yea I know its horrible.

Two more questions:

  1. how many dips can you do?

  2. how many “good” push-up can you do?

TNT

[/quote]

Never maxed on the dips, but probably around 10.

And 35-40 pushups.

Not to shamelessly plug my own stuff but … I think these two programs could help you out.

Personally I would do the first one as it sounds like you benefit from a good overall program and save the second one for later, but if you just want a bench program then do the second one. If you have never followed a good split before then you should get good results for a while. Good luck with it, if you have any questions let me know,

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1460447

http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/demolish_your_bench_plateau

[quote]Food wrote:
Hi guys,

New here to T-Nation. My names mike and im 5’9, 180. For the last year or so, my bench max has not increased at all (stuck at 255). When I first noticed I wasnt increasing, I switched to a basic westside template for about 4 months, and still nothing. After that I tried sheiko #29. That did absolutley nothing for my bench, I actually regressed and went down to 240. I am currently on WS4SB and am still not noticing any gains.

Ive been getting atleast 8 hours sleep everynight, and have been stuffing my face for the past 3 months (before that my diet was OK). I starting to get annoyed with the whole situation, any ideas?[/quote]

Put close grip bench into your split/rotation/whatever. After I seriously began working at my close grip, my bench press rose up (from 315 to 335)

Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?

[quote]Food wrote:
Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?[/quote]

You are supposed to flair them back near the top not off your chest. If your elbows flair right off your chest it means that your lats are weak, you are not using your lats, or both. You need to use your lats to keep your elbows tucked.

[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Food wrote:
Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?

You are supposed to flair them back near the top not off your chest. If your elbows flair right off your chest it means that your lats are weak, you are not using your lats, or both. You need to use your lats to keep your elbows tucked. [/quote]

To do this, you need to try and rip apart the bar (like he sais in the video).

Go to the strength sports section and read the “Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1” thread. Then buy the book

[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Food wrote:
Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?

You are supposed to flair them back near the top not off your chest. If your elbows flair right off your chest it means that your lats are weak, you are not using your lats, or both. You need to use your lats to keep your elbows tucked. [/quote]

I e-mailed Jim and he said otherwise. Here’s what I said,

“Ok, well its very hard for me to do this. I was told my lats are weak, thats why im Flareing off the chest?”

And Jim said:
“No, you’re flaring at the chest because your triceps are weak and you’re transferring the weight to your pecs when you flare”

Which seems to make alot more sense.

[quote]Food wrote:
Pemdas wrote:
Food wrote:
Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?

You are supposed to flair them back near the top not off your chest. If your elbows flair right off your chest it means that your lats are weak, you are not using your lats, or both. You need to use your lats to keep your elbows tucked.

I e-mailed Jim and he said otherwise. Here’s what I said,

“Ok, well its very hard for me to do this. I was told my lats are weak, thats why im Flareing off the chest?”

And Jim said:
“No, you’re flaring at the chest because your triceps are weak and you’re transferring the weight to your pecs when you flare”

Which seems to make alot more sense.[/quote]

Your lats are weak (3 pullups). But Jim is also right that your tris need to be strong enough to move the weight off your chest before flaring. I’d try some close grips and dips to bring your tricep strength up.

[quote]Food wrote:
Pemdas wrote:
Food wrote:
Steel Nation,

I benched heavy today, and used almost every one of the techniques he presented in the video. I had no problem bringing in my elbows that 5 degrees an the decent, but as soon as I came up, my elbows would come back to that shape he said was no good. Did he say that doing this was the right way, or I should slowly bring them out on the way up, not as soon as I come off the chest?

You are supposed to flair them back near the top not off your chest. If your elbows flair right off your chest it means that your lats are weak, you are not using your lats, or both. You need to use your lats to keep your elbows tucked.

I e-mailed Jim and he said otherwise. Here’s what I said,

“Ok, well its very hard for me to do this. I was told my lats are weak, thats why im Flareing off the chest?”

And Jim said:
“No, you’re flaring at the chest because your triceps are weak and you’re transferring the weight to your pecs when you flare”

Which seems to make alot more sense.[/quote]

a weakness in the lats would show itself as the inability to row the weight down under control as well as not being able to stay tucked and tight during the set. if you are flaring too soon, that is definitely a sign that your triceps are a weak point. i dare say most people’s weakpoints are triceps.

[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
a weakness in the lats would show itself as the inability to row the weight down under control as well as not being able to stay tucked and tight during the set. if you are flaring too soon, that is definitely a sign that your triceps are a weak point. i dare say most people’s weakpoints are triceps.
[/quote]

This is completely off track, but I’ve read a number of your posts and am curious what YOU personally do to help improve the lift off from your chest for benching raw?

It looks like Food has been getting more than enough help in here as far as technique and spotting weak points. Great job guys!

Right now, I just wanna know how your routine looks like. The major problem that I have with westside templates is that they seem to do too much high rep work. They do more high rep work than max effort sets. Muscle is not as important as neuro-muscular coordination. And for sheiko routines… Oh boy, I really have nothing against Eric Talmant but what the fuck is up with lifting less than 80% of your max unless you’re doing dynamic effort work???

[quote]TYPE2B wrote:
Right now, I just wanna know how your routine looks like. The major problem that I have with westside templates is that they seem to do too much high rep work. They do more high rep work than max effort sets. Muscle is not as important as neuro-muscular coordination. [/quote]

Do you mean on the main lifts or assistance exercises?

I would say personally that your best bet to get you bench up is to… Stop benching.

Quit benching for a month and get your pull ups, dips, rotator cuffs, and back into shape. Do your technical bench bar patterning with just the bar in your warm ups every day but keep the plates off for a month.

When i used to bench this was the key to buusting my plateaus. To get from 270 to 315 I quit benching for 6 weeks where I only benched the bar. The rest of my lifts [uipper wise] were either pulls from all angles, handstand push ups, regular push ups with weight [vest, chains, girlfriend, her friends, bumper plates, whatever you got] or rotator cuff work.

After the 6 weeks I went back to benching 2x per week, once for a ME and the next for 5x3 at 85-90% of the ME number. The first ME broke the plateau of 270 to 280 and then the next 2 weeks got me to a hard fought 315.

I attribute a lot of it to the 1 month of bare bar work with ever warm up as well.

but what ever works for you. a lot of guys refuse to not bench weekly because its their fav lift. Bench press is like a girl, if you love it/her let it/her go. If it/she loves you it/she will come back bigger and fatter.

-chris

[quote]Avocado wrote:
…regular push ups with weight [vest, chains, girlfriend, her friends, bumper plates, whatever you got] or rotator cuff work.
[/quote]

Sound kinky!!!

I only read like the first couple posts, so I don’t know if this has been posted. But how bout taking sime time off your bench. Like take a week off of all pressing movments. You may have been strssing your bench too much.