Bench Press Help

i have searched the threads and did not find anything that seemed to help.

the problem i am having with my bench press, is the area from my chest and about 6inches off is a struggle when i bench. after that 6in its like i have kicked into 2nd gear. this is a problem bc its been a struggle to go up in weight. is this normal or is there a corrasponding exercise i can do to strengthen that area?

Do 2 and 3-board presses. (A board press is where you sit a board or boards on your chest and lower the bar to touch the board. Boards are usually 2 inches thick each and 4-6 inches wide. Thus with a 2-board press you are lowering the bar to 4 inches above your chest. With a 3-board it is 6 inches.)

The idea behind doing these is that you are starting the lift about where your sticking point is.

Also try dumbell bench press where you let t he weight go down as low as you can handle.

And yes, it is a common problem getting stuck ther!

Do you have the ectomorph bodytype (thin with long limbs - difficult to gain weight)?

The book Scrawny to Brawny recommends that ectomorphs do not bench down to their chests. They recommend placing a rolled up towel on your chest and lowering to the towel instead. Is this cheating? Not when you consider that from a biomechanical perspective, a guy with short arms and large ribcage lowering the bar to his chest can be the same as a guy with long arms and a narrow ribcage stopping 3-4 inches above his chest.

[quote]sharetrader wrote:
Do 2 and 3-board presses. (A board press is where you sit a board or boards on your chest and lower the bar to touch the board. Boards are usually 2 inches thick each and 4-6 inches wide. Thus with a 2-board press you are lowering the bar to 4 inches above your chest. With a 3-board it is 6 inches.)

The idea behind doing these is that you are starting the lift about where your sticking point is.[/quote]

HMMM ok board presses have a use for sure but I dont think they are right here he says his porb area “is the area from my chest and about 6inches off” So you are having with the 3 board press having him NOT hit his weak point and work the strong point.

I say do the second suggestion work so DB presses, also paused reps. Bring the bar down pause on the bottom 4 seconds or so to lose the stretch reflex and Press. this will build out of the hole strength.

Also work on explosion learning to explode be fast out of the whole to turn on every damn fiber you have.

Oh one other little thing of note boards now a days. They arent 2"x4" etc any longer havent been for years. They still call them that do to ease I guess but they are 1/4’ (think thats right been a while) short of what they say so a 2x4 is actually 1 3/4 x 3 3/4 or 2 x 6 is 1 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches. This becomes a real pain when refurbishing an Old house that actually has 2x4 inch boards. Just a little note so a three board press is actually limiting the bottom 5 1/4 inches of ROM not 6

Hope that helps,
Phill

I’d suggest you set up in a power rack with the stops right above chest level. Start the weight resting on the pins, lift, lower (under control), and release tension (repeating for reps).

Then, you might also give isometrics a try. Load the bar with a weight you could not possibly lift (on the stops at chest level), and push hard for about 30-60 seconds.

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[quote]Devstar wrote:
the problem i am having with my bench press, is the area from my chest and about 6inches off is a struggle when i bench.[/quote]

Strengthen your weak points. If you struggle with the range of motion near your chest, then you need to train that range of motion near your chest. Do partial reps. Simply bench press the first six inches near your chest, go up half-way, then come back down.

Man, I had the same problem when I first started lifting. The only thing that got me out of it is to lighten up the weight alittle(do more reps at lighter weights) and do drop sets to failure. for instance, my bench workout looks like this…

95lbs x 10 (warm-up)
125lbs x 8
140lbs x 5
155lbs x 3
165lbs x 2
175lbs x 1
160lbs to failure
135lbs to failure
115lbs to failure
(every week, i try to out-do last weeks “to failure” numbers by at least one)

now keep in mind I am a powerlifter so my goal is max strength. However, I have gained 110lbs on my bench in a year and a half, and totally obliterated my “sticking point” . Hope this helps!

i agree that dumbell presses and paused reps are a great idea. id also add in some overhead pressing to your routine if your not already doing it.

[quote]redsox348984 wrote:
i agree that dumbell presses and paused reps are a great idea. id also add in some overhead pressing to your routine if your not already doing it.[/quote]

I agree. Also are you doing flys? How much do you arch?