Hit a Snag with My Flat Bench

Hey everyone, bit new around this forum so forgive me if I’ve posted this in the wrong place.

I’ve hit a bit of a snag recently with flat bench progression. Been doing it consistently now for two or so years but cant seem to progress past 4x5 125kgs. Any tips or new routines you could give me to help increase my strength in this area? Have a bit of time to work on upper body at the moment as I just recently tore my hamstring doing sprint work.

Eat more. Gain bodyweight.

Hey man dont really want to get heavier. I’m a sprinter/footballer by choice so I dont want to slow down. Any other lifts I could do to aid it?

forgot to also mention I’m 84kgs. Only really want to at max get to 86.

Replace bodyfat with muscle.

Try all pressing variations. And triceps work.

Tricep work like dips, tricep press, skullcrushers, close grip bench? do a few of them now but not that many. B/F is only 10 atm as well. and I’ve heard that Overhead press aids bench strength. been doing that for the last two weeks starting to get into it a bit more. Any idea if thats true or just a rumour?

Getting stronger everywhere in the upper body carries over in some way or another to other upper body movements.

You’ll have to accept that at some pointyou will not be able to get stronger without adding bodyweight.

<10% is not going to be optimal range for strength gain. It’s trade-off. You said that you’re not running now anyway so just focus on gaining some relatively lean body mass in your upper during your down time.

[quote]Jocca13 wrote:
Tricep work like dips, tricep press, skullcrushers, close grip bench? do a few of them now but not that many. B/F is only 10 atm as well. and I’ve heard that Overhead press aids bench strength. been doing that for the last two weeks starting to get into it a bit more. Any idea if thats true or just a rumour?[/quote]

Overhead pressing and weighted dips seems to have a good carry over for many people over. Also, a lot of pulling excercies help building your bench. Add in some pull ups, DB and pendlay rows etc in to your routine if you havent already. Good luck.