Actually right now I’m trying to learn the Olympic lifts on the days that I’m not focusing on pure strength; on those days, I do the front squat and overhead squat to get used to the catch position for the clean and the snatch. Hopefully those will benefit my back squat as well.
Don’t really understand where this thread is going. Is anyone suggesting that the OP doesn’t build a bigger chest, back, shoulders and arms? Probably not. Is anyone suggesting that OP doesn’t improve his bench technique and neural efficiency? Probably not.
We’re just arguing academic points at this point IMO.
OP, get bigger, improve your technique, handle some heavy weights. I assure you that your bench will be better
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I’m gonna have to argue with you on this one bud
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They are not his goal, should shouldn’t be pursued, as such. Works towards the goal, not the ancillary that may or may not come with it. Focus on technique and working weak points will get results. Worrying about hypertrophy will not for his stated aims. In particular, they can hurt his O-lifting as they directly impact flexibility.
Perhaps I did miss your point. Which is entity possible. Also I wasnt meaning to be a dick in my post btw. I reread it. I typed it with other shit going on and I have a abrupt typing manor anyhow.
Perhaps another time we can get more into it as I feel we are derailing the thread. As I’m still not understanding your point.
Didn’t really read all the comments, but I’ve definitely seen a lot of variation in how lifters get their bench moving, from needing tons of variation and volume to only benching. I know a lifetime drug free guy, around 260 who moved his bench from 500 to 530ish doing literally nothing other than competition benching (but we also got him from 470 to 500 with a lot of variation work).
Really I think this is one of those cases where individual differences can be really dramatic. Some people really need more mass to get certain lifts to go up while others can just keep gaining strength without increasing muscle size. At the end of the day, you seem to have pinned down what you specifically need to make improvements, so I would say just stick with that until it isn’t working anymore.
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I didn’t think that you were, I try not to read too much emotion into posts. They’re like texts and can easily be taken wrong.
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The O-lifts I’ve been practicing are more for my personal enjoyment than anything; I just want to learn them for the satisfaction of learning them and to gain some general athleticism. I don’t have aspirations to be a champion weightlifter. If putting on size will help my bench, I’m all for it. From my past experience, which admittedly is nothing all that impressive, an increased bench press does correlate with more upper body mass. When I moved from a 260 to a 320 lbs bench, I had to get new suits because I simply couldn’t fit into my old jackets. Whether the size causes the strength increase or the other way around, I can’t say, but they definitely seem to correlate.