Yeah, I included ohp on the list too because I want to get mine to two plates.
I’ve personally did push press to help in the middle. Pretty much like a slingshot for press.
I’m now doing single arm dumbbell overhead press (Like strict circus dumbbell) to evenly load all the deltoid heads.
Also wanted to get other people’s feedback
I’ve been told I need more muscle and so far comp SBD has done me pretty good.
I don’t lift that heavy though so I don’t get smashed after a heavy workout and I squat high bar so it’s kind on my upper limb joints and sumo so my lower back isn’t worked like crazy.
I stopped doing OHP for a while, my bench continued to go up for a while but got stuck around 365. Shortly after getting back into OHP I was over 2 plates. I’m not sure how much OHP carries over to bench but doing some is likely a good idea, although if you compete in PL there is no point in doing exercises with the sole intention of building your OHP. It would be like specializing in chin-ups.
Another thing to consider, OHP is kind of hard on your shoulder joints and adds more spinal loading on top of squatting and deadlifting. I watched Mike Israetel’s presentation in the online PL summit (whatever it’s called that Martijn Koevoets runs) and he was saying that 2-3 work sets per week is plenty if you are already doing a lot of benching.
Yeah alot of my teammates, especially the ones with big arches, say that OHP doesn’t have much carry over. I also have a teammate who competes in Strength Lifting (Rippetoes federation with Squat, OHP, Conventional Deadlift)
It’s hard to say what factors make OHP more useful. Matt Wenning rarely did any overhead work and was benching over 600, on the other hand Josh Bryant has most of his lifters do some OHP and he is coaching some of the top bench pressers at the moment.
I believe that Kevin oak and dan green do lots of overhead work, but then there’s the other side of Larry wheels, mark bell and probably many more, benching at meets in the high 500’s raw, and I can’t recall too many times I see them overhead pressing (it’s more common to see when Larry is prepping for bodybuilding)
“What are the best variations to address weaknesses/sticking points for the big 3?”
Use a standard pause you your bench on the last rep of the set or for any sets 3 reps or 2 reps. You should NEVER be doing singles on the bench except for warmups or on the platform. IF you are a gym bro and not an actual competitor, that means every 10-12 weeks.
For squats you are better off doing box work than paused squats.
Squat
Low Box Squat
If the sticking point is above parallel:
Zercher Squat
Front Squat
Box Squat (legal depth)
Bench Press
If the sticking point is off the chest:
Paused reps and slingshot work.
spotto press is the dumbest shit ever especially for this purpose considering you don’t go to your chest.
.
If the sticking point is around mid-range:
Incline Bench Press
3 or 2 board press, even 4. - Board Press
Slingshot work
Speed bench, west side style
if the sticking point is at lockout:
RLO’s comp grip
4 board work
an aggressive slingshot
Deadlift
If the sticking point is breaking from the floor:
Deficit Deadlift
If the sticking point is around the knees:
Zercher Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Pin-Pull Below Knees (focus on pulling with the posterior chain; not on leveraging by bringing the knees under the bar)
If the sticking point is above the knees:
Pin-Pull above knees
Why do you say that? I realize that doing singles in training is not necessary and some of the best lifters never did less than a double in training (Ed Coan for example) and then only in the last couple weeks before a meet, but at the same time there are people who use heavy singles with good results. Josh Bryant has most of his guys doing singles at some point and he is training most of the top benchers right now. Jim Williams main training method for bench was doing multiple heavy singles. It seems to me that there are many way to accomplish the same goal of lifting more weight and that may or may not involve singles.
I’ve produced well over a 500lb raw bench many times over the past 15 years at both 242 and 275. I have broken bench world records in multiple federations. If you don’t like my advice, kick it to the curb and continue down your existing path.
Doing singles on the bench is very taxing to the body and the CNS. It opens you up to maximum chance of injury. Singles on the bench are meant for warmups, testing and establishing your 1RM and exhibiting your results on the platform. Inexperienced weaker lifters can “get away” with maxing more often, it still isn’t helping them.
Deadlifts, singles work. Squat, singles work. applied properly of course.
Me personally, I never hit less than a double in training in the bench press
well it sounds like this is a criticism of performing a 1rm outside of competition more than it is a criticism of performing singles. Do you think there is anything wrong with performing sub-maximal singles?
Wow. A little touchy over a rep scheme…
Input is welcome though!
I never do less than 3-5 reps on anything. Seems to work well 
right, I’m talking max effort, 1RM singles
I’m 3 weeks out from a bodybuilding show.
I’m a whole bunch of touchy…lol
Pics…or you’re fos…
Same here. It’s something I been doing in hopes of longevity, but the volume has had a great impact on my physique and overall progress.
I want to do Greg Knuckols Bulgarian program for a few weeks just to try it out though, and that involves working up to a daily minimum of singles, with some backoff sets of doubles if it feels good, and 5-10 deadlift singles at 80ish% throughout the week.
Yeah man the key is the volume (at least for me). I was sticking to only 5’s forever until @T3hPwnisher broke me free from the shackles of the 5’s only Rippletoe curse lol. Now that I get quality volume in all rep ranges 3’s, 5’s, 8, 10’s, and 20’s I feel like my body and especially joints have thanked me for it.
Look in the bodybuilding forum.
Maybe we have some miscommunication here, I don’t think that maxing out is a good idea either and I’m totally with you on that. The sort of singles I’m talking about would be in the range of maybe 85-95% (at most) and would be followed up with volume work.
I have no problem with your advice, I just wanted to understand the reason for it. If you have advice to give then I’m more than glad to learn from you.
Are you talking about submaximal singles or maxing out? This is where I’m confused, to me it seems like a max bench isn’t half as taxing as a squat or deadlift. Don’t take this as me trying to argue with you, I would be interested to hear your logic on this.
Great points/questions
Sub maximal singles are ok for all lifts however I avoid them all together in the bench. Again, for me, paused doubles are as low as I go expect for meet day.