Tips on bench press

hesn92

Does anyone have tips on bench press? I suck at it. Adding 5 pounds may as well be 100! I did fine with 50 pounds so I tried moving up to 55 but I could only do one rep!! I'm doing 3x5.... I'm eating at a deficit so I know I won't make as much progress as I could but still would like to move up! I eat about 1600 calories and between 80 and 100 g of protein. Any pointers? Please/thank you

3laine75

I was much the same on bench and OHP when I was doing the starting strength programme. I'd go up from the empty bar to 25 then get stuck and go back down and get stuck again.

I've improved on wendlers 5/3/1 - bench is now 35 kg and OHP up to 32.5 - pathetic I know but at least it's moving upward. Wendlers is a slower progression so might work for you.

Nitro2310

some gyms have machine instead of a flat bench try that or nothing wrong with light weight and a lot of reps that will tone you more

SaintGiff

some gyms have machine instead of a flat bench try that or nothing wrong with light weight and a lot of reps that will tone you more

Nooooo.

SaintGiff

If you're asking from the standpoint of increasing your ability to bench, and with the assumption that you don't want to add bodyweight ( because you didn't say you were looking to add bodyweight ), there are a few tips to throw out aside from the standard proper form stuff.

First, check your grip. The bench is a finely orchestrated balance of chest, shoulder and tricep. Most people just put their hands where it seems to feel comfortable or where they saw someone else put them, or where they said to put them on some youtube video. Here's the deal: everyone is different. Not only does each person have a different balance of strength / weakness in those three muscle groups, but that balance can change over time. Step back and ask yourself where your strengths are. Are your shoulders disproportionately stronger than your triceps? If so, maybe move your hands further a part just a bit. Are you all about the triceps? Move 'em in a bit. You don't want to go too far either way, but a difference of a quarter to a half an inch can make a huge difference in how heavy that bar feels at your maximum weights. As a rule, most people have their hands a bit closer together than they should, which robs them of power as it shifts a bit of the load that should be carried by the shoulders into the triceps.

My second tip, and this comes from personal experience, is to examine where and why you fail. What I mean is, where in the lift is it falling apart? If it's failing in the first half of the press then yeah, you just need to get stronger. That's a power issue. You can help yourself there in your less than max bench press sets by focusing on bringing the bar down slowly to your chest slowly, in a very controlled manner, pausing, and the exploding the bar back up. You gain explosive strength by practicing explosive strength. If, however, you are like me and your max lifts fail in the final third of the movement, that's a stamina issue. You have plenty of explosive strength, but you are lacking in the ability to maintain that push all the way through the movement. I found that a great way to add muscle stamina is to make your last set on chest day a ripper. For me that means loading the bar with 40% of my 3 rep max. So if your max is 55lbs, then you're looking at doing these with a 20lb stick. You have two goals with this. Goal number one is to go to contractile failure. Your pecs and shoulders will scream. They will tighten up. Work past it. Go until you literally cannot physically do another rep, or until you hit 50 reps. If you fail before 50 reps, you take 1 second of rest for every remaining rep and then you get back at it. If you get 32 reps the first time, you get 18 seconds of rest before you go again. If you only get 10 that second set, you get 8 seconds of rest and then you go again. Rinse / Repeat until you hit 50. If you get down to the point where you have less than 5 reps left, just give yourself three deep breaths each time rather than counting seconds. These sets are awesome building stamina. They hurt like hell as you're doing them, but the pain vanishes completely the second you stop.

vanguardfitness

Saint has good tips.

What I generally do now (and I have some funky shoulder issues too), I pinch my shoulder blades together when I rest my upper back on the pad. I keep my shoulders "down" (You shouldn't be "shrugging" when you're benching/pullups/shoulder pressing). I bring my legs and feet back towards my head, but not too far back where I can only keep my toes in contact with the ground. The bottom of both of my feet are flat to the ground. I have a little bit of an arch in my lower back (but a natural arch, not hyper extended).

Deep breath into my stomach right before the first lift off. Exhale at the top of that. Right before I bring the weight down I take another deep breath into my gut and keep it there (making sure my abdomen is contracted). Exhale on the upward movement. Rinse and repeat.

If on any rep you get stuck at a specific spot for more than a few seconds, I would consider that fatigue and you should end the set. You'll probably going to want a lighter load if that was your 4th rep or so too.

I generally do 4-8 reps a set, with my first set aiming for 8 and being "ok" with my final sets barely making it to 4 or 5 reps.

You also should have a fairly well balanced upper body. Make sure you incorporate pullups/pulldowns, rotator cuff exercises and should blade exercises.

Also, if you can, try to purchase magnetic weights that attach to bars/weights. You might want to try adding 1-2 pounds instead of 5. I find that most exercises I can get away with adding 10 pounds when I'm increasing the load, but for standing shoulder presses anything more than 5 pounds is too much of an increase for me.

SunofaBeach14

Buy "Starting Strength" and read Mark Rippetoe's advice regarding bench press form. He's at least recognized as a reasonable voice. You could also get on YouTube and watch videos from him and from Jim Wendler.