I've plateaued on my bench press, any advice?

Rygu said:
Generally I do chest twice a week.

I warmup with 135, usually 2 sets of 8. Then 185 2 sets of 6. Then I do max reps at 225. Then ill hit the Smith machine and do incline bench usually start at 140 for a few sets then goto 190. Usually 8 reps for the incline on both weights but the very last set ill do max reps.

I also do military press once a week, and chest press with dumbbells once a week.
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First mistake is saying you are training chest. If your top goal is to increase your bench press you want your training to be "bench day 1, 2, 3 etc."

Plenty of solid bench press programs circulating out there, good ones will have you benching at least 2 times a week. Liftingvault has a bunch of programs, Greg Nuckols stuff is probably a good bet. You should also watch some youtube videos to try to get some tips on how to improve your technique and how to stay injury free. Below is the link to getting the spreadsheets.

https://liftvault.com/programs/powerlifting/greg-nuckols-28-programs-spreadsheet/
 
Is that 8 paused reps? Because my max is teh 275 but I can hit 13 touch and go on the 225. Maybe I'm just that slow twitch though.
 
Are you doing chest days or are you doing bench-press days with some acessory work? If you want to up your bench do more working sets. Increase rest periods if you have to. Don't ever go to failure. You can probably get away with bench pressing 3x a week until you start trashing yourself with heavier weights. When you add another 100lb to your max 2x a week should be plenty.
 
How many working sets are you guy talking?

Have 2 days a week with 5x5 bench, 5x5 DBs, with some accessory stuff mixed in.
 
Fahcough said:
How many working sets are you guy talking?

Have 2 days a week with 5x5 bench, 5x5 DBs, with some accessory stuff mixed in.
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You are doing 5x5 twice a week? Are you doing straight sets like 200x5x5? and then increasing the weight the next session?
 
ASUThermo said:
You are doing 5x5 twice a week? Are you doing straight sets like 200x5x5? and then increasing the weight the next session?
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more of add 10s, add 10s, add 5s, decide if feeling good enough to add 2.5s
5x 5x grinding 5x struggle for 4x fail at 2 or 3 and rack em.
 
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I’m a pretty big fan these days of adding resistance bands assistant lifts to whatever I need to improve on. Helped with my squat.
 
Fahcough said:
more of add 10s, add 10s, add 5s, decide if feeling good enough to add 2.5s
5x 5x grinding 5x struggle for 4x fail at 2 or 3 and rack em.
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Are you taking sets to failure every session? If your main focus is increasing your 1 rep max on bench, you should almost always avoid going to failure. Taking accessory work like dumbbells or even machines to failure at high reps isn't the worst thing, but again not needed really.
 
ASUThermo said:
Are you taking sets to failure every session? If your main focus is increasing your 1 rep max on bench, you should almost always avoid going to failure. Taking accessory work like dumbbells or even machines to failure at high reps isn't the worst thing, but again not needed really.
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No, not every session. Maybe once every other week, usually on a weekend after feeling good from a 8-9 hour sleep. Can move more weight those days than during week with only 5-6 hours.
Then one session will be 60-70% and throw some 15 lb chains on both sides and go time under tension reps.
Thanks for advise, was always drilled failure makes stronger.
 
Rygu said:
New Years Eve 2019 I finally benched teh 225 for one rep. Currently my max is 285 and I can rep 225 for 8. But it's been like 5 months and those are both still my max numbers. I've googled it and apparently plateauing between 275 and 325 is not uncommon. I have no interest in any PEDs but would like to hit at least 315 max.

Since most people on Sherdog bench 400+ give me some advice Sherbros.
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I was at 285 for a long while. As soon as I started powerlifting and changed my form I made it to 345 pretty quickly. I did 5 sets of 5. I

I did each set with 10 more pounds until the 5th set. If I could do 5 I started 10 pounds heavier next time I came in. So 200, 210, 220, 230, 240 until I could do 240 for 5. Incline dumbbell for 4 sets of 10. Flies or cable crossover. There are much better programs out there but my point is that if you eat more and put the time in you can break 300. 400 was a lot harder but still doable. Tore my shoulder or I might have gotten near 455 before I quit chasing the next weight. Rona knocked me back down to around 360 so fuck it. I'm just going to lost some weight and see where I'm at.
 
cincymma79 said:
I was at 285 for a long while. As soon as I started powerlifting and changed my form I made it to 345 pretty quickly. I did 5 sets of 5. I

I did each set with 10 more pounds until the 5th set. If I could do 5 I started 10 pounds heavier next time I came in. So 200, 210, 220, 230, 240 until I could do 240 for 5. Incline dumbbell for 4 sets of 10. Flies or cable crossover. There are much better programs out there but my point is that if you eat more and put the time in you can break 300. 400 was a lot harder but still doable. Tore my shoulder or I might have gotten near 455 before I quit chasing the next weight. Rona knocked me back down to around 360 so fuck it. I'm just going to lost some weight and see where I'm at.
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Yeah i guess that's what is hampering me, i did eat a ton and went from 165 to 220 in a year and I did get a lot stronger too but now im trying to burn some of that fat for the summer so ive cut down to 3000-3500 calories a day max and my lifting has stalemated which does make perfect sense when i think about it.
 
Rygu said:
Yeah i guess that's what is hampering me, i did eat a ton and went from 165 to 220 in a year and I did get a lot stronger too but now im trying to burn some of that fat for the summer so ive cut down to 3000-3500 calories a day max and my lifting has stalemated which does make perfect sense when i think about it.
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That’s not the issue with your bench.
 
If you're only concerned with getting your bench numbers up you need to bench three days a week and like others mentioned, ditch the smith machine. Don't be afraid to do accessory lifts as well. Front delt, chest and tricep isolation exercises are important.

I can't give really great advice when it comes to powerlifting because my program is setup for bodybuilding and I might bench once a week...but I know that depending on when in my workout I bench makes a difference in how much and how many reps I can lift and how I grip the bar makes a difference as well.
 
ASUThermo said:
First mistake is saying you are training chest. If your top goal is to increase your bench press you want your training to be "bench day 1, 2, 3 etc."

Plenty of solid bench press programs circulating out there, good ones will have you benching at least 2 times a week. Liftingvault has a bunch of programs, Greg Nuckols stuff is probably a good bet. You should also watch some youtube videos to try to get some tips on how to improve your technique and how to stay injury free. Below is the link to getting the spreadsheets.

https://liftvault.com/programs/powerlifting/greg-nuckols-28-programs-spreadsheet/
Click to expand...
Have you ever ran this program?
I'm looking at setting something up, Squat 2x per week, Deadlift 1x per week, Bench 2-3x per week.
If I go with his Bench specialization setup, the 3x per week program doesn't have any accessory work for the Bench other than curls and pulldowns. I assume that's because of the high frequency but want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly.
The 2x per week bench options use blood flow restriction but I'm not keen on that.
 
vision1 said:
Have you ever ran this program?
I'm looking at setting something up, Squat 2x per week, Deadlift 1x per week, Bench 2-3x per week.
If I go with his Bench specialization setup, the 3x per week program doesn't have any accessory work for the Bench other than curls and pulldowns. I assume that's because of the high frequency but want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly.
The 2x per week bench options use blood flow restriction but I'm not keen on that.
Click to expand...

I've mixed and matched them like that. From a powerlifting perspective I think accessory work needs to be based on the individual, some lifters need more of this or less of that. The 3x a week ones for bench are great, I did the Intermediate High Volume one and I did the accessories but I added additional upper body stuff that works for me. I credit this for me breaking into the 190+ range for bench over a year ago.

I shuffled around the secondary and accessory work that they programmed too, for convenience and where my training took place.
 
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vision1 said:
Have you ever ran this program?
I'm looking at setting something up, Squat 2x per week, Deadlift 1x per week, Bench 2-3x per week.
If I go with his Bench specialization setup, the 3x per week program doesn't have any accessory work for the Bench other than curls and pulldowns. I assume that's because of the high frequency but want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly.
The 2x per week bench options use blood flow restriction but I'm not keen on that.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you want to do something like some of the Sheiko programmes. I was at my strongest by a good margin when I was following these.
 
teepsandbarleywine said:
Sounds like you want to do something like some of the Sheiko programmes. I was at my strongest by a good margin when I was following these.
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As a non-power lifter who does too much other stuff, I think it would be too much for me.
 
@ASUThermo Tomorrow is my last day of cycle #1
Bench calls for max reps at 85% OR work up to a new 1 RM

What do you suggest? I'm leaning towards the 85%
 
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