I need advice

P. Bateman

P. Bateman

Vet
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
1,113
I know, asking advice from the likes of all of you is like asking a a fourth grader to spell diarrhea, but, I have no other avenue. All my lifts are coming along really well with the exception of my bench press. I am training natural, taking in about 3500 calories per day, about 250 grams of protein. I work chest once per week; bench press, hammer strength, db flyes. Two working sets of each. Neither the weight nor the reps are going anywhere. I have grip shoulder width, shoulders back, feet pressed firmly to floor. I look for 10 reps per set. Any ideas?
 
I dont know how tall you are or what you weigh but it sounds like maybe upping your calories would help. Eating seems to always make the difference for me.
I am 6' and weigh 230lbs and I eat over 5,000 per day...but im not natural. sometimes the reason growth stops or theres none at all is there is no gas in the tank. Some formulas for growth call for 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound others specify per pound of lean body mass. You probably already know that. 3500 sounds low.
 
My first action would be to up the cals if it wasn't for the fact that all my other lifts are increasing every workout.
 
I woul d have 2 chest days. One extremely heavy in the 2-3 rep range, mostly flat bench and flat dumbell followed by heavy tricep work. The 2nd day would be 15-20 rep of what your doing already. My 2cents!
 
I think Beast is on to something. For me P, for whatever reason on chest, I just do not get stronger with reps at 10 range. In fact, I will drop strength after a while doing that. If I want to be stronger I have to lift heavier. Also do a couple assisted reps even if it feels like you are about to die. Then maybe a couple more.
 
im not nearly as experienced as these guys but i can tell you what has worked for me when I wasn't progressing...

I would drop the weight down and do 5+ sets of reps to failure with the first set's failure coming at 17-25 reps..the volume always gave me a better response from any muscle group but especially my chest. and I found that it helped me break through plateaus easily...
 
A lot of good advice so far. Are you hitting the same 3 exercises every week? If so, switch it up... I never do the same workout. Try different training styles to see what works for you...high volume/lighter weight, low volume/heavy weight, negatives, ect.
 
First off, widen your grip. Shoulder width grip you're using is damn near close-grips dude wtf. :eek: Wider grip is more of a pl grip, lessening the distance the bar has to travel, also involving the pecs more. Also, before you even lift the bar off to begin your set, try to squeeze your shoulder blades togther and maintain that position throughout the set - this keeps your chest high and stabilizes you. Let the trajectory of the bar come down very low on your chest before you press, which lets you get more triceps into it and also decreases the distance the bar has to travel.

Having said that, if you really wanna prioritize improving bench weight, I think beast has the idea. Hit chest 2x per week - go light focusing on speed and exploding 1 workout. Use bands/chains if you got 'em. Other workout hit it heavy and tris heavy also. Keeping in mind that you're not on, its probably best if you cut back on volume & intensity on other bdpts to maintenance mode. Yeah its a sacrafice, but not being on and hitting chest 2x per week along with busting ass on all other bdpts will probably lead to overtraining. Buf is the bench man, I'm sure he can chime in and give you solid info.
 
What I was doing was training as if I was still on. I found that I was always fatigued, feeling ill, long bouts of lethargy, and absolutely no gains. I knew I had to re-evaluate my training. I cut my training in half . My fear now, training natural, is over-training. I don't want to over stress my sympathetic nervous system. So I'm going to start by changing my technique and lifting a little heavier, in the 6 rep range. If that doesn't work, I'll attempt the 2x's per week training. This natural shit is for the birds.
 
Hey Bateman!

Get off the bench for a while.

What I mean is simple start using it as a secondary exercise for the time being.
You've been given some good advice from the above but it's time to focus on other things.

Start doing some floor presses 1st then bench full range for 10-15 rep and use a wider grip as dogpound mentioned earlier.
Either pinky on the bar ring or index finger on the bar ring.
Even use those 2 grips on the floor presses.

Add in some chain and band work (if ya got 'em) from time to time.

Focus on military presses and high inclines to help get you off the bottom.
You will also need some heavy lat and trap work to get that "bottom end" re-coil effect coming out of the hole.

Still do some heavy triceps work in rotation away from the days you do your heavy floor presses/benching.
Only do light triceps work on those days. Say anywhere from 1-3 sets of triceps with anywhere from 25 to 100 rep.
Obviously the more sets the less reps.
Try to limit yourself to only 2 exercises at most per body part.

Another thing you may need to lok at here is the rotation of your deadlift/squat/and bench work.

Example:
Squat day:
If your going all out today--say you at 85% or higher on this
then you need to be slightly less than that on your bench day and deadlift day.
For that week of training.

Then rotate that the next week to say bench day and go hard on it and drop back slightly on your squat and deads.

So on an so forth. This will help you to recover better and still allow you to get stronger in your lifts.
Good luck!
 
I always go balls to the wall on deads and squats. To be honest with you, I hate bench pressing. Some very sound advice here guys, thanks, especially to Dawg and WidowMaker.
 
Widowmaker and I are sort of on the same page here.
I'm 58 and my last comp hit a 575 raw bench.
Here is basically what I did without regugitating sets, reps weights etc. (By the way I think I still have a training log on here in that section)
Flat bench with a few warm-up sets then one rep max weight for as many sets as you can still hit it, then stop.
Inclines after that at a moderate weight you can hit 8-10 on.
This is very important, do shoulders on a serperate day all by themselves. Standing military press will greatly improve your strength. Around 5 sets in the 6-8 to failure range.
Triceps, do them seperate on a day all by themselves except you can do biceps with them if you want. As heavy as you can go for 5-8 reps about 5 sets and no more.
This has worked wonders for me. I went from 475 on the flat to 575 in a years time doing this basic routine for upper body.
I also do sqyats and deads on seperate days. These both help to improve overall strength.
I think most guys want to do a body builders routine but also want to get much stronger. Sorry bro, the two are totally different kinds of training. Not saying that you can't be a body builder and continue to increase in strength, Ronnie Colemen is the exception, but hypertrophy comes from higher reps and strength comes from lower rep ranges at heavier weights.
But again, this is just what has worked for me. We are all different.
 
My goal at this point is hypertrophy. My plan to attain this goal is through constant progression. Whether it's more weight, a greater number of reps, both. I know that hypertrophy is not a direct result of strenth gains; however, I do believe that there must be some change or small incremental increase in strength or intensity.
 
Buff is correct! We are all different.
What he says is like gold.
But as Ronnie would say;"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but no body wanna lift no heavy ass weight."
It's been proven and documented that muscle hypertrophy starts from weight progression i.e. heavier weight progressively.

One needs to be wise and methodical about it!
Learn from others that have went the extra mile to get where others only dream of going.
 
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