Increase bench tips

[chessman]

currently at 215lbs 1RM, consistently can hit 185 by 5x5. how to increase 1RM!

 

[olrak]

What program are you running? also what assistance exercises are you doing?

 

[chessman]

What program are you running? also what assistance exercises are you doing?

currently not running any programs, i’ve been in the gym for about 5 months. 225 with assistance till failure, 285lb static holds and assisted on incline with 185. do you have any recommendations?

 

[olrak]

Yes I recommend reading beyond 531 by jim Wendler, you'll understand how assistance lifts help main lifts increase such as the bench press, you gain and deep understanding how the program works and the big picture of training. BTW assistance lifts are other exercises which enable you to get stronger in the main lifts squat, bench and deadlift. As you are new to training I can't recommend beyond 531 enough, read it now and you'll have enough info to do you for life, otherwise you might waste a few years getting nowhere and giving up as most people do

 

[Megadick3000]

To follow on what Olrak said.

What are the main muscles used in a bench press? Sure your pecs, but also your anterior deltoids and your triceps.

Focus on bringing up the strength in your anterior delts and triceps and you might find you can break your plateau on bench pressing.

For anterior delt targeting i really like an OHP dumbbell variation where you use a neutral grip. So your arms are out infront of you rather than beside you, this forces the anterior delts to do most the work.

For triceps, close grip bench pressing and skull crushers. CGBP is mechanically the most relevant tricep exercise to improving a bench press.

 

[JackSkel]

To follow on what Olrak said.

What are the main muscles used in a bench press? Sure your pecs, but also your anterior deltoids and your triceps.

Focus on bringing up the strength in your anterior delts and triceps and you might find you can break your plateau on bench pressing.

For anterior delt targeting i really like an OHP dumbbell variation where you use a neutral grip. So your arms are out infront of you rather than beside you, this forces the anterior delts to do most the work.

For triceps, close grip bench pressing and skull crushers. CGBP is mechanically the most relevant tricep exercise to improving a bench press.

To expand further, the lats are very important in benchpress and often overlooked. Heavy rows. Guys that press 500 pounds plus often say you increase your bench by working every other muscle with exercises other than bench.

 

[Hayes88]

To expand further, the lats are very important in benchpress and often overlooked. Heavy rows. Guys that press 500 pounds plus often say you increase your bench by working every other muscle with exercises other than bench.

Amen, LATS! That has helped me as well, though bench is a b*tch since as soon as you stop focusing on it your 1rpm lowers drastically, at least for me. My powerlifting friends said to be great at e.g. bench, then focus on bench, don't jump around doing cable fly's, db presses etc etc... Great for growth and health, but will hinder 1rpms according to them.
I am no expert in that since I mix like a smoothie.

I also would add stop presses, that has helped the failure point a lot for me.
Remember to keep frame tight from start to finnish, and if you wanna be really fancy you can even have focus points, meaning does press go to f.delt or pecs? Another example is when you do back pulls. Are you focusing on the hands reaching chest area, or are you focusing on elbows squeezing behind back? Same exercise, different focus point, world of difference.

 

[fike]

I'm currently taking John Haack's advice and it is working well for me. It seems almost too simple, but he said he increases his bench strength by increasing the frequency in which he trains his bench every week. So, if you are training bench twice weekly, train it three or four days instead. I am training it three days per week alternating heavy, low rep days and lighter, high rep days. I have went from a 275 lb three rep max to 315 lb three rep max this cycle. Like I said, it seems so simple it can't be good advice, but I think we tend to overcomplicate things sometimes.

 

[Blange89]

I'm currently taking John Haack's advice and it is working well for me. It seems almost too simple, but he said he increases his bench strength by increasing the frequency in which he trains his bench every week. So, if you are training bench twice weekly, train it three or four days instead. I am training it three days per week alternating heavy, low rep days and lighter, high rep days. I have went from a 275 lb three rep max to 315 lb three rep max this cycle. Like I said, it seems so simple it can't be good advice, but I think we tend to overcomplicate things sometimes.

I'm using evolveai app right now and I'm definitely noticing more benching as the training blocks continue

 

[ChevChelios]

To expand further, the lats are very important in benchpress and often overlooked. Heavy rows. Guys that press 500 pounds plus often say you increase your bench by working every other muscle with exercises other than bench.

This. Do heavy bent over rows n imo something that always helps with sticking points is doing ROM progression stuff so do a rack press/pin press with a lot higher weight then move the pins down each time til you’re doing it normally, that plus paused bench helps a fkload tbh you’d have to tell us where your sticking point is as some have more issue at the start some towards lockout n the assistance exercises vary greatly, but you can’t go wrong with lots of back n rear delt work, weighted dips, incline presses n overhead presses, close grip bench, paused bench, grip variations n heavy af ROM progression

 

[ChevChelios]

I'm currently taking John Haack's advice and it is working well for me. It seems almost too simple, but he said he increases his bench strength by increasing the frequency in which he trains his bench every week. So, if you are training bench twice weekly, train it three or four days instead. I am training it three days per week alternating heavy, low rep days and lighter, high rep days. I have went from a 275 lb three rep max to 315 lb three rep max this cycle. Like I said, it seems so simple it can't be good advice, but I think we tend to overcomplicate things sometimes.

Also this. Frequency is sooo fkin underrated it’s ridiculous, if you do even Bulgarian style you’d be surprised at how much it can help, ofc rotate in some light/medium days but yeah definitely do more than one session a week for whatever lift you want to improve

 

[barbell001]

I'm using evolveai app right now and I'm definitely noticing more benching as the training blocks continue

How have the last 7 months been using it buddy? I have nearly signed up to one of his apps a few times but keep putting it off lol When I spoke to him personally he recommended the Proven Strength app for bench.

 

[barbell001]

I have always found that training Bench increases bench, not doing assistance exercises. If you want to increase a lift in a particular plane of motion - you train that exact plane of motion. Dont go over 4 reps unless doing an AMRAP - train it heavy and twice a week. More than twice per week never worked for me, I became exhausted and overtrained in bench. I see all these guys doing specialised routines and assistance exercises and they can't even do 315 for 6 reps yet - work on hitting that MINIMUM before thinking you need to do anything else. Also look at what BW the guy giving the advice is, they should be ideally hitting minimum 2 x BW in a 1RM, ideally 2.2 is a good indicator that they know exactly how to train it. Many guys who say XYZ should be done are just big heavy guys who are nowhere peaked out - anything will still work for them to increase it. I managed 470 @ 185 BW and did no back training, no shoulders or tricep work. But there are still loads of guys who have achieved much better than this - check out the current blog on here called road to 523 bench press, that guy really knows what he is doing in terms of programming and what works and doesn't work. Haack obv is the master at pressing but I think his recovery ability and tendon strength is just light years above all the rest of us.

Also being heavier shouldn't affect a good BW to bench weight ratio - Think about guys like Larry Wheels, Jeremy Hoornstra, Johnny Harris, all 700lb benchers that weigh under 300.

 

[Blange89]

How have the last 7 months been using it buddy? I have nearly signed up to one of his apps a few times but keep putting it off lol When I spoke to him personally he recommended the Proven Strength app for bench.

I ran a few cycles with good progress, but now I'm using proven strength and liking it a little more.

 

[barbell001]

I ran a few cycles with good progress, but now I'm using proven strength and liking it a little more.

Do you believe it is the programme that John used to increase his bench from around 200kg to 270kg? What general rep ranges does he have you using, how many working sets per session?

 

[Blange89]

Honestly I feel his programming might be a little more advanced than what is on there, but supposedly its what he used for American Pro and Ghost Clash.

 

[TheIncomparableMrHarrow]

I would ask you what your sticking point is or where you feel the weakest: ie off the chest, mid range, or lockout - but being in the gym for only 5 months I would say find a proven program and take it from there.

I do think starting out, 5/3/1 is a great option. I also think the juggernaut training system is very good as well.

I do believe people often overlook how technical bench, bench setup, and the proper mechanics of a good press are. If you believe your form may be off(like your lats not being tightly back and down on the pad, or improper utilization of leg drive) you may want to start there.

 

[ChevChelios]

I would ask you what your sticking point is or where you feel the weakest: ie off the chest, mid range, or lockout - but being in the gym for only 5 months I would say find a proven program and take it from there.

I do think starting out, 5/3/1 is a great option. I also think the juggernaut training system is very good as well.

I do believe people often overlook how technical bench, bench setup, and the proper mechanics of a good press are. If you believe your form may be off(like your lats not being tightly back and down on the pad, or improper utilization of leg drive) you may want to start there.

This. OP you need to find your sticking points n target what is lacking so it you’re strong off the chest but lack lockout then so close grip n JM press n lots of heavy rack presses but if you’re strong at lockout n weak off the start I’d say ABSOLUTELY paused benches (1 or 2 second pause each rep on your chest, tbh it’s amazing even for bodybuilding as it stimulates your chest a lot more) n incline presses n high rep db presses etc…

What many people tend to not do for some reason idk why is the overhead press (do it standing n you might take a bit to get used to it as so many programs don’t emphasise overhead work but it’s fkin essential and to quote Louie Simmons, R.I.P., anyone who can press it overhead can bench it easily, n it’s got a lot of carryover plus it feels primal af to put heavy weight overhead in a strict way or a push press way too I guess but I’d emphasise strict standing OHPs those are great for fkin everything upper body wise), some who never did much overhead work might have to start light n do some klokovs too with insanely low weight for high reps but that’s dependent on y’all n how flexible your shoulders are but fr it’s really underrated and more people should do it as so many complain that they can’t just due to ‘shoulder impingement’ or ‘it’s easy to get hurt’ but it’s all bs it’s really 99% of the time just due to you not being used to the movement n lacking shoulder flexibility

Yeah sorry went on a rant here but OHPs are fkin legendary n please don’t do em sitting down it makes it harder on your shoulders n gives less benefits do em standing in the rack or just with a barbell you power clean to your chest, you will be surprised at how fkin dope they are as soon as you try em (n once you get comfy with those try out BTNP or behind the neck presses/behind the neck push presses, they are a whole body exercise n once you start you will never want to stop doing em but look out for the bar as if you drop it too high you’re gonna hit your head n if too low we’ll that’s fkin painful n maybe even worse ahah)

 

[gx52a]

Do you believe it is the programme that John used to increase his bench from around 200kg to 270kg? What general rep ranges does he have you using, how many working sets per session?

Honestly I always take it with a big grain of salt when a freak like Haack shares what program worked for him... I'm not John Haack and neither are you.

Maybe it's because I'm weak as shit, but I can bench four times a week without accumulating undue fatigue. I find that the chest can tolerate really ridiculous volume. I've noticed that when I actually fail a rep doing squats, I'm absolutely obliterated, whereas when I actually fail a rep on bench, it's no big deal, I can sometimes even hit another set. Maybe that's related to the whole training frequency thing, dunno.

Other posters mentioned targeting your weak points with bench variants, which I highly recommend. I also recommend proper powerlifting reps, with real tension in your legs, arched back, retracted and stable shoulder blades. Also try using wrist wraps if you don't already. This lets you move the most weight and that in turn should produce the greatest adaptation.

One other thing I should mention, if your lats are weak that can limit your bench, so do your pulldowns and rows.

 

[ChevChelios]

Honestly I always take it with a big grain of salt when a freak like Haack shares what program worked for him... I'm not John Haack and neither are you.

Maybe it's because I'm weak as shit, but I can bench four times a week without accumulating undue fatigue. I find that the chest can tolerate really ridiculous volume. I've noticed that when I actually fail a rep doing squats, I'm absolutely obliterated, whereas when I actually fail a rep on bench, it's no big deal, I can sometimes even hit another set. Maybe that's related to the whole training frequency thing, dunno.

Other posters mentioned targeting your weak points with bench variants, which I highly recommend. I also recommend proper powerlifting reps, with real tension in your legs, arched back, retracted and stable shoulder blades. Also try using wrist wraps if you don't already. This lets you move the most weight and that in turn should produce the greatest adaptation.

One other thing I should mention, if your lats are weak that can limit your bench, so do your pulldowns and rows.

It’s true bro pretty much everyone ik can bench n overhead press way more often than what they can do with stuff like dls (squats it depends I love to squat so I do em at least twice a week but yeah sometimes it does take a toll), but in general frequency is kind imo both for practice both for actual stimulation of strength n hypertrophy, have you ever tried doing some squat sessions with lighter weight n doing shit like paused squats or heavy ass box squats? Imo them box squats are a lot easier to recover from even though the weight is a lot higher (n this is at parallel or slightly above, if the box is busy I just use a bench in between the legs n it works great imo)