Strength off the chest- bench press

tigerdb2

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Geared more towards the PL crew around here but any input appreciated. What are your guys' favorite ways to strengthen off the chest in the bench press? The top 3/4 of my press moves so quickly even above 90-95% but I struggle with those same % off the chest. More DB work, heavy paused presses? What has the best carry over in your opinions?
 
Sean1332

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For me personally, my bench is poor off the chest, and that's due to weak shoulders. Not sure about others. You could try using a cambered bar for a increased ROM.
 
NYiron

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Pin press, wide grip pause bench (I bench narrow, pinky on ring).
 
tigerdb2

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Appreciate the feedback guys. Love getting another perspective
 
Torobestia

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Pin press, close grip incline press (a great way to add in range of motion without resorting to cambered bar benching), high rep DB press to 2 or 3 failure points.

I don't know who this advice is for exactly, but make sure leg drive is adequate.
 
GoHardOrGoHme

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Before I give you my .02 what is your bench? What is your total? What is your weight? How long have you been powerlifting?
 
tigerdb2

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Bench 310 Squat 365 Deadlift 485 so total roughly 1160 I weigh 187 and i've been training for years as I played football throughout high school and 2 years in college but have really only spent the last 12 months or so training with the idea of competing
 
GoHardOrGoHme

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Ok those are very good lifts. However I very much believe at your level of strength you will benefit from more volume and more benching.

A lot of accessory work is amazing for higher level lifters who rank CMS, MS or MSIC on the Russian system of strength ranking. Lower level lifters get the most gains in an increase of strict form working in the 70-85% range.

Myself Ive gone up from 315 paused bench and a 275 competition bench to 335 paused competition bench in 16 weeks by simply benching more. I'm talking about I bench 3x a week in accordance to a Sheiko routine template. I'm also a low to mid 180s lifter.



I use to do a conjugate system with tons of accessory work for my sticking points but i was still not progressing. I tried it all and i did so for almost 2 years. I recommend before adding bells and whistle work your bench by benching more.

Powerlifting is very CNS dominant so training your CNS to fire appropriately take time and 1000s of reps. Once form is no longer an issuer and a strong base of strength is established, specialized means of training will be of maximal benefit,
 
stillnatural

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I weigh the same as you but my bench is at 355. I recommend working on the leg drive. That's what helped me with the bottom portion of the press.
 
KimChee

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Pin press, band press really helped my explosion at the bottom back in the day. Also like someone above mentioned sounds like your front delts might be a little weaker than the rest of your body..
 
herderdude

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Pause on the chest, pause just a hair off of the chest, incline work, overhead pressing, and learn to get your lats involved in the lift. For me, that comes from touching low and pressing low.
 

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