Bench press issues

Sparta12

Well-known member
Hey guys just wondering if anyone is in the same boat as me.

I fucking suck at bench, I fatigue quick, I can't lift heavy, but I can dumbbell bench a lot.

So I am a few months back into proper training, no injury just had a lot of time away from gym, I can bench dumbbells 50kg each hand for 4x5 and getting stronger each week.

Bench? Well I'm currently at gym and struggling with 50kgs, getting 12 reps but I am seriously struggling. Anything heavier feels way too tough even at lower reps.

Does anyone have any generic advice?
 
Hand placement? Where the grip on the bar starts put your thumbs on the end pointing horizontally and then grip the bar. Your grip will be narrowish but you’ll be infinitely stronger.

You’ll find the wider your hands go on bench; the less stable and harder to explode
 
Resolve10 said:
Honestly I’d bet your ROM on the DB bench is just really lacking, there’s no logical reason you can bench with a single hand the same you can with a bar unless that’s the case or your form is just incredibly off.
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That amount of difference in favor for DB press is astonishing and I agree, that something is 'not right', if the case is as OP describes. But I've also always been a horrible bench presser and DB's suite me a lot better and I can lift more weight with DB bench press, than with barbell. And my ROM on DB press might even be larger, than with BB, cause' I can let the DB handle go lower, where the bar would touch my chest. At the very least the ROM is the same.

Not that you said that one can't lift more with DB's, than with BB, just felt like adding that.
 
Resolve10 said:
Honestly I’d bet your ROM on the DB bench is just really lacking, there’s no logical reason you can bench with a single hand the same you can with a bar unless that’s the case or your form is just incredibly off.
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My rom for db is really good tbh, I really made sure I built up my strength and numbers properly, I make sure the outside of the db touches the outside of my pec each rep. I think I'm just really unbalanced I do always feel.lopsided bb benching, like one side feels higher.

I know one lat and trap are bigger than the other side, so hard to correct
 
Sparta12 said:
Does anyone have any generic advice?
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honestly probably study form like Josh said, work to improve ROM like resolve said and practice a ton.
Did you spend your first years lifting doing mostly db press rather than barbell? Might jsut be a practice thing.
 
Its the other way round for me , but thats always because I did barbell over dumbbells.

My peak bench is 275lbs but I've never been able to go higher than 70lbs dumbbells. Its just practice for sure
 
Strength is a skill. If you want to be stronger on something, one of the best things you can do is do that thing consistently and often. In this case, I would bb bench instead of db bench, or at least do it first in your routine. Do bb bench consistently for a few years, always learning and refining your technical execution. This will likely help clear up a lot of deficiencies. I may be in the minority with this, but I have found that while there is some general strength between the two that can carry over to one another, they are different movements and so the skill component can largely create some differences in performance.
 
Resolve10 said:
Honestly I’d bet your ROM on the DB bench is just really lacking, there’s no logical reason you can bench with a single hand the same you can with a bar unless that’s the case or your form is just incredibly off.
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SweetLou321 said:
Strength is a skill. If you want to be stronger on something, one of the best things you can do is do that thing consistently and often. In this case, I would bb bench instead of db bench, or at least do it first in your routine. Do bb bench consistently for a few years, always learning and refining your technical execution. This will likely help clear up a lot of deficiencies. I may be in the minority with this, but I have found that while there is some general strength between the two that can carry over to one another, they are different movements and so the skill component can largely create some differences in performance.
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These were the very first things that came to mind, before reading these responses. Agree with both.

Most guys who excel at DB bench over BB have either practiced that skill much more, OR they don’t address a discrepancy in total ROM (some don’t lower as far as they can, while others may only train the bottom 2/3 of the movement).

In any case, the solution is the same: just train your barbell bench a lot more, and with priority. Stop telling yourself negative things like “I suck at bench” or “I cant lift in heavier/lower rep ranges”. Replace those with things like “I am working to get better at this”. If you wanted to learn a language or an instrument, you would practice. You can’t expect to be good without putting in the work, and this is no different for most. Most people are not 315 benchers the first time they lay down under the bar!
 
Sparta12 said:
Hey guys just wondering if anyone is in the same boat as me.

I fucking suck at bench, I fatigue quick, I can't lift heavy, but I can dumbbell bench a lot.

So I am a few months back into proper training, no injury just had a lot of time away from gym, I can bench dumbbells 50kg each hand for 4x5 and getting stronger each week.

Bench? Well I'm currently at gym and struggling with 50kgs, getting 12 reps but I am seriously struggling. Anything heavier feels way too tough even at lower reps.

Does anyone have any generic advice?
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Improving your lat strength and triceps will help. So will practicing high frequency, 3-4× week.

But, do you need to bench? The bench presses my favorite exercise and i'm very good at it, But it jacks up my shoulders and doesn't really do anything For my chest. So now i only flat bench occosionally or If I want to enter a bench press contest.Obviously i'm gonna do a bench program in a peaking period and stuff like that.

Front delts, triceps and lats Need to be strong to be a good bench presser. Good core strength to stabelize and so on. I focus more on the lats and triceps because The bench press itself is a lot of front delt work. But if you're one of those people who doesn't get that activation you might need to train them on their own.

I bet @Hyde has some better tips then i do, edit: i missed his post
 
Like mentioned above, not many bench 315 out the gate, or ever!

I benched 275 in highschool (17yrs old), but i didnt bench 315 till i was 35.....

At 37 i trained for bench and got it up to 370 in less then a year. Now two years later and I don't depress that much anymore, 225 feels heavy as **** lol. Butt i'm bigger and stronger over all.

If you wanna be good at something , you need to practice it a lot. And maintain it
 
Not much more I can add here OP. But I used to be one of those people who always considered myself a "bad bencher." I'm still not very strong on it by any means, but through focused efforts I feel like I've become respectable. Specifically, the principle that benching more than 1x/wk is a must. Thanks to @Hyde for that tip.

Either through a program that focuses solely on bench - I've done some 5 day/wk focused programs for short duration - 5/3/1 (you'd bench 3x/wk), or what I'm doing now which is 2x/wk, main focused bench only day followed by an accessory chest day where I do variations like incline bench and/or floor presses.

Last point, form is important. And handling heavier weights to get used to it (eg, negatives) or what I'm using right now which is the slingshot. Has really helped me get used to slightly more weight to feel more comfortable under the bar.
 
Goals is a good point. For me, I wanted to powerlift and I was weak in the bench compared to my other numbers. I hated benching, but I needed to improve to progress in the activity I enjoyed overall. Now I actually enjoy training it the most! The extra attention I gave it over years created a lasting romance.

But if you aren’t concerned with a bb bench number and hate doing it…don’t do it!
 
Hyde said:
Goals is a good point. For me, I wanted to powerlift and I was weak in the bench compared to my other numbers. I hated benching, but I needed to improve to progress in the activity I enjoyed overall. Now I actually enjoy training it the most! The extra attention I gave it over years created a lasting romance.

But if you aren’t concerned with a bb bench number and hate doing it…don’t do it!
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What your # looking like lately? I cant rember if you broke 405 yet. I havnt bern on much lately so im behind on like 13 threads lol
 
Sparta12 said:
Hey guys just wondering if anyone is in the same boat as me.

I fucking suck at bench, I fatigue quick, I can't lift heavy, but I can dumbbell bench a lot.

So I am a few months back into proper training, no injury just had a lot of time away from gym, I can bench dumbbells 50kg each hand for 4x5 and getting stronger each week.

Bench? Well I'm currently at gym and struggling with 50kgs, getting 12 reps but I am seriously struggling. Anything heavier feels way too tough even at lower reps.

Does anyone have any generic advice?
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Lots of very advices mentioned here already. If you want to get better at benching, put more work into the accessories as well.
Pin presses, JM Press, Tate Presses w/ D-Bells, floor press, rear delt and upper back work, etc...

You will improve...
 
Another quick thought, when doing DB presses what does your hand positioning look like? Perhaps it is a mobility issue as well
 
Smont said:
What your # looking like lately? I cant rember if you broke 405 yet. I havnt bern on much lately so im behind on like 13 threads lol
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Yep. Took me 15 years of benching, gaining 50kg/110lbs over highschool weight, 12 years of steroids, and thousands of hours of self-education & practice to do it - but by God, I climbed the 405lb summit finally the day before New Year’s Eve! I weighed 273lbs/124kg that morning. Did 396lbs/180kg in comp 11 weeks prior.

I have deadlifter’s arms, so when I first began I was not strong enough to press the empty 45lb barbell if I lowered it all the way to my chest - I had to train to lift the empty bar! There is nothing special about my genetics to bench. I just wanted it so badly I refused to quit.
 
Hyde said:
Yep. Took me 15 years of benching, gaining 50kg/110lbs over highschool weight, 12 years of steroids, and thousands of hours of self-education & practice to do it - but by God, I climbed the 405lb summit finally the day before New Year’s Eve! I weighed 273lbs/124kg that morning. Did 396lbs/180kg in comp 11 weeks prior.

I have deadlifter’s arms, so when I first began I was not strong enough to press the empty 45lb barbell if I lowered it all the way to my chest - I had to train to lift the empty bar! There is nothing special about my genetics to bench. I just wanted it so badly I refused to quit.
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Thsts awsome dude congrats. Its a big achievement.
 
Smont said:
Thsts awsome dude congrats. Its a big achievement.
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Thank you; it really was for me personally. Rocket dying recently is what motivated me to just make it happen. I did it for myself, but I really did do it because of him. Whenever things got tough, I thought about him hooked up to his IV battling leukemia. Not once did he complain.

When I wrapped my wrists for 405, I remembered how he believed I would do it - so I knew I couldn’t miss. That press was hard as hell, hanging 2/3 of the way up, but I never had a doubt. I like to believe he was smiling down on me that day.
 
So how does that 154 pound guy on YouTube bench 410….it’s crazy. Video has almost 10 million views if I remember correctly
 
I went to a meet once and a kid there was 165 who benched 385 and just missed 405. He had The widest grip in the shortest range of motion i've ever seen but he did it. The youtube kid im thinking off Had a really good range of motion. I was surprised he was benching that way
 
Smont said:
But, do you need to bench? The bench presses my favorite exercise and i'm very good at it, But it jacks up my shoulders and doesn't really do anything For my chest. So now i only flat bench occosionally or If I want to enter a bench press contest.Obviously i'm gonna do a bench program in a peaking period and stuff like that.
Click to expand...

Bench pressing is fun but by far the most overrated exercise for bodybuilding in my opinion. I see big guys benching light weights and small guys benching big weights. It's actually a funny exercise like that.

I'm similar to OP in that I bench more/better with dumbbells, although nowhere near that discrepancy. One thing that is frustrating is that I have freakishly long arms and a very long range of motion and I can feel it on the bench press. The other thing is that one of my arms is noticeably longer than the other, so much so that my sleeve on shirts, suits, etc have to be tailored. I think this is one of the reasons I find benching with dumbbells much more comfortable.
 
Smont said:
I went to a meet once and a kid there was 165 who benched 385 and just missed 405. He had The widest grip in the shortest range of motion i've ever seen but he did it. The youtube kid im thinking off Had a really good range of motion. I was surprised he was benching that way
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Yeah I can’t get behind that wide grip, no range, with mega arch bs…

The YouTuber is ufpwrlifter
 
I’ve woken up a day or two after benching and had pec strains that would last for a couple months. Completely derails my training. Nothing crazy heavy and my form is really solid…Never felt an injury occur.
Basically have a mental block now from wanting to bench…

My pecs get good development from db’s and machines but I miss that raw power feeling from bench
 
Thanks for the advice guys, going to add in a few more sets to practise throughout the week, I definitely have some imbalances in my lats and traps that makes it awkward for me even when just holding the bar, not necessarily impossible but just need to really focus.

I'll be looking at getting a coach I think, because I am actually really strong elsewhere and explosive, I just really struggle with the bench after 2-3 reps
 
Rad83 said:
So how does that 154 pound guy on YouTube bench 410….it’s crazy. Video has almost 10 million views if I remember correctly
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Good genetics for leverages, strength, an eye for detail, and lots of practice.

Same way all champion benchpressers do - they are the result when talent for something works hard!

Rad83 said:
I’ve woken up a day or two after benching and had pec strains that would last for a couple months. Completely derails my training. Nothing crazy heavy and my form is really solid…Never felt an injury occur.
Basically have a mental block now from wanting to bench…

My pecs get good development from db’s and machines but I miss that raw power feeling from bench
Click to expand...

Strains happen most often when people get out of position during a hard effort that causes an overload to the pec it hadn’t been experiencing. Not necessarily heavy lifting for them: almost all of my pec strains over the years have occurred on sets of 9-20 reps of benchpress, personally. The primary other way is people getting too strong too fast on steroids.

I believe everyone should be benchpress like a powerlifter. Shoulder blades pulled down towards your back pockets, then apart, and a slight arch should be set in the low/mid back to tilt the angle of the chest to a slight decline.

This shortens total ROM a few inches, but the huge benefit is this position significantly protects the shoulder girdle if isometrically maintained through the lift. You can’t keep benching with torn shoulders, and many a lifter has lost their privilege to bench from just that.

BB Bench is a great total mass & strength builder, not the best pec exercise. So anyone interested in doing it will not be concerned with the minute loss of ROM for less injury & more longevity. There are DBs & machines to address those needs better.

Sparta12 said:
Thanks for the advice guys, going to add in a few more sets to practise throughout the week, I definitely have some imbalances in my lats and traps that makes it awkward for me even when just holding the bar, not necessarily impossible but just need to really focus.

I'll be looking at getting a coach I think, because I am actually really strong elsewhere and explosive, I just really struggle with the bench after 2-3 reps
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Spend 30 minutes watching these before you spend money. I bet you will find something useful:

Part 1

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Part 2

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Understand the OP entirely.
I find bb bench press to be an unnatural movement. Always feel pressure at shoulder pocket. DBs feel more natural due to having more freedom in terms of comfortable positioning of the db when in the low position.
That being said, The difference stated by the OP is extreme. DB work stabilizers more than BB or so I have been told/read.
 
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