Bringing up weakness in bench

blitzkriegjim

New member
I've been stagnant on my bench press for a little while now and not progressing anymore. The part that I have the biggest problem with is towards the middle portion of the movement. I feel a lot of strain in my shoulders and feel that if my shoulders were stronger I would be able to start progressing again. Do any of you have suggestions for exercises to help push up your bench numbers that target the middle portion of the movement?

Also, another question that I had is is it possible to put on muscle mass to a certain extent without significant gains in strength? I feel like my diet is spot on, I'm gaining 1-1.5 lbs per week currently bulking, and don't notice too much fat gain, but my numbers are just lagging in the gym and not going up like I thought they would. My diet is really strict and im taking in between 3400-3600 calories daily all clean. I'm 5'11", currently 175 lbs, been training for a year and a half (started at 145) and BSD is only around the 800 mark......any help is appreciated.....
 
targeting the middle part of the movement. I would recommend looking into west side barbell training. work on explosion using chains and bands. also possibly try speed reps as well as negatives.
 
1. If you are missing the bench in the middle, start hammering floor presses and 3-board presses for you main exercise. For assistance work, work on your lats with movement like low rows and pullups. Also make sure you are doing shoulder work like overhead pressing and front plate raises. Finally get your triceps stronger and make sure you are correctly recruiting them while benching. Really try and squeeze the bar and pull it apart while you are pressing.

2. If you gain weight but not strength, change your training. I am guessing your using a higher volume lower intensity ( intensity be defined as the percent of your 1rm which you do most of your working sets with ). Try working up to max doubles and triples for you working sets and utilize some overload movements like pin presses and power good mornings to activate your CNS.
 
What kind of split do you do now, what are your workouts like?

I've just started using a 4 day split with max upper day and rep upper day, which has increased my strength in the bench and incline bench greatly.
 
High intensity, low volume, low reps (3-5) and super heavy weights have made my strength gains skyrocket in bench presses. I had always been relatively week in bench presses compared to my other lifts. Making those changes sparked a ton of new strength for me.

One thing I've learned is to not overlook "power lifting" rep ranges. Up until this year, you would never see me do anything less than 8 reps. I stayed in the 8-12 rep range for basically my entire lifting lifespan, thinking that I was a "bodybuilder", so why would I need to drop the reps so low and push the weight so high?

I've now learned from my mistake.
 
pmillers right go for the floor press it will really help with the middle part of the lift. Also try to really isolate your chest. Dont recruit too much from your front delts and tris. Do some incline bench as well those seem to have really caused my bench to increase. Hope this helps
 
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