I have been stuck at a 280 bench press for awhile. I follow most of the advice I read while lurking about the forums. The 280 was achieved only by following articles read on T-mag. I’ve upped the protein intake, strengthened the upper back, changed the exercises up, trained lifting speed.
Charles Poliquin’s advice in the Achieving structural balance is my next strategy to break the 300 barrier. I’m not trying to be competitive, I started lifing seriously in my late twentys and now that I’m in my thirtys I just want to push 300 for a PR. My question to you guys, and I’m especially interested in what the PLs have to say (that’s why I posted here instead of the Building a Better Body forum) is, are Poliquin’s ratios accurate. More specifically, his case study on external rotaters.
Do guys who can bench 500 pounds find that your external rotators are equivalent to 9% of your close-grip bench press?
I just bought a shoulder horn and I cannot do the optimal 9% of my close-grip bench so I am training my external rotators specifically and laying off the bench press as suggested in the article.
What do you guys think? Could this be what’s holding me back?
I can only do ten reps with a 15 pound dumbbell in the external rotation. According to poliquin I should be using a 25 pound dumbbell for 8 reps.
It could be your rotator cuffs but I doubt it. Are they injured?
You are along the right lines in trying to find your weaknesses but you aren’t being specific enough. Where does your bench fail? Off the chest? At lock out? Once you know this then you can really iron out those weakpoints.
This will tell you more accurately what to train. Prehabing the rotators to avoid injury is always a good idea but don’t get too hung up on the exact ratios.
Creed,I’ve never injured my rotator cuff and shoulders feel generally good.
I’ve only recently adopted a new hand position. The only way I can get 280 is if I grip the bar wide and bench really high off the chest. My deltoids pretty much take over the movement.
I am trying to bench elbows tucked style which results in a grip that leaves all my fingers inside the rings, what I had in the past considered a close-grip bench.
On any given set as I fatigue my elbows come away from my side and begin to swing up as my deltoids are trying to pick up the slack.
I am pretty sure the elbows tucked is the preferred method on the forums for benching bigger weight, the logic being the triceps can push the most weight and this reduces stress on the shoulder joints.
It could be you rotator cuffs stopping your progress. If you strengthen the rotator cuffs you probably will increase your bench dramatically.
Fix your weakness weather that?s your lats, tris, bis, shoulders and/or rotator cuffs. Your only as good as your weakest link.
I would guess from your description that your triceps are relatively weak and the closer grip as you correctly said emphasises them. Work your triceps loads to bring them up. Do mid board presses and work your lock out. Floor presses are good and do all the extension movements too. Your elbows should only really flare at the end of the movement.
With any grip change it will take a while to get to used to the new style and build the strength levels back up.
Also are you keeping tight on the bench? If your lats aren’t tight then your elbows will start to drift out a bit. Concentrate on pulling the bar apart with your hands to really get them tight.
Tom CP’s ratios (external rotator strength to bench press results) are total rubbish. There are just too many other factors that have to be taken into consideration (for example, what kind of bench press are we talking about? What grip width? What pressing style?)
I’ve tested external rotator strength on a number of athletes with varying bench press results and the results are all over the map to say the least.
This isn’t to say that the rotators whouldn’t be trained, because they should, and to be sure, the relative performance capacities of various muscles involved in a particular exercise can and will and a bearing on results, but the problem is, we really don’t have a good understanding of what these relationships should be. In fact, an argument can be made that you’ll get the best results (in terms of a 1RM bench) by simply benching heavy weights (principle of specificity). The problem is, too much specificity for too long a time can come at a cost, and long term results may be compromised.
Try CW’s singles club program, or something similar, for good 1RM gains.
Thanks for all the good advice. I will definately try some rack lock-outs with some Single’s club protocols to see if I can break on through to the other side of 300.