What are some good workouts to get my bench press moving out of the hole? My triceps don’t seem to be the issue, as I have no problem locking out near max weight, but if I fail, it’s always at the bottom. TIA for any help
I did some research on this too, the answer I came up with is probly not the one you wanna hear: Just do more benching.
There’s a ton of movements that can help with explosiveness on the bottom (bands/chains), and you could always isolate your chest/shoulders more, etc. But from what I’ve gathered, almost everyone has that same sticking point in their raw bench.
Heavy DB presses, illegal wide grip bench, and pausing reps.
[quote]DixiesFinest wrote:
Heavy DB presses, illegal wide grip bench, and pausing reps. [/quote]
Exactly. I would add dead bench also. Heavy lat work if you need it. Hell, you should be doing it anyways.
Incline db and bb and delts. Higher reps (6-10).
Learn to bench with a good setup/leg drive.
Speed work, paused benching, making sure your technique is dialed in perfectly.
I hear this a lot from the experienced guys that if you can’t get off the chest its a weak back or you aren’t using it properly to bench. Can you set your lats on the bench? What about on a military press?
For me I had to learn to set my lats doing vertical presses, then seated and kept working lower angles and partial pin presses to work up to setting my flat bench. My sticking point moved from the chest to about half way up, got me about 30lbs on my bench (on my small bench press, for what it’s worth)
hope that helps.
I have this same problem and I started doing 9 second paused benches. Hold it on your chest for 9 seconds and concentrate on staying tight as possible. I found that it helped a ton for me
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
Learn to bench with a good setup/leg drive.[/quote]
x2
Paused bench is great too… but you can still pause bench with shite form and get it up. I agree with VTTrainer 100% that your sticking point should be at least halfway up if you’re benching correctly. If you are using your lats/leg drive AT ALL, you shouldn’t be getting stapled at the bottom.
But yeah, that vid I posted. I started benching like that a couple summers ago and my bench went from 285ish->335 that summer alone. Now the weight you’re using might initially drop as you get used to the form (mine did), but once you dial in the form you will get much better.
Additionally, focus a lot on setup and form for EVERY set. There are no jerk-off sets- doesn’t matter if it’s an empty bar or the fucking house. You need to set up well, and really explode up with every rep. Most of my sets these days, I’ll take longer to set up than I do for the benching itself.
My bench isn’t amazing or anything, but this is how I got my bench up from “gym bro status” to average real lifter lol.
When I had trouble getting the bar “off the chest” (which for me was about 2-3" above the chest) what worked for me was 1) paused reps (about 1-2 secs) and 2) lat work. Assuming yor tecnique is good, I’d suggest trying paused reps and tons of heavy rowing variations.
Bottom third is all leg drive and back. If you get stapled at the very bottom then you are not tight enough and/or not using your legs and lats for the initial drive. These alone get you through the 1st third of the movement.
thanks for all the replies. I think I definitely have trouble activating my lats throughout the lift, guess I’ll work on that!
db presses. ultrawides…
T-bar rows as wide/heavy as possible.
Krok Rows heavy as possible
these two movements have helped me alot.
I usually use my legs/butt to get it off the chest
I’ve had this problem before. Both times my form was absolute shit when it happened. Once because I didn’t know what proper form was and I was using too high of a training max. The other because I was using a shit bench that wobbled and I didn’t stay tight.
Sometimes you just need to get stronger…
What has helped some of my clients is using a weight belt that’s a little high. Get it tight and focus on just squeezing the shit out of your lats, it helps bc you have some pressure there without someone poking your sides asking if you can feel your lats lol.
Also, take a note from John Meadows and use the smith machine for some rows, squeeze the fuck out of those lats at the top.
The lats tie in w the triceps so those will be your best friend for the bench. Good luck!