Bench Press Wont Go Up

Training
41

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
i work with 4-6 kids a year, and l aso do some team stuff, but it’s the one on one kids I’m talking about here. I am getting picky now days when it comes to clients, and who I work with, but it hasn’t always been this way. As you go along you refine your training, and get more specific. I do alter training with hockey kids, with jan-spring being less strength focused, we cut down to two workouts a week. The rest of the year is strength focused, building to a mock meet during Christmass holidays.

So during the summer we’re strength based, with extra conditioning, and come Sept, we drop conditioning, and work solely on 1RM strength for our mock meet at the end of Dec. These kids are athletic to begin with, most have been playing hockey since they could walk, basicly, and probably playing around with some weights themselves before I get them. basicaly I’m working with 15-20yr in the 150-180lb range, and these kids can usually manage around a 225lb squat within the first couple weeks, as we lock in they’re form.

At this point we will get on a 4x week workout schedual, focusing on squats, deads, box squats, RDLs, and leg press. If the kid weighs 170lb he only need a 340lb squat to be double BW, thats basicly 50% increase in the first year of heavy training. I belive most of the kids I work with, have that strength the day they start with me, it’s only mental barrier’s and technique that are stopping them from double BW the fisrt day.

If you take athletic kids like this, and have them focus right from day one, on just getting stronger on the 3 main lifts, no distractions, set up a proper program, that has them resetting they’re 1RM once a month, and basing the next months training off of this, we can move up 10% a month at times, so 50% a year, is not so unbeliveable. The facts, I see as a gym owner, are that most kids spend the first year or more, with no direction, and when they do find a half decent program.

They don’t push hard enough to acomplish anything, switching programs the minute, things get dificult. I wish I had the time, and I try to work with every kid that walked through the doors of my gym. Anyway gotta go, hope this clears things up. latter[/quote]

I got some good info out of this. Thanks. Sounds like you are putting in some good work with kids, That’s bad ass. Good luck.

42

here’s how I see it, and I’m the odd ball now, I guess, but we have hard traning girls now, weighing 100-150, deadlifting 400lbs, outstanding, but the general population acepts mediocracy, expects little from themselves. An 18yr kid, weighs 200lbs, and squats 275, wow, thats the third highest squat at the comercial gym he trains at, and he’s strong, we’ve come to acept this.

30yrs ago, kids his age were pressing that kind of weight over they’re heads, and the fact that I can push an 18yr old kid to squat twice his body weight in a year, seems unbelievable, LOL. The kids I train generaly go off to collage, and when they come home for the holidays, I get letters from they’re collage strength caoch, thanking me, and praising my methods, this make everything I do worth while. i’m not educated, you can tell by my grammer, due to a rough upbringing, so I’m not at that next level, I train teenager’s, and I love what I do.

I don't train the clean, or any Oly lifts, they can learn them at collage. I send my kids off with a 1000lb total, atleast every time. We work the three main lifts, dips chins, and military, thats it. I've got 1-5yrs to work on these 6 lifts. perfect form, and as much strength as posible, thats it thats all we do, and I've got kids driving up to 3hrs to train at my place, during they're holidays from school, driving past 100 gyms on the way, just to train at my place, so i can push them on the same 6 lifts.

i don’t know what to tell people, ecept, epect more from yourslf, work harder on fewer exercises. Everyone thinks they’re fragile now days, thinks they’ll break if they work to hard, putting 5lbs a month on they’re squat and patting each other on the backs. Whatever, I hope people don’t get it, keep training like little girls, that way my simple training style keeps making me look like a rock star LOL

Look back to the 60s-70s, and see what kinds of weights kids and people were pushing, back before the internet, back before guys spent all they’re time worring about-mobility,injury prevention, abs, suplements, fancy routines, and deloads. They just did what the strongest guy in the gym told them, made sure they lifted more weight week to week, and ate like a fucking king. Anyway goodluck to all, and EXPECT MORE OF YOURSELF !

Go to youtube and look up 500lb deadliting challange, you have to be under 200lbs to enter, and the top 5 guys all got more than 12 reps, the winner got 17 reps at 190lbs, most of these guys are teenager’s, and I’m asking to much for a kid to squat 350x1 in a year, haha, latter

43

On that note

44

[quote]mbdix wrote:
On that note[/quote]

Is that some kind of ballistic SSC training?

45

Some things that my old strength coach would tell to us whenever we hit a plateau was to evaluate what we are doing inside and out of the weight room. The main things he emphasized were as follows.

-Are you eating enough protein/calories?

-Are you getting enough sleep?

-Are you getting all your reps?

-Are you pushing yourself?

Just ask yourself those questions. I hit a plateau on all my lifts a while back. Turned out I just wasn’t eating enough.

46

Why does everyone on here think the only way to add weight to your bench is to gain weight. Oct 2011, I did 305 weighing 155, Nov 2012 I did 315 weighing 150, started Wendler 5/3/1 in August and now rep 315x3 weighing 149.

47

[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
Why does everyone on here think the only way to add weight to your bench is to gain weight. Oct 2011, I did 305 weighing 155, Nov 2012 I did 315 weighing 150, started Wendler 5/3/1 in August and now rep 315x3 weighing 149. [/quote]

In 2 years you lost 6 lbs?

48

[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
Why does everyone on here think the only way to add weight to your bench is to gain weight. Oct 2011, I did 305 weighing 155, Nov 2012 I did 315 weighing 150, started Wendler 5/3/1 in August and now rep 315x3 weighing 149. [/quote]

No one has made any claim that it is the only way to add weight to your bench. I believe you have misunderstood someone.

49

[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
I squatted 300kg atg when I was in HS. Then I got some knee problems and stopped squatting for a few years. I’m still trying to get back to that level. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it on vid.

At least that is what I tell the old people that try to sell me their numbers from their glories days. Of course, if they try to sell me a 300kg squat, I will add another 20kg to my squat. Works.[/quote]

I had a guy ask me non-stop how much I bench. I don’t like those kind of questions and just said “I don’t know, I never really max out”. He then went on to tell me he does 2 plates on each side. To which I said, okay, not sure what he was bragging about but I left it.

Anyway, a few months later we go to the gym together. Start with the bar and his form is woeful, you’d be surprised that he ever benched. Put 10kg plated on each side and he’s wobbly as all fuck. Put on a 20kg plate on each side and he’s stapled. I’m like “not all bars weigh the same”.

I could never work out what he thought was going to happen. That he’d just walk up to a bar and push out 100kg bench never doing it before? Good on him for showing his face I guess.

50

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
It takes a year to squat twice your body weight.[/quote]

Since I’m not able to squat twice my body weight, despite having trained for quite some while, would you be as kind as to give me a quick reply on how to increase one’s 1 RM? Rep range, training frequency, etc. in particular… Thanks…
(btw… my DL went up pretty well, though. I seem to be far more successful increasing my DL than my other lift)

51

[quote]The Anchor wrote:

[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
Why does everyone on here think the only way to add weight to your bench is to gain weight. Oct 2011, I did 305 weighing 155, Nov 2012 I did 315 weighing 150, started Wendler 5/3/1 in August and now rep 315x3 weighing 149. [/quote]

In 2 years you lost 6 lbs?[/quote]

In jan 2012 I peaked body weight at 162, on may 24, 2012 I bottomed out at 141, and have sense increased back up to between 148-150. I weight myself every morning and have for 2.5 yrs. I compete in the 148.8 weight category.

52

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
Also sorry, but this problem, if thats what you want to call it, can be compounded by being athletic from a young age - hockey, soccer, running, your lower body already has a head start. I had a 16yr -150lb goalie that could squat 300 first day in the gym, but still can’t bench 2plts, two years latter. Time and calories ![/quote]

I was about to call B.S. but just remembered in HS I could hit 3x10 at 315 on squats at 170lbs and could barely muster 185 for as a 1RM on bench. I never really worked out though and my quads were always very conditioned from basketball. We did basically no upper body conditioning though and it just totally didn’t exist.[/quote]
[/quote]

I take it you don’t believe me? As Jake said, if something is left untrained, while another is, strength disparities like that can easily occur. To that point I balanced everything out in less than a year of regular training, turned into a bro and ignored any leg work in college and ended up with the opposite problem. A shit squat and a decent bench.

Edit: for clarity, the squat numbers were not first day in the gym numbers, they were after a month or two of regular lifting and my 1RM was not much higher than the 315. They capped us at 315 so we would just add reps to the sets so I got good at reps and although my max increased I never really got good at translating the effort into a 1RM push.
[/quote]

Yeah man I don’t believe those #s. It was high school after all. So, are you sure it wasn’t 225? I just have a very hard time believing a high school athlete after a couple of months training is repping 315-10 times. Well, one that didn’t go on to play div 1 athletics. Did you play college ball anywhere, any ball? Where did your 315 max reps end up at? 20 reps, 30 reps? [/quote]

I’m not sure why those numbers are unbelievable. There were at least 10 guys on my HS football team that could 1RM 405 on squat and bench over 225.[/quote]

Yeah, mine too. But none of them were doing it a couple of months after first starting weight training. Dude think about that for a minute. None of those guys started out squating 405. Let me put it this way. Even though his coach put a limit on their max at 315#s… 315x10 translate into a 400+ squat. No matter how you look at it. can you picture a guy that played on the basketball team walking into the gym and in 2 months is squating 315x10? I mean I understand it is possible. But highly unlikely. And anyone who is squating 315x10 after a couple of months of beginner weight training is a very very gifted lifter. A phenom![/quote]

I must have been a spectacular phenom then =P.

53

[quote]Bauber wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
Also sorry, but this problem, if thats what you want to call it, can be compounded by being athletic from a young age - hockey, soccer, running, your lower body already has a head start. I had a 16yr -150lb goalie that could squat 300 first day in the gym, but still can’t bench 2plts, two years latter. Time and calories ![/quote]

I was about to call B.S. but just remembered in HS I could hit 3x10 at 315 on squats at 170lbs and could barely muster 185 for as a 1RM on bench. I never really worked out though and my quads were always very conditioned from basketball. We did basically no upper body conditioning though and it just totally didn’t exist.[/quote]
[/quote]

I take it you don’t believe me? As Jake said, if something is left untrained, while another is, strength disparities like that can easily occur. To that point I balanced everything out in less than a year of regular training, turned into a bro and ignored any leg work in college and ended up with the opposite problem. A shit squat and a decent bench.

Edit: for clarity, the squat numbers were not first day in the gym numbers, they were after a month or two of regular lifting and my 1RM was not much higher than the 315. They capped us at 315 so we would just add reps to the sets so I got good at reps and although my max increased I never really got good at translating the effort into a 1RM push.
[/quote]

Yeah man I don’t believe those #s. It was high school after all. So, are you sure it wasn’t 225? I just have a very hard time believing a high school athlete after a couple of months training is repping 315-10 times. Well, one that didn’t go on to play div 1 athletics. Did you play college ball anywhere, any ball? Where did your 315 max reps end up at? 20 reps, 30 reps? [/quote]

I’m not sure why those numbers are unbelievable. There were at least 10 guys on my HS football team that could 1RM 405 on squat and bench over 225.[/quote]

Yeah, mine too. But none of them were doing it a couple of months after first starting weight training. Dude think about that for a minute. None of those guys started out squating 405. Let me put it this way. Even though his coach put a limit on their max at 315#s… 315x10 translate into a 400+ squat. No matter how you look at it. can you picture a guy that played on the basketball team walking into the gym and in 2 months is squating 315x10? I mean I understand it is possible. But highly unlikely. And anyone who is squating 315x10 after a couple of months of beginner weight training is a very very gifted lifter. A phenom![/quote]

I must have been a spectacular phenom then =P.
[/quote]

You were born weighing 315, you don’t count. Ow your poor mom!

54

The Tie Wrote:
Since I’m not able to squat twice my body weight, despite having trained for quite some while, would you be as kind as to give me a quick reply on how to increase one’s 1 RM? Rep range, training frequency, etc. in particular… Thanks…
(btw… my DL went up pretty well, though. I seem to be far more successful increasing my DL than my other lift)

First off, it’s been a couple weeks, and I just reread my last post above, and I sound like a fucking dick, not my intention. As a gym owner / trainer, I see so much nonsense, and stupidity, that somtimes my responses on the internet come off short, and angry. Thats not who I am in real life at all, so anyway.

To the Tie, I think it comes down to goals, and drive, if you make it your goal to increase your 1RM on the squat your number one priority, and everything else training related, less important, that makes it easier, having only one thing to focus on. I would put the rest of my lifts on a solid program, such as 531, or WS4SB, and leave 2 days a week for squat training, if your happy with your deadlift, than mabey park it for a couple months, until your squat catches up. It is easier to move your squat ahead, while not training 100% on the deadlift.

Now what I would do, not knowing more about you, is to have 2 squat (lower body) days a week, 1 day where I would train heavy, with lots of volume, in the 2-5 rep range. The other day latter in the week, I’d have a rep day, shooting for 60-100 reps in the 60-75% range. I like wave training on these days, like 10-6-4, 10-6-4, 20 reps a wave, it’s a quick way to get a bunch of reps.

Mabey rotate 3-4 different exercises on the rep day, as your main move, like front squat - box squat - deads, as a different main movement each week.( this way your only deadlifting once a month) On the heavy day, I would run somthing like the 6 week temp-late below, it dosn’t have to be this exact template, but this is a good one I found

Week 1 - 75% 5x6 - 60% 1x10-12
Week 2 - 75% 8x6 - 65% 1x8-10
week 3 - 80% 12x4 - 70%6x8
Week 4 - 85% 10x3 - 75% 6x8
Week 5 - 80% 1x2 - 85% 1x2 - 90% 7x1
Week 6 70%x1 - 75%x1 - 80%x1 - 85%x1 - 90%x1 - 95%x1 - 100%x1 - 105%x1 - keep going till fail

I don’t know alot about you, and how you train and eat, or how good your form is, but following a program like I listed, with lots of food and rest, your body has no choice but to adapt. I’m comming back form an injury, and a layoff, with my own training, and after 5yrs off from lower body training, I’ve been back 7mths, and I’m closing in on 450-500lb squat, with pretty much the same as what I recomend above.

Not much more I can tell you here, with out knowing more, drop by my log if you want, see the kind of torture, I put myself through, and ask any question’s you like. Running the 6 week program above, at close to 100% intensity, wakes alot of people up, to waht hard training really is. Goodluck !

55

[quote]doublelung84 wrote:

[quote]Bauber wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
Also sorry, but this problem, if thats what you want to call it, can be compounded by being athletic from a young age - hockey, soccer, running, your lower body already has a head start. I had a 16yr -150lb goalie that could squat 300 first day in the gym, but still can’t bench 2plts, two years latter. Time and calories ![/quote]

I was about to call B.S. but just remembered in HS I could hit 3x10 at 315 on squats at 170lbs and could barely muster 185 for as a 1RM on bench. I never really worked out though and my quads were always very conditioned from basketball. We did basically no upper body conditioning though and it just totally didn’t exist.[/quote]
[/quote]

I take it you don’t believe me? As Jake said, if something is left untrained, while another is, strength disparities like that can easily occur. To that point I balanced everything out in less than a year of regular training, turned into a bro and ignored any leg work in college and ended up with the opposite problem. A shit squat and a decent bench.

Edit: for clarity, the squat numbers were not first day in the gym numbers, they were after a month or two of regular lifting and my 1RM was not much higher than the 315. They capped us at 315 so we would just add reps to the sets so I got good at reps and although my max increased I never really got good at translating the effort into a 1RM push.
[/quote]

Yeah man I don’t believe those #s. It was high school after all. So, are you sure it wasn’t 225? I just have a very hard time believing a high school athlete after a couple of months training is repping 315-10 times. Well, one that didn’t go on to play div 1 athletics. Did you play college ball anywhere, any ball? Where did your 315 max reps end up at? 20 reps, 30 reps? [/quote]

I’m not sure why those numbers are unbelievable. There were at least 10 guys on my HS football team that could 1RM 405 on squat and bench over 225.[/quote]

Yeah, mine too. But none of them were doing it a couple of months after first starting weight training. Dude think about that for a minute. None of those guys started out squating 405. Let me put it this way. Even though his coach put a limit on their max at 315#s… 315x10 translate into a 400+ squat. No matter how you look at it. can you picture a guy that played on the basketball team walking into the gym and in 2 months is squating 315x10? I mean I understand it is possible. But highly unlikely. And anyone who is squating 315x10 after a couple of months of beginner weight training is a very very gifted lifter. A phenom![/quote]

I must have been a spectacular phenom then =P.
[/quote]

You were born weighing 315, you don’t count. Ow your poor mom!
[/quote]

Yeah, you pretty much have the look of a phenom.