You are correct, except that stronger lats doesn’t mean you can get more tension out of gear but rather that you could use a tighter bench shirt that will allow you to lift more weight. In equipped lifting, you often see people miss bench attempts because they can’t touch the bar to their chest, the shirt gives too much resistance and they are literally rowing the bar to their chest. No raw lifter has that issue.
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all get some gains under the tree.
Think I may have found a bench set up that works for me:
- Set the back by picking up my back off the bench a few times.
- Place feet under me with feet pointing out
- Bridge a little to raise hips off the bench
- Unrack and lower hips down
Having a consistent set up will set me up (lol pun) for future gains I think. Next session I’d like to work on putting more leg drive into my bench.
Anybody got some good cues, tips, vids for leg drive?
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Also help in choosing accessory/assistance exercises pls.
OHP is locked because I’ve done very little of it my whole time lifting. So given that it’s one of the lifts I can’t quite decide between dips (weighted) or flat DB Press to be doing lots of work/volume in.
What kind of factors should I take into consideration when choosing between these: injury risk, carryover, how good I am at that lift or how much I’ve done it in the past?
Dips: I’ve done quite a bit of them having started with that calisthenics jazz (never too consistently tho), feels great on my shoulders (sounds strange but is true) and I can throw a DB between my thighs and go all day
Flat DB: Have maybe done a dozen sets total my whole training time like literally. Mostly has been incline DB. Am probably disproportionately weak/bad at it
Bench looking noticably better buddy, real visible improvement imo.
Sounds like you are already running a lot of mental cue’s in your bench set-up, so before asking for any more tips. I suggest getting some volume with your current approach to nail what you are doing now, since it’s a definite improvement.
I almost gave you a couple but you gotta earn em 
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Thnx Pinky.
Getting in a duck load of practice is a goal this next training cycle. Will probably drop the weight back a little and build back up with rep and volume PRs
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If you see something as a high injury risk then it’s probably better to avoid it, but it also depends why you see it that way. If dips hurt your shoulders then don’t do them, if wide grip bench makes your shoulder feels like it’s going to explode then don’t do it.
Carryover is definitely a huge thing, if something doesn’t help your lifts then you better have a good reason to do it and certainly don’t spend too much time on it. How good you are at something is only relevant in terms of identifying weak points (ie. can’t ohp 40% of your bench = weak shoulders and OHP will probably help your bench). How much you did something in the past doesn’t really matter in itself, but you should have some idea of whether or not it has carryover based of whether or not your bench was going up at the time you did the particular exercise. If your progress has stalled on a particular exercise that you think helps your lifts then it’s probably time to switch it up for something else, nothing works forever.
Dips are more of a tricep exercise, db bench is more of a pec exercise. Either do both or choose one based on which muscle group seems to be lacking the most. Flys are good for pecs too, and JM presses for triceps.
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Another thing, rest pause bench is a good idea if you are plateaued, it also teaches you to grind if you are one of those people who fail as soon as bar speed drops.
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