My bench has always progressed slowly. Pretty sure it’s due to form, so let’s work on that. When I retract my scapula I don’t feel it in the chest and feel like I have no power in that position either. Any tips?
[quote]babaganoosh wrote:
holy shit this is a long post, pretty sure everyone is gonna skip it
[/quote]
Bingo.
[quote]babaganoosh wrote:
holy shit this is a long post, pretty sure everyone is gonna skip it
[/quote]
HOW DID YOU KNOW??? lol
Cliff notes, dude. I bet you can sum up the heart of the problem in less than three sentences.
I just did a quick ‘page find’ on the character “?” (without quotes). One returned a question mark in a title of one of the current “Most Popular Pages” and the other was a somewhat vague and rhetorical question in your post.
Did you have a specific question about your bench press?
Cliff’s notes:
He’s a noob. He wants to increase his bench press but wants to avoid grinding since that, in his opinion, is the KEY to succeeding with I,Bodybuilder.
OP, you need to purchase a tendo unit first and measure the bar speed accurately. And I mean accurately.
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
I just did a quick ‘page find’ on the character “?” (without quotes). One returned a question mark in a title of one of the current “Most Popular Pages” and the other was a somewhat vague and rhetorical question in your post.
Did you have a specific question about your bench press?[/quote]
You progress slow so you avoided the bench press…THAT’S THE FUCKING PROBLEM!!! Keep doing it, shut up, and eat. People dont bring up lagging body parts, or progress by avoiding what they suck at.
I think you are focusing on the wrong thing…You need to focus on technique, technique, and progression…Instead, you are focusing on how much damage you can inflict upon yourself…I could run 10 400m sprints everyday and it would not make me faster…If I focused on how to properly run, did some shorter sprints, and pushed myself to an acceptable level everyday…I would get faster…
Stop doing the post failure stuff…good powerlifters don’t do that shit…I’ve never seen guys like Ronnie Coleman do it either…Why? cause Ronnie knows just how much to push himself to get results every week…
If you added 2kg to your bench every week, you would have added 104kg in a year…if you added 2kg every 2 weeks that would still be fucking amazing progress…
Stop reading the internet…go look up what the strongest guys in the world do…See what the guy with the 600lb bench is doing…Pay attention to his form and when he stops his set…
Try these:
Eat more
Sleep more
And then these 2 you obviously have to go with one at a time:
1)Do regular bench press more often
ORRRR
2)Do it less often, using other exercises to hit chest and tris. After 2-3 months of this, try regular bench again as a gauge of strength, not an actual “working” exercise. If your bench goes up, then retest again a month or two later to make sure you keep making progress without actually doing flat bench.
[quote]ucallthatbass wrote:
You progress slow so you avoided the bench press…THAT’S THE FUCKING PROBLEM!!! Keep doing it, shut up, and eat. People dont bring up lagging body parts, or progress by avoiding what they suck at.[/quote]
I made slow progress on the bench press compared to dumbells and the machines, and don’t feel it is a particularly effective chest exercise compared to doing dumbell variations, and using the machines, yet I should have kept doing it? Really?
[quote]Mr.Purple wrote:
[quote]babaganoosh wrote:
holy shit this is a long post, pretty sure everyone is gonna skip it
[/quote]
HOW DID YOU KNOW??? lol
Cliff notes, dude. I bet you can sum up the heart of the problem in less than three sentences.[/quote]
Yeah, I was trying to add as much background info as possible. Oh well, it’s edited now.
[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
Cliff’s notes:
He’s a noob. He wants to increase his bench press but wants to avoid grinding since that, in his opinion, is the KEY to succeeding with I,Bodybuilder.
OP, you need to purchase a tendo unit first and measure the bar speed accurately. And I mean accurately.
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
I just did a quick ‘page find’ on the character “?” (without quotes). One returned a question mark in a title of one of the current “Most Popular Pages” and the other was a somewhat vague and rhetorical question in your post.
Did you have a specific question about your bench press?[/quote]
[/quote]
Yes. No. Lol.
With all this “grinding is bad” talk of late, and noticing how I rarely ever see anyone else around me grinding reps, and rarely see it in training videos etc, I figured I would try not to grind to see if it works well.
I’m not really interested in I, Bodybuilder really, though I have tried the concepts with a few lifts to see if I make better progress on these particular lifts, however this has not been the case, so pretty much the only take away point is to make sure I accelerate the bar quicker (I find this does help a little) and avoid grinding (IF that helps, which is yet to be determined).
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
I just did a quick ‘page find’ on the character “?” (without quotes). One returned a question mark in a title of one of the current “Most Popular Pages” and the other was a somewhat vague and rhetorical question in your post.
Did you have a specific question about your bench press?[/quote]
Nah, not really man, I was just looking for tips to bring it up since it’s always sucked, and supplied a shit ton of background info in the hope that someone could spot some kind of problem which could be holding it back.
It’s just never increased quickly at all, even as a complete beginner.
Hold on, I don’t mean to threadjack, but someone actually said that ‘grinding out reps’ was bad?
…wow.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Try these:
Eat more
Sleep more
And then these 2 you obviously have to go with one at a time:
1)Do regular bench press more often
ORRRR
2)Do it less often, using other exercises to hit chest and tris. After 2-3 months of this, try regular bench again as a gauge of strength, not an actual “working” exercise. If your bench goes up, then retest again a month or two later to make sure you keep making progress without actually doing flat bench. [/quote]
Yeah i’m doing those. As for your last suggestions, thanks. I’m currently trying #1, simply because I have little choice. #2 is how I’d like to do it, and how I progress best.
[quote]SSC wrote:
Hold on, I don’t mean to threadjack, but someone actually said that ‘grinding out reps’ was bad?
…wow.[/quote]
CT says it in his Perfect Rep article (or a different I,BB related one), and then some guy in “The Bodybuilding Bible” thread checked in and said grinding kills his progress so he actively avoids it now and it has been working great. Brick quoted that post and said in his own that “grinding out reps is pointless”. So yeah…
[quote]D Public wrote:
I think you are focusing on the wrong thing…You need to focus on technique, technique, and progression…Instead, you are focusing on how much damage you can inflict upon yourself…I could run 10 400m sprints everyday and it would not make me faster…If I focused on how to properly run, did some shorter sprints, and pushed myself to an acceptable level everyday…I would get faster…
Stop doing the post failure stuff…good powerlifters don’t do that shit…I’ve never seen guys like Ronnie Coleman do it either…Why? cause Ronnie knows just how much to push himself to get results every week…
If you added 2kg to your bench every week, you would have added 104kg in a year…if you added 2kg every 2 weeks that would still be fucking amazing progress…
Stop reading the internet…go look up what the strongest guys in the world do…See what the guy with the 600lb bench is doing…Pay attention to his form and when he stops his set…[/quote]
Haha, what you say there might hold some truth: “to grow I’ve gotta suffer first”. However, I AM definitely focusing on progression, and I want to try and sort out my form atm to eliminate that as a reason for not progressing as fast as I could be - and save my shoulders and all that other important crap I don’t really care about, but probably should.
As for the rest of what you said, isn’t the main complaint of the advanced guys on here that “people aren’t intense in their training and that’s why they don’t progress/look like shit after 5 years of training” and isn’t that what training post failure is about (being intense)? I don’t get it. Maybe I do need to hold off a bit, but I don’t want to…
[quote]SSC wrote:
Hold on, I don’t mean to threadjack, but someone actually said that ‘grinding out reps’ was bad?
…wow.[/quote]
It’s taboo on these boards as of late.
[quote]babaganoosh wrote:
My bench has always progressed slowly. Pretty sure it’s due to form, so let’s work on that. When I retract my scapula I don’t feel it in the chest and feel like I have no power in that position either. Any tips?[/quote]
Your problems are:
- You’re not big; you’re lacking muscle in the upper back and lats.
- A good bencher never showed you how to bench.
- You don’t know how to write a program to bring up your bench.
You might actually have some other problems.
[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
[quote]SSC wrote:
Hold on, I don’t mean to threadjack, but someone actually said that ‘grinding out reps’ was bad?
…wow.[/quote]
It’s taboo on these boards as of late.[/quote]
Gotcha. Just another gem that will be added to my “All-Encompassing Widsom” that I’ve gathered from the T-Nation forums.
The info you are looking for must be in one of your 80 screenshots you have saved.