Hey Jim/everyone. I have been struggling with my bench press and as the title says, made no progress in a year. For some background. I am 22, 6’ 184 pounds.
My job is heat intensive and physical in the summertime, I also am a father, so time is limited and sleep is usually inconsistent.
5/3/1 worked pretty well for my deadlift/squat. I added 70 pounds to my squat E1rm and 50 to my deadlift. My bench press has been stuck at and around 210-215 for awhile. I’ll lay out details of diet and training over the year and my next plan of attack.
Problems I identified:
Poor sleep/ Bad diet (Excessive alcohol use as well) I gained 25 pounds over the year but mostly ate junk and drank.
Sloppy technique
Letting TM get too high
Not utilizing more supplemental and assistance work
Not rowing enough (I put a focus on rows but didn’t stick with it long enough)
Letting the barbell beat me before I lift. This has been a mental struggle that I plan to address.
That pretty much sums it up there. I’m going to clean all of those mistakes up and move forward. My next plan of attack is
5/3/1+ with FSL Pause Reps. On OHP day do FSL Bench
Weighted Push Ups/ Close grip Bench/ more assistance work
Clean up the diet and eat more. Drop alcohol
Focus on sleep quality
Reevaluate TM after 4 cycles. Similar to 5 forward 3 back
Refining technique and hammering my upper back and lats
I would love some feedback. Also if anyone has any recommendations for a different method for bench press/OHP. I am not blaming 5/3/1 for my lack of progress. I would like to give it another year and focus on doing things right.
To Jim. I have read all of your books and have really grown as a lifter and as a person. Thank you for all you do and have done!
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, I hope you all have a wonderful day.
I ask, because the skillset for hitting many reps with a submaximal weight is a different skillset than the one employed for lifting as much weight as possible for 1 rep, and programming should reflect that goal.
It does, indeed, sound like your TM management got out of hand. I’m curious why you’re choosing to re-evaluate it after 4 cycles, vs after the end of every cycle? I don’t see why you’d blindly increase the TM for 4 cycles before you take the time to evaluate if it’s the correct one for your goals. Jim will frequently have lifters repeat a cycle with the same TM or a LOWER one in order to make progress.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the weight on the bar going up is NOT the only way to progress. Rep PRs and better rep quality go a long way.
Writing down cues and practicing them on every rep. The biggest issue was my leg drive, I was letting hips shoot up. Also squeezing bar tighter and keeping shoulders retracted. Basically practice practice practice.
Old school would focus on 5 rep max (which calculates to roughly 90% of your 1 rep max). 5 rep training is an old rule of thumb rep range for optimizing power.
I think what you’ve outlined is pretty solid. As you noted, you need to eat more. In that regard, I’d consider some phases of BBB mixed in with this, to promote weight gain. The bench will most likely NOT increase DURING those phases, since it’s trained so infrequently, but it will set you up for success in future programming attempts.
You identified a lack of assistance/supplemental work, try have 3 months with a focus on this, especially around single limb lifts like the Bulgarian Split Squat to iron out any unevenness/weakness between limbs.
I was doing 531 Bench and 3x5 FSL on OHP days and did some close grip bench. Probably could’ve upped it. I was doing a bunch of rows for a couple cycles. Should’ve stuck with that longer
Ultimately 5/3/1 felt like a complete waste of time for Bench. It’s a bit discouraging to continue it, sort of feels like insanity to expect different results this time around.