Let's Get to a 400lb Bench

Training Powerlifting
61

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Put up 315x8 pause touching the chest, explode up, very clean reps last week. Felt amazing actually. My goal is 405 by August 14th. When i go for it, I definitely want a video of it. [/quote]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are already there for a touch and go 405[/quote]

Thanks for the boost in confidence, I appreciate it. That 315 set felt really really strong.

I’ve got a chest workout tomorrow, and originally had planned a rep-max at 365. I think I’m going to ease up to a touch-and-go 405 attempt probably 3rd week of June, see if I can get close or not. I’d really like to work up to it with perfect, competition form.

Thanks though, I appreciate the encouragement

62

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Put up 315x8 pause touching the chest, explode up, very clean reps last week. Felt amazing actually. My goal is 405 by August 14th. When i go for it, I definitely want a video of it. [/quote]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are already there for a touch and go 405[/quote]

I second that. There’s no way you’re not hitting a touch and go at 405 right now. If you really hammer your assistance muscles and make sure your technique is down you’ll be getting 405 with a pause by August no problem. Good Luck

63

[quote]Mexecutioner wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Put up 315x8 pause touching the chest, explode up, very clean reps last week. Felt amazing actually. My goal is 405 by August 14th. When i go for it, I definitely want a video of it. [/quote]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are already there for a touch and go 405[/quote]

I second that. There’s no way you’re not hitting a touch and go at 405 right now. If you really hammer your assistance muscles and make sure your technique is down you’ll be getting 405 with a pause by August no problem. Good Luck [/quote]

Thanks man. I’m not sure about the 405 touch/go quite yet. My rep strength generally doesn’t seem to translate into a calculated max all that well - its not drastically off, but nonetheless not quite there. So I’m focusing on technique with manageable weights for now, but will probably try for it late June. Yesterday’s chest workout: 4x315, 4x340, pause at chest, then put on 365 for one which felt too light, so racked it, put on 375 and did 3 pause at chest. Felt pretty good and clean; a little bit of inner elbow soreness, another reason I’m trying to take it relatively slow. Dropped to 315x6 to finish that last set off.

After that hit a triple at 315 on incline (PR for me) after 245x14 and 275x5 (felt light so i cut the set short because I wanted to see what would happen at 315).

64

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

[quote]Mexecutioner wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Put up 315x8 pause touching the chest, explode up, very clean reps last week. Felt amazing actually. My goal is 405 by August 14th. When i go for it, I definitely want a video of it. [/quote]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are already there for a touch and go 405[/quote]

I second that. There’s no way you’re not hitting a touch and go at 405 right now. If you really hammer your assistance muscles and make sure your technique is down you’ll be getting 405 with a pause by August no problem. Good Luck [/quote]

Thanks man. I’m not sure about the 405 touch/go quite yet. My rep strength generally doesn’t seem to translate into a calculated max all that well - its not drastically off, but nonetheless not quite there. So I’m focusing on technique with manageable weights for now, but will probably try for it late June. Yesterday’s chest workout: 4x315, 4x340, pause at chest, then put on 365 for one which felt too light, so racked it, put on 375 and did 3 pause at chest. Felt pretty good and clean; a little bit of inner elbow soreness, another reason I’m trying to take it relatively slow. Dropped to 315x6 to finish that last set off.

After that hit a triple at 315 on incline (PR for me) after 245x14 and 275x5 (felt light so i cut the set short because I wanted to see what would happen at 315).[/quote]

There is no way your not getting 405 up right now. Also you just put into perspective how brutal my incline is compared to my flat bench. I guess I’m right in thinking my shoulders are holding me back. Other than incline any suggestions for ME lifts to target the shoulders more? I tend to fail about halfway up probably a good 5 inches off my chest.

65

[quote]clutz15 wrote:
[

There is no way your not getting 405 up right now. Also you just put into perspective how brutal my incline is compared to my flat bench. I guess I’m right in thinking my shoulders are holding me back. Other than incline any suggestions for ME lifts to target the shoulders more? I tend to fail about halfway up probably a good 5 inches off my chest.[/quote]

I’ve done the standing press on and off for several years now, but have really been focusing on it over the past 6-7 months. I’ve changed around my routine a lot to focus more on strength (as opposed to purely body building) so as a result my bench has gotten stronger, but I can imagine the standing press has certainly helped. I also really like seated barbell shoulder press, staring straight at the sealing (causing my back to arch a bit) and bringing the bar to my chin, pause, and then press up to lock out. I’ve found that that position has helped hit the anterior delt better than a more strict vertical posture and bar-to-chest movement. Not sure if it means anything for you, but on incline, my hand placement is definitely wider on the bar then on flat.

Honestly though, my anterior delts have always gotten a lot of work from very heavy bench - I find that that is more often than not the one exercise that leaves them most sore the next day (even more so than heavy shoulder presses).

66

[quote]clutz15 wrote:
I guess I’m right in thinking my shoulders are holding me back. Other than incline any suggestions for ME lifts to target the shoulders more? I tend to fail about halfway up probably a good 5 inches off my chest.[/quote]

I’ve seen a fair amount of theories on this. 5 inches off your chest is where your triceps start to take a lot more load, depending on your form. Also its argued that its sticking points are simply a mechanical disadvantage, it might be a strong point after all, just strenuous because of the way its distributed. about 5 inches off my chest is where 380 stuck for me last week, but I feel my front delts are one of the stronger muscles I’ve got. I generally think its wrong to assume a weak link by where a sticking point happens, without looking at other factors. Should note though, it’s not impossible either, and hammering a bench press relevant muscle group can only help ya.

The best way I’ve found to overcome them is to build up your bar speed, and try to blast through the supposed weak link/sticking point.

67

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

[quote]clutz15 wrote:
[

There is no way your not getting 405 up right now. Also you just put into perspective how brutal my incline is compared to my flat bench. I guess I’m right in thinking my shoulders are holding me back. Other than incline any suggestions for ME lifts to target the shoulders more? I tend to fail about halfway up probably a good 5 inches off my chest.[/quote]

I’ve done the standing press on and off for several years now, but have really been focusing on it over the past 6-7 months. I’ve changed around my routine a lot to focus more on strength (as opposed to purely body building) so as a result my bench has gotten stronger, but I can imagine the standing press has certainly helped. I also really like seated barbell shoulder press, staring straight at the sealing (causing my back to arch a bit) and bringing the bar to my chin, pause, and then press up to lock out. I’ve found that that position has helped hit the anterior delt better than a more strict vertical posture and bar-to-chest movement. Not sure if it means anything for you, but on incline, my hand placement is definitely wider on the bar then on flat.

Honestly though, my anterior delts have always gotten a lot of work from very heavy bench - I find that that is more often than not the one exercise that leaves them most sore the next day (even more so than heavy shoulder presses). [/quote]

I usually feel it in my anterior delts after flat bench more so than heavy overhead work aswell, which I usually feel more in my medial delts. I like to do heavy shoulder work after my RE upper lift and I rotate Standing BB overhead and DB overhead for reps of 6, maybe I’ll have to start prioritizing my heavy shoulder work a little more and see how that helps.

[quote]
I’ve seen a fair amount of theories on this. 5 inches off your chest is where your triceps start to take a lot more load, depending on your form. Also its argued that its sticking points are simply a mechanical disadvantage, it might be a strong point after all, just strenuous because of the way its distributed. about 5 inches off my chest is where 380 stuck for me last week, but I feel my front delts are one of the stronger muscles I’ve got. I generally think its wrong to assume a weak link by where a sticking point happens, without looking at other factors. Should note though, it’s not impossible either, and hammering a bench press relevant muscle group can only help ya.

The best way I’ve found to overcome them is to build up your bar speed, and try to blast through the supposed weak link/sticking point. [/quote]

Thats what I thought too, but I’ve always found my tri’s be to be one of my strongest muscle groups. So I fail juuust before I can get a guaranteed lockout. I assumed it was weak shoulders but like you said maybe something is just a bit off on my form (if I fail the weight starts to just ever so slightly drift towards my face) or I’m at a mechanical disadvantage there. Heading into my next meet I’m gonna focus alot more on speed work than the RE stuff on my second upper body day and hopefully thatll pay off.

68

[quote]clutz15 wrote:

[quote]Travis56 wrote:
Any tips on increasing my strength a the bottom of my bench. Seems to be where I am sticking mostly. [/quote]

Make sure you hammer your back really hard with lots of rows. Also try some dead stop stuff such as pin press set right at your chest and regular paused bench both BB and DB. I’m not sure if you do any speed work, but improving your speed of your chest will help break through those sticking points.[/quote]

I’d also add strict overhead w no arch, illegal wide grip, incline and cambered bar (if you dont have one, seriously consider the ~$200 investment)

69

325x1 now

70

375x4 on Tuesday, 315x7.5 paused. You guys weren’t kidding, the paused reps are hugely different.

71

Some big lifting on this thread!! Any of you guys have success with boards, I’m around 365 myself but havent went for a all out RM for a while, hit 405x5 on 4 board this past week and the weight didn’t feel too bad, just wondering when the right time would be to give it a go

72

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

Thanks man. I’m not sure about the 405 touch/go quite yet. My rep strength generally doesn’t seem to translate into a calculated max all that well - its not drastically off, but nonetheless not quite there. So I’m focusing on technique with manageable weights for now, but will probably try for it late June. Yesterday’s chest workout: 4x315, 4x340, pause at chest, then put on 365 for one which felt too light, so racked it, put on 375 and did 3 pause at chest. Felt pretty good and clean; a little bit of inner elbow soreness, another reason I’m trying to take it relatively slow. Dropped to 315x6 to finish that last set off.

After that hit a triple at 315 on incline (PR for me) after 245x14 and 275x5 (felt light so i cut the set short because I wanted to see what would happen at 315).[/quote]

I was gonna mention, that inner elbow soreness? I used to get that just about every bench day. It might be a band-aid on a bigger problem, but what I did (at the recommendation of an old powerlifter in my gym at the time) was just get an ACE bandage and wrap the forearm up, as close to the elbow joint without affecting the ROM. The slight pressure totally got rid of the problem. A tendonitis strap dealy would probly work too.

73

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

Thanks man. I’m not sure about the 405 touch/go quite yet. My rep strength generally doesn’t seem to translate into a calculated max all that well - its not drastically off, but nonetheless not quite there. So I’m focusing on technique with manageable weights for now, but will probably try for it late June. Yesterday’s chest workout: 4x315, 4x340, pause at chest, then put on 365 for one which felt too light, so racked it, put on 375 and did 3 pause at chest. Felt pretty good and clean; a little bit of inner elbow soreness, another reason I’m trying to take it relatively slow. Dropped to 315x6 to finish that last set off.

After that hit a triple at 315 on incline (PR for me) after 245x14 and 275x5 (felt light so i cut the set short because I wanted to see what would happen at 315).[/quote]

I was gonna mention, that inner elbow soreness? I used to get that just about every bench day. It might be a band-aid on a bigger problem, but what I did (at the recommendation of an old powerlifter in my gym at the time) was just get an ACE bandage and wrap the forearm up, as close to the elbow joint without affecting the ROM. The slight pressure totally got rid of the problem. A tendonitis strap dealy would probly work too. [/quote]

Thanks I’ve been thinking about doing something like that. It comes and goes. I think I was pushing it a bit too hard (in the gym too much) and the inner elbow thing was flaring up. Its back to being non existent at this point.

Also, put up 300 x 12 pause reps last bench day. I’ve got bench tomorrow, and depending on how that goes, I think I’ll try for a 400 pound single the following week, I’d be surprised if I miss it honestly.

74

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
375x4 on Tuesday, 315x7.5 paused. You guys weren’t kidding, the paused reps are hugely different.[/quote]

Paused reps are the way to go in my opinion, at least for building the strength. Because if you know you can take the weight down to your chest, hold it there and there press it back up, you know you have the strength for touch and go and then some.

I changed this around about 6 months ago to focus on purely paused reps and while the weight I was using suffered at first, I’m much much stronger now.

75

Off to bench in about an hour… keep telling myself I’m going to wait till next week to get under 400 but I can’t seem to shake the thought of trying it today. We’ll see how the warm up sets go - its either a rep max at 315 today and single rep progression to a max next week. Or I could do a progression to a 3 rep max today and see where I’m at with that.

76

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Off to bench in about an hour… keep telling myself I’m going to wait till next week to get under 400 but I can’t seem to shake the thought of trying it today. We’ll see how the warm up sets go - its either a rep max at 315 today and single rep progression to a max next week. Or I could do a progression to a 3 rep max today and see where I’m at with that. [/quote]

And?

77

My bench day today was pretty solid, but the last ME effort results don’t quite show it. 320x5, with a bad lift off and hitting the support on the first damn rep. It’s lookin like the 400 will fall just in time for my first comp Oct. 29th.

78

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Off to bench in about an hour… keep telling myself I’m going to wait till next week to get under 400 but I can’t seem to shake the thought of trying it today. We’ll see how the warm up sets go - its either a rep max at 315 today and single rep progression to a max next week. Or I could do a progression to a 3 rep max today and see where I’m at with that. [/quote]

And?[/quote]

Ending up stopping at a single max of 390. My inner eblow, sort of where the bicep connects is holding me back. I have the strength for more in everything else, but that pain is causing me to limit the weight. I’m going to do two things:

going to get some elbow sleeves to keep it warm and put a little compression on the area

move my grip slightly back in. I moved it out about a month ago and this is only when the problems started. Its much comfortable with a closer grip - ring finger or even pinky finger on the ring. Been using middle finger on the ring and its really uncomfortable.

Going to do a deload session Tuesday, and then probably look for a triple max on the following Saturday or Sunday.

79

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Off to bench in about an hour… keep telling myself I’m going to wait till next week to get under 400 but I can’t seem to shake the thought of trying it today. We’ll see how the warm up sets go - its either a rep max at 315 today and single rep progression to a max next week. Or I could do a progression to a 3 rep max today and see where I’m at with that. [/quote]

And?[/quote]

Ending up stopping at a single max of 390. My inner eblow, sort of where the bicep connects is holding me back. I have the strength for more in everything else, but that pain is causing me to limit the weight. I’m going to do two things:

going to get some elbow sleeves to keep it warm and put a little compression on the area

move my grip slightly back in. I moved it out about a month ago and this is only when the problems started. Its much comfortable with a closer grip - ring finger or even pinky finger on the ring. Been using middle finger on the ring and its really uncomfortable.

Going to do a deload session Tuesday, and then probably look for a triple max on the following Saturday or Sunday. [/quote]

Nice, 10 more pounds to go. I think I mentioned in this thread, I get that elbow thing here and there, Ace bandage on the forearm erases it. But, it sounds like mine might be a different place than yours. Mine is on the medial side of the elbow knuckle, on the forearm side of the joint. “Where the bicep connects” kinda implies yours is on the upper arm side of the joint? If so, your bicep muscles and/or tendons might be struggling with the stabilization job they have for benching.

80

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:

[quote]TRTblastcruise wrote:
Off to bench in about an hour… keep telling myself I’m going to wait till next week to get under 400 but I can’t seem to shake the thought of trying it today. We’ll see how the warm up sets go - its either a rep max at 315 today and single rep progression to a max next week. Or I could do a progression to a 3 rep max today and see where I’m at with that. [/quote]

And?[/quote]

Ending up stopping at a single max of 390. My inner eblow, sort of where the bicep connects is holding me back. I have the strength for more in everything else, but that pain is causing me to limit the weight. I’m going to do two things:

going to get some elbow sleeves to keep it warm and put a little compression on the area

move my grip slightly back in. I moved it out about a month ago and this is only when the problems started. Its much comfortable with a closer grip - ring finger or even pinky finger on the ring. Been using middle finger on the ring and its really uncomfortable.

Going to do a deload session Tuesday, and then probably look for a triple max on the following Saturday or Sunday. [/quote]

Nice, 10 more pounds to go. I think I mentioned in this thread, I get that elbow thing here and there, Ace bandage on the forearm erases it. But, it sounds like mine might be a different place than yours. Mine is on the medial side of the elbow knuckle, on the forearm side of the joint. “Where the bicep connects” kinda implies yours is on the upper arm side of the joint? If so, your bicep muscles and/or tendons might be struggling with the stabilization job they have for benching. [/quote]

Agreed. It is on the inner side. I have neglected any direct bicep work for about 2 month focusing on more “meaningful” lifts - I’m going to add back in some work see if I can strength then up a bit more. Its not that they’re terribly weak, but certainly could use a little work. Do you have any recommendations about how to directly strengthen it for benching (as opposed to just doing curls) other than just benching?

Thanks