i don;t do barbell benching(incline, flat or decline), but do dumbbell versions and hs machines for chest. i do military pressing however.
military press: 150x1/135x3/125x5/115x7/105x10
bench press: the BAR feels heavy. laying on a bench and pressing always felt weird to me, even with dumbbells
how weird is this?
[quote]Chase44 wrote:
one more point I think I should make…
If you train just the muscle for part of your body - there are specific methods that differ from training a movement and functionality. If you pick and chose what kind of training you do, either atrophy or strength deficits set in. That is why Thibs and other professionals who know what they’re really doin will tell you train for EVERYTHING.
If i were to see a picture of your shoulder development and say you have a huge girdle with great development… yet you tell me your maxes suck on certain movements I’d tell you incorporate more ME/DE ( max effort or dynamic effort ) work in you’re core lifts but do NOT neglect other things. Simply work to maintain the size until you can get your strength / work capacity and force production to an acceptable level that gives you a sense of balance.
Yeah, videos, lets see em.
[quote]deadliftgoal500 wrote:
i don;t do barbell benching(incline, flat or decline), but do dumbbell versions and hs machines for chest. i do military pressing however.
military press: 150x1/135x3/125x5/115x7/105x10
bench press: the BAR feels heavy. laying on a bench and pressing always felt weird to me, even with dumbbells
how weird is this?[/quote]
for what it’s worth, earlier in my training i had only stuck to doing dumbbell work for chest (incline, flat, decline, and flyes at various angles). i considered myself pretty strong for my weight, age, and experience level. i always had trouble trying to answer the “how much can you bench?” question because i only knew with dumbbells.
anyway, i felt the same way about getting under a bar. i tried bench pressing out a couple times and did not like doing it what-so-ever. i felt very uncomfortable having to press a bar, and then just never did it. after a little longer, i decided i really should incorporate barbell benching into my routine. i started light (because that’s all i could do without feeling very uncomfortable…) and just kind of stuck with it.
my bench numbers aren’t high now by any means, but i guess my point is just because something might seem awkward, doesn’t mean it should be avoided. now, if something hurts or causes discomfort (lol use your head here…) then you’re likely doing it wrong or you should actually avoid doing it if its going to hurt you.
i’d advise you to stick to it if you’ve been avoiding it, and over time it will get a lot more comfortable. i recently did the same thing with my front squat and after getting used to the motion, i’ve been watching my front squat numbers go up every week for the last 4 weeks or so. work on the motion and get comfortable with it, and the weight will come.
will upload some vids. soon.
[quote]phil_leotardo wrote:
I bench around 295 without a shirt and am trying to a 300 lb. bench press. After looking through some of the training logs here I noticed that many guys who bench similar numbers as me have much higher working weights with a military press than I do.
My bench has been stuck at this 290-295 mark for awhile now (meaning 3 months or so.) For the longest time, if I tried to max out on the military press, I could only do 135 for a couple a of heavy singles.
For whatever reason now, my working weights with the military press are really starting to move up. The other day, I tried to work with 135 to see how many times I could do it (since I use it as an assistance exercise I had been noticing that my working weights have been going up…) and I did it for 5 times and then 4,3,3 and 2.
This may have been posted already, The bench press works your front delts, the press works your whole shoulder hence the quicker strength gains. I stopped bench pressing as part of my training routine. I will occasionally do a few reps, probably 3-4 times a year. I press constantly and in different variations. Everytime I do the bench press I usually have added 5-10 pounds or as much as 15. I recently won a bench press competition and hadn’t benched in at least six months. I had done endless sets of presses though.
Thing is though my bench press isn’t moving along with it…
I actually enjoy doing the movement; I have long arms so both the bench and military press don’t come easy for me, so I consider them a challenge, BUT, now the fact that one is going up while the other one is not has me wondering is military presses are actually a worthwhile assistance exercise to improve ones bench press. What do you think? Is there much of a correlation between the two? Kind of like how when your deadlift goes up your squat follows or vice versa?[/quote]