alright, i’m 19 and have been training hard for the last 6 or 7 years. i love it, absolutely live to lift. but, i cant seem to get my bench close to that 2X bodyweight mark that i would love to achieve. anyone have any programs that they followed that they made good progress on. or general tips in the bench? thanks in advance.
p.s. i’m currently 5’7" 162+/- and current bench is somwhere around the 260 mark.
[quote]casslerock wrote:
alright, i’m 19 and have been training hard for the last 6 or 7 years. i love it, absolutely live to lift. but, i cant seem to get my bench close to that 2X bodyweight mark that i would love to achieve. anyone have any programs that they followed that they made good progress on. or general tips in the bench? thanks in advance.
p.s. i’m currently 5’7" 162+/- and current bench is somwhere around the 260 mark.[/quote]
Where is your sticking point?
What’s your routine like?
go to elitefts.com, look in their article section. Heaps of good bench info, it really helped me.
There is an article here on T-Nation by Dave Tate called “Bench Press 600 Pounds”. Go read that article and keep eating till you put on 138 pounds.
Gaining strength takes time. A 260 bench @160lbs and at 19yrs old is freakin great! Keep up the good work. The key to improving strength is finding out where your weak point is and strengthing it. Also work on your technique. If you want to bench for strength then learn to bench like a powerlifter. Good arch, elbows slightly tucked. Eliftefts.com is a GREAT rescource if you want to be strong. Good luck!
A max single lift requires training for that purpose. Dave Tate is the way to go… keep in mind that Dave was able to acheive world class numbers despite wiping his ass with nutritional advice (“Cholesterol turns into testosterone!”). Christmas is coming, this is a good time to ask for a band or chain set!
currently i’ve been training chest on thurs/sun with a couple of local powerlifters. i’m doing a “powerlifting cycle” i started with bar warm up then 95 for 10, 135x10, 145x10 on my first week. by the end of my 10rep i was at bar warm up, 95 x 10, 135x10, 170x10 and 195x10. i’m now on my 5 rep phase and then we’ll move to 3 rep and one rep on the final phase to see where i’m at for a bench. i’ve really noticed here lately though that i feel alot more fatigued in the begining sets and i’m wondering if i’m not over training.
post the powerlifting rep lifts i usually do no more than 3 sets of inclines. but i also do gymnastics 2 or 3 times a week which is alot of pec/delt/tri and core work. what do you guys think? overtraining? p.s. diet is fairly clean and i would estimate my bf% around 7 or 8 %.
There’s no such thing as over-training…there’s only under-eating and under-resting ;). That you’re a gymnast suggests you already have very good upper-body power. I was gonna say, work your lats and back more, but lol, I think you get plenty. I hope you get some leg training in, however.
[quote]casslerock wrote:
i’ve really noticed here lately though that i feel alot more fatigued in the begining sets and i’m wondering if i’m not over training.
post the powerlifting rep lifts i usually do no more than 3 sets of inclines. but i also do gymnastics 2 or 3 times a week which is alot of pec/delt/tri and core work. what do you guys think? overtraining? p.s. diet is fairly clean and i would estimate my bf% around 7 or 8 %.[/quote]
That feeling of fatigue is usualy just the warm up/ c.n.s. ramping up. It isn’t unusual for the first couple of sets to feel a little funky.
To get the brain/muscles fired up I’ll usualy hit a few light deadlifts with explosive speed, then hit the bench press at about 50% 1rm. for a couple sets of 3, also explosive speed, then start in to either the work sets or climbing toward max effort.
This gives a good jump start. Give it a shot.