Bench Assistance exercises

[baldy]

I need to trying something new to improve my bench. I am stuck at 1RM of 100kg, always seems to get pinned about 1 inch off my chest.

I was doing dips, lat pulldowns and standing DB press as assistance. My strength in all of these have gone up, my dips have gone up loads, but my bench still stays the same!!

Anyone got any other suggestions for bench assistance stuff? If I do a PL comp against ninearms in the near future I need a strong bench to have any chance of getting a total close to his.

[vegan hal]

every time i stall on BP or OHP, i switch from 5x5 to 5x10 (around 70%). got that advice from that know-it-all ninearms . Well it's helped. i've stalled a few times on BP and every time i go to 5x10 for a few weeks, i make big improvements.

with that, i'm not at 100kg 1RM yet. but i'm close.

[FAQ]

Raw Bench Pressing - 10 Things You Need To Know By Jim Wendler

[JP]

nail them lats mate

no one with no lats has benched much (chinese proverb)

[thestoatyone]

Floor press on a different day to your main bench day,

Cheeky pause at the bottom and a powerful eccentric phase should help you power through your sticking point.

[vegan hal]

more of this....

[ninearms]

Floor press on a different day to your main bench day,

Cheeky pause at the bottom and a powerful eccentric phase should help you power through your sticking point.

I dunno - the bottom of a floor press is way above his sticking point. I reckon floor presses will just widen the gap between strength off the chest and lockout strength. To work through a sticking point you need to start below it (in fact, you need to start below where bar speed drops, not where it stops), which in Baldy's case is actually on his chest.

Bottom of the bench press is lats, delts and pecs, so I would do the Triumvirate from 5/3/1 - DB bench (neutral grip) 5 sets of 15, DB rows 5 sets of 10. You should do pullups every session anyway just to keep your shoulders healthy, nothing major, just a couple of sets of 5-10.

All of which is moot if the real issue is technique - post a video (no Britney pants )

[Jonathan]

Best thing I can think of is to get stronger

Ever loving, your Jonathan

[JP]

i have been thinking about this very question for you baldy and after hours of deliberation and scientific calculation i was thinking that maybe you should just bench more often.

[sosso]

^^ makes sense. There's a reason so many Americans are strong benchers & it's probably that there's such a big culture of bench pressing that starts in high school. Do something often enough & you should get better at it.

[SpugFab]

I reckon being weak off the chest tends to be due to bad setup.

Best way to sort it is to get the chest higher.

[baldy]

I reckon being weak off the chest tends to be due to bad setup.

Best way to sort it is to get the chest higher.

Might be, cos my bench is normally pretty fast (from where I am lying it feels fast). Then when I get to a 1RM is either flys up and I need to grind out the last inch, or I get pinned not cant even get it off my chest. New gym has shit bench, which is going to make this harder. The stands that hold the bar are narrower than your grip so the bar is really balancing on the rack. When you rack weights on the bar you need two people or else it will flip off.

nail them lats mate

no one with no lats has benched much (chinese proverb)

I was standing next a bodybuilder last night and his lats were huge! He was going db lateral raises

Ok so plan is more bench, DB bench, lats (crouching row machine), pullups more bodybuilding. All this lat work should carry over to "the Squat", maybe it will stop me crumbling when it gets heavy. Ow and bench twice a week.

[XkillerX]

The problem is that you keep fucking around! Baldy stop fucking around, you fuck around way too much!

Once you start packing 110kgs stones on 160cms platforms the issue will sort out itself. In the mean time stop whining and STFU, no help or advice for poor little you because you bailed on VFW!

[baldy]

The problem is that you keep fucking around! Baldy stop fucking around, you fuck around way too much!

Once you start packing 110kgs stones on 160cms platforms the issue will sort out itself. In the mean time stop whining and STFU, no help or advice for poor little you because you bailed on VFW!

I spent the weekend in Spain getting a tan, you dont think this will help my bench? In fact I have not benched in like 2 weeks, this could be the problem.