bench press frustration

[fatherseanfan]

I am 5'10, 155 lbs, and can only bench press, at most, 95 lbs. In the last year or so, I've managed to go from about 70 to 90, but I seem to have maxed out. I read on previous threads that you should be able to bench a lot, like double your bodyweight. Why do I suck? (This being said, I am putting on muscle and am developing nice pecs, so aesthetically I'm looking OK.) Maybe I'm over-reacting here. Thoughts?

 

[Bandwagonesque]

Originally Posted by fatherseanfan

I am 5'10, 155 lbs, and can only bench press, at most, 95 lbs. In the last year or so, I've managed to go from about 70 to 90, but I seem to have maxed out. I read on previous threads that you should be able to bench a lot, like double your bodyweight. Why do I suck? (This being said, I am putting on muscle and am developing nice pecs, so aesthetically I'm looking OK.) Maybe I'm over-reacting here. Thoughts?

Probably hit a plateau. Don't worry about double your body weight... once you reach benching that amount, you'd probably have to upgrade all of your tops and suits due to your chest getting bigger! Not cool. If you're still determined... you are doing more than just bench to work on your chest right? Incline bench press? Dumbell flys? Weighted pushups? How about your triceps? Are you working on them - they help you with chest exercises.

I'm 5'11, 160, and could do 135 max. Took me a while to get up there. Start by adding 2.5 lbs a week, or 5 lbs every two weeks.

 

[lance konami]

Originally Posted by fatherseanfan

I am 5'10, 155 lbs, and can only bench press, at most, 95 lbs. In the last year or so, I've managed to go from about 70 to 90, but I seem to have maxed out. I read on previous threads that you should be able to bench a lot, like double your bodyweight. Why do I suck? (This being said, I am putting on muscle and am developing nice pecs, so aesthetically I'm looking OK.) Maybe I'm over-reacting here. Thoughts?

Eh, don't worry too much about it. Too many guys give the bench press waaaayyy too much importance. But if you want to increase it, bandwagonesque offered some solid advice. All of those will work. Also you can start doing some sets with as much weight as you can for 5-6 reps, (but use a spotter.)

I've found that doing incline bench presses totally help my bench press, and behind the neck shoulder presses will help as well. Your gains will come as you strengthen your tendons and ligaments over time, and you'll suddenly start seeing some big gains.

 

[fatherseanfan]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I do those other excercises -- incline and flat barbell, behind the neck, dumbell flies and I do tricep work. I follow The Book of Muscle routines.

 

[lance konami]

Originally Posted by fatherseanfan

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I do those other excercises -- incline and flat barbell, behind the neck, dumbell flies and I do tricep work. I follow The Book of Muscle routines.

Oh well ****, you'll be up there in no time then. That progam's a monster.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by Bandwagonesque

Probably hit a plateau. Don't worry about double your body weight... once you reach benching that amount, you'd probably have to upgrade all of your tops and suits due to your chest getting bigger! Not cool. If you're still determined... you are doing more than just bench to work on your chest right? Incline bench press? Dumbell flys? Weighted pushups? How about your triceps? Are you working on them - they help you with chest exercises.

I'm 5'11, 160, and could do 135 max. Took me a while to get up there. Start by adding 2.5 lbs a week, or 5 lbs every two weeks.

I really wouldn't worry about how much you can bench. Shoot for your bodyweight, first of all. If you really want to get up there, drop down to two chest/back sets a week, and do low reps, high weight. And as Bandwagonesque says, other exercises strengthening the auxiliary muscles will help your bench as well. A healthy male with about 12% bodyfat should be able to bench his bodyweight. Make that your goal, and anything more, count it as a plus. I have a buddy in the marines who tells me that the norm is 1.5 x your body weight for them, and those guys lift constantly.

 

[nomovement]

You gotta think too about your technique. My best friend's little brother revolutionized my workouts when he had me start doing 12-10-9-8-7-7 workouts where you do each rep as slow as you possibly can. That just seemed to tear my muscles up; but they recovered much stronger. Doing things accurately and with control is cool anyway.

 

[whodini]

This is all great advice. I started lifting a year ago and when I started I had a hard time doing reps with just the bar. A year later after lifting 2-3 times a week I can do 90 but feel like I'm hitting a wall, too. I've noticed great gains with triceps/biceps/delts but have always felt like I was struggling with the pec's even though I'm doing several different exercises on them.

Any other ideas?

 

[coachvu]

Benching twice your body weight is truly an athletic feat no matter what your weight. Many, if not most, NFL players never achieve that. Whenever I feel like I've reached a plateau, it means my body is too accustomed to my workout. Try mixing up your exercises, number of sets, and weights. I have about four different bench press workouts that I cycle, so every week is different. I feel like that "shocks" my muscles and keeps them guessing. Give it some time, and you'll figure out what works best for you.

 

[odoreater]

You might want to reevaluate your goals man. Most guys, even guys that have been in the gym for years, cannot bench twice their bodyweight. In fact, most guys cannot even bench once their bodyweight. I would say that being able to bench your bodyweight would put you somewhere in the top 1% of people who workout.

Also, unless you are a competitive powerlifter, I don't really see why what weight you bench even matters. If you are meeting your health/fitness/physique goals, then who really cares what weight you are benching?

 

[alan]

I used to bench 10 kgs more than my body weight, but my pecs were even before, very developped.

I dont think i know anyone who trains to get a workout who benches twice their weight.

I think theres two things worth noting:

1st: your goal is to get a good workout and not get numbers. If whatever your benching is giving your muscles a good workout, thats all you need. Some people have more strength independant of muscle size, which sometimes accounts for differences.

2nd: Sometimes you feel just as exhausted as you used to at the end of the reps, with same weights youve been using for a while.
That doesnt mean you cant increase the weights. If you do, you might feel uncomfortable first time but theyll quickly settle in.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by odoreater

You might want to reevaluate your goals man. Most guys, even guys that have been in the gym for years, cannot bench twice their bodyweight. In fact, most guys cannot even bench once their bodyweight. I would say that being able to bench your bodyweight would put you somewhere in the top 1% of people who workout.

Also, unless you are a competitive powerlifter, I don't really see why what weight you bench even matters. If you are meeting your health/fitness/physique goals, then who really cares what weight you are benching?

I disagree with odor's assessment. (Sorry dude

) I know a handful of guys who can bench 2x their bodyweight. (One guy is 260 lbs, and looks and is built like the hulk. Luckily, he has never asked me to spot him, another is 135 lbs, and benches 3x10reps at 225 lbs

mg: ) Most guys I know and workout with can bench somewhere between their body mass to 1.8 times their body mass. I've tended to hang out with pretty athletic guys most of my life, and I would qualify most of them as being in the top quarter, at least, of the population of guys who workout, probably even in the top 10%, but the top 1 percentile is populated by remarkably strong, fast, tough guys - varsity athletes in good programs, semi-professional martial artists, fighting shape boxers in the welterweight/middleweight divisions (where weight really, really matters,) etc... No way that any of these guys can only bench their bodyweight. Usually, they can do at least 1.5[/b].

I also used to train with a bunch of ex-marines (enlisted men), who all told me that 1.5 x body weight was par the course for marine corpsmen.

 

[smw356]

Try tossing some dips into your routine, and maybe take a fairly serious look at your diet to see if there are any problems there. Otherwise plataueus happen just mix things up till you break through it.

 

[Gradstudent78]

Here is a chart showing where people with different lifting experience should fall:

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-journal/WLSTANDARDS.pdf

 

[smw356]

hrm what is that chart based on ? 1RM ?