My Bench Stalled What Should I Do?

A few months ago I took on an interesting consult call that was very enlightening. The person, let’s call him “John” wanted help in regards to increasing his bench. Here’s his background:

John was a former collegiate athlete and was still in good shape- Bench Max: 315, Squat Max: 400, Deadlift Max: 415. His goal was to increase his bench press, but he was very frustrated that he couldn’t consistently hit in the 300’s. John went on to discuss how he maxed out every week and the weight wouldn’t be consistent he’d hit Wk1, 300, Wk2 275, Wk3 280, Wk4 275 etc…

“John’s Training Program”

John did a typical bodybuilding split- Day 1: Chest, Day 2: Back, Day 3: Delts, Day 4: Legs, Day 5: Arms. He also liked a LOT of variations because that’s what his personal trainer down south had recommended for him. For Chest day, John would do a variation cycle like this Wk 1: Bench, Wk2: Board Press, Wk 3: Floor Press, Wk 4: Chains, Wk 5: Max Bench – this is where he started maxing out every week for about 2months!

My Thoughts

Maxing Too Often

Off the bat I can say that John was maxing out WAY too often to develop a stronger foundation to so that he could handle heavier loads. While maximal or technical max lifts on a continuous basis can be great to stimulate your body, it doesn’t work for everyone and clearly it wasn’t working for John. He needed to periodize the program to build a stronger foundation, work on weak points, and work on his bench technique to help increase his numbers.

If all John did was max out on his bench, when would he work on his positioning issues or build a stronger foundation? Second, John maxing out on a weekly basis was more than likely taking a toll on his body. Regardless of how hard you want to maintain position, maxing out WILL take you out of an ideal position = take a toll on your muscular skeletal/nervous system. Some people can get away with this but for most it will eventually catch up, especially if you’re drug free.

Too Much Variety

Despite what fitness magazines and Joe Schmo Personal Trainer has said, for MOST trainee’s keeping the training program simple is usually the most effective training method. Chains, Bands, Throws etc… are fun but is it the most effective method to develop a stronger bench? It can help SOME people but I don’t think it’s the most effective method to help a raw bench presser. For one main reason, most people need to practice the bench press.

Imagine if I helped a baseball player with his swing by adding a little “variety”. We’d set up his training to only practice once a week and he’d add in “variety” via: Wk1: Swing with a big barrel bat, Wk2: Swing with a weighted bat and be thrown a softball pitch, Wk3: Swing with a Wooden Bat in a batting cage, Wk 4: Play wiffle ball, Wk 5: Game time!

While this is a pretty big stretch you get the point. Must trainee’s just need to bench and adjust the volume and intensity and not the total exercise selection itself.

More Volume

In my experience, if you want to get better at something then you need to actually do it more than once a week. In this case, benching once a week and and also limiting that ONE day of benching to variations clearly impeded on John’s results. Simply benching twice a week or even building up to x3 a week with the appropriate training volume and intensity will allow John to practice the lifts fresh, be exposed to the lifts more often, and hone in on his technique.

Simple Program Suggestion

My suggestion isn’t glamorous, it doesn’t include bands, chains, or putting an ice pack on your pecs during your rest period, don’t ask… it’s simple, straight forward, but it works. Since John wanted to focus only on the bench, then I’d progressively build him up to bench x3 a week. How you do this depends on your previous training and your risk or prone to injury. In this case, we would first work up to benching twice a week with Day 1 being a medium intensity and volume and Day 2 being a low intensity and normal volume day- based on the “Prilepin Chart”.

John would do this training for about 3-4 weeks and if he’s feeling good, then we’d slowly progress him to 3 a week adding in a low intensity low volume day. When he’s ready we’ll start to progress a bit quicker which would then look something like this:

Week 1

Day 1: Low Volume, High Intensity: 80% hit the lower rep range total 10-15 (ex: 5×2, 5×3, 6×2)
Day 2: High Volume, Low Intensity: 60% hit the medium range total 20-25 (ex: 4×5, 5×4, 5×5, 3×8, 6×4)
Day 3: Low Volume, Medium Intensity: 70% hit the low rep range total 12-15 (ex: 4×3, 3×4, 5×3, 3×5)

Week 2

Day 1: Low Volume, High Intensity: 85% hit the lower-medium rep range total 13-15 (ex: 6×3, 5×3, 4×3 6×2)
Day 2: High Volume, Low Intensity: 65% hit the medium range total 20-25 (ex: 4×5, 5×5, 3×7)
Day 3: Low Volume, Medium Intensity: 75% hit the low rep range total 12-15 (ex: 4×3, 3×4, 5×3, 3×5)

Week 3

Day 1: Low Volume, High Intensity: 90% hit the lower rep range total 4-6 (ex: 4×1, 2×2, 3×2)
Day 2: Medium Volume, Low Intensity: 72.5% hit the lower range total 12-14 (ex: 4×3, 5×2, 3×5)
Day 3: Medium Volume, Medium Intensity: 78-80% hit the low rep range total 10-14 (ex: 3×4, 4×3, 5×3)

Week 4

Day 1: Low Volume, High Intensity: 90% hit the lower rep range total 4-6 (ex: 6×1, 4×1, 2×2, 3×2)
Day 2: Medium Volume, Low Intensity: 77% hit the lower range total 12-14 (ex: 4×3, 3×4, 7×2)
Day 3: Medium Volume, Medium Intensity: 85% hit the low rep range total 10-14 (ex: 5×3, 3×5, 4×3)

Week 5

Day 1: Low Volume, High Intensity: 95% hit the lower rep range total 4-6 (ex: 4×1, 6×1, 4×2, 3×2)
Day 2: Medium Volume, Medium Intensity: 82.5% hit the lower range total 10-12 (ex: 4×3, 5×2, 3×3)
Day 3: Low Volume, High Intensity: 90% hit the low rep range total 3-5 (ex: 3×1, 2×2, 3×2)

The above is just an example, we’d have to see how John adapts and adjust his numbers based on how he’s progressing or regressing.

Conclusion

While there are MANY ways to the final goal, the point of this post is to explain that variations of a lift, while fun, can water down your results. In this case John needed to be exposed to the bench far more often rather than being exposed to variations of the lift. He also needed back away from constantly maxing out and use his time wisely by building a stronger foundation both in technique and through the muscular skeletal system.

If this post wasn’t enough, here’s a few more tips to build a stronger bench press 🙂

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