Just like the bench press, there are dozens of very finite details you need to implement into your form and training protocols in order to truly maximize your performance.When comparing the floor press versus the bench press the most obvious difference is the lack of a bench in the floor press. Because of its name – the close grip bench press – lifters assume they must perform it with their hands as close together as possible. When you lift 135 on anything and see someone doing 225; you naturally think "Damn how are they so strong." Keep lifting, and eventually you'll feel like atlas when you bench 225, when you bench 250, ect... but you'll never stop saying "Damn that fkr is strong." If they start out really light, they can easily add 10 pounds per week for a while because they’re still working below their actual level of ability. 30 votes, 84 comments. I guess having 5 chest days per week does the job for them. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Discussion of physical fitness/exercise goals and how they can be achieved, Press J to jump to the feed. Flat out, you need to do more to cause the body to recover from more, and in turn be able to do more. Make sure to keep up with your OHP since it uses a lot of the same muscles and you'll be good. Bench 3-4x per week (change reps:sets to reflect high volume and high intensity days.). A 135 bench press for someone who weighs 120 pounds is actually pretty respectable! Please, please, please don’t walk in to the gym, put a … My bench stagnated hard doing 5x5 routines, but on Nsuns it's gone up 55 pounds since end of March, I'm willing to bet most of that is mind muscle connection, form, and work capacity rather than actual muscle growth, I think it might be due to lack of eating enough. This bench press program is broken up into 3 segments: Weeks 1-2 – Rep Work. 5x5 rather than heavy triples/singles). Bulk. You got this man! That's another thing, I don't follow a specific routine, I just know exercises for different muscle groups and do those. But stick with it. 225 to 315 takes quite a bit longer than 135 to 225. The floor press is a relatively simple exercise to start doing, but a very difficult exercise to perfect. definitely possible. I got stuck at a 5 lb max difference for quite a while. Why do … Hone technique. But who knows... maybe in 5 years I'll hit / be close to it. A 135lb bench press for most women would be an intermediate to advanced but hardly unreachable lift. It's definitely doable. I think it might be due to lack of eating enough. I've been reading people's posts about their bench progression and some people are saying they increased it by 10 pounds a … I just don't get how people can bench so much weight when 135 I have never seen a lifter yet in all the seminars we have done (elitefts) that wasn't able to increase their best press after one teaching session. The bench press is one of the most popular chest and strength exercises performed. But keep grinding, there's nothing like stacking on two wagon wheels and taking them for a ride. How long did it take you guys? I just don't get how people can bench so much weight when 135 still makes me feel like Atlas. After a year of training, I was right around 200lbs. Training to increase your 5RM will surely increase your 1RM as well, however training specifically to increase your 1RM will do a better job of increasing your 1RM. Bottom line, visualization is an underrated tool. I'm at about 300 now. But to add plates you’ll need to do more than just, well, bench. That feeling will never go away. This ranging from the beginner to the advanced geared lifter. Matt Wenning walks through proper bench technique. Jennifer Thompson Bench Press 101 These videos are really great and recently helped me to push our a PR of 375 on the bench press. Gym bro or no, the bench press is a true hallmark of strength. Bench twice a week, I do one heavy and one volume. This is true, yet focussing on the same bench press movement over Grip Width Grip width is going to be somewhat dependent on personal preference, but for our purposes let’s say somewhat narrower than what you may be used to. As a beginner you could accomplish this. I've been going for a year and while I've made some progress, I'm only 40 pounds away from where I started. You should see an increase in your bench press max of very close to thirty pounds or better. You won't be doing 5x5 for 225lbs. Numero Uno…warm up. They also shouldn’t be … I use to only do a little bit of weight, now I'm benching 265lbs clean of my chest for reps. Takes time though. The average weight most adult men and women can bench press depends on age, fitness level, and other factors. Most of us learned how to perform the close grip bench press from reading muscle building magazines. Anyone else hitting 185 5x5 want to tell me what their 1RM is? Reaching a bench press plateau can be aggravating. 5 years ago You won't be doing 5x5 for 225lbs. Do you just imagine yourself doing it, or is there more to it than that? That’s a total of eighteen workouts. I just don't get how people can bench so much weight when 135 still makes me feel like Atlas. After my 5th year of training I nailed 315. You're probably in the 185-195 range as is. Looking back as a beginner I would have never though I would bench 315, but I did it. You are not some special snowflake who can't make gains because of some special life circumstances. The good news is they’re easily fixed by identifying the underlying problem and implementing effective solutions to address them. When I first put up 225lbs I jumped from 205, a weight I felt strongly was my max. The traditional bodybuilding grip width where the arms are flared out to almost 90-degrees will definitely stress the pecs more, but this style won’t be optimal for building strength or sustaining shoulder longevity. I should really try following something specific. I've been at it for a few years. But the key to upping your bench press max isn't to keep doing presses. “My overhead press and other bench accessories all got stronger but my bench stayed the same.” These are comments I frequently hear from people who are struggling to increase their bench press . For the same reason, you can’t train to do 100 push ups and expect your bench to … All of the muscle you gain from doing the bench press will directly increase your bench press strength. 100 pounds difference is a LOT of weight for the bench press. Pathetic. 5 Ways to Increase Your Press Ever since I started pressing, I have been obsessed with making it better. You will try to perform 5 sets x 8 reps on the bench press, increasing intensity (weight) during the second week. As for getting 225 for reps, it took me roughly 4 months to move from 185 5x5 to 225 5x5 and I've plateaued there - I'm moving to 5/3/1 next week so we'll see if it gets me to the 315 single I want to hit before Christmas. Cookies help us deliver our Services. [Strength Standards](http://www.strstd.com/_(http://www.strstd.com/) puts my 1RM at 227lbs. Partly because I was so weak at it for so long (which meant that it had no place to go but up) and because it is simply a cool exercise to do. 70 pounds in 5 months is like 3.5 pounds increase per week. Thank you for this, I hope that some day if I fix everything I'm doing wrong, I'll be able to do 225. If you're looking to hit 225 on your 1 rep max, absolutely. I've kinda neglected diet and I know that it's the most important part, I just find it so hard to eat 3500 calories when I normally get 1500-2000. If you are an intermediate or advanced lifter who has already exhausted his linear gains period, then probably not. Those are pretty fucking inportant. Most people have a lot more strength capacity in them; they just lack the correct technique to display it. If not, we learned from a similar source, or possibly just winged the exercise. If you wanted to train push ups via benching, you could do lower weights with high reps....but that would be an ineffective bench exercise and an inefficient way to increase your push ups. In fact, they're limiting factors, where your program and diet are not. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. You can get to 205lbs though if you slightly increase the weight each week. Most likely 275ish. If your goal is to get a huge bench, you would be better off doing more pressing that resembles the bench press. I got to 225 in a little under a year. What does your process for visualization look like? 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