Feel like my bench press never improves

[heislove1980]

Looking for some advice here, I (M42) began seriously weight training in 2022 and was in the gym regularly 4 days a week doing a M/TH Upper body T/F lower body split. During this time I was able to improve my press from about 90 to 145lbs. Last October I hurt my shoulder and ankle in a bike crash and I took some time off from the gym while I healed. I still hit the gym from time to time (once a weekish) during my healing but not the 4 days I was before and not at any significant weight.

In May I got back on a regular weekly routine and made a push/pull/leg split for the summer as I do more exercise outside. I initially was really happy to find I hadn't lost too much on my bench press dropping to a 130 lbs. average. Since then I'm finding I'm struggling to increase my bench at all. Most days I can do about 135 for almost 3 sets of 12, on rough days I can do 125 at 3 sets of 12. When I bump up to 145 I struggle to even get 3 sets of 3-4. I only increase weight when I can do 3 sets of 12 2 times in a row and I cannot get it. I'll do 12, 12, 10 and then next week struggle for 8, 7, 5.
Like 3 months of a religious weekly routine should be enough time to push through a plateau right? I want to see this number increase and I feel like I'm way in the weeds trying to fix this. I've watched videos and adjusted my form and I try to keep it on point through the whole lift, I've made my whole push day about supporting my bench press trying to focus on my pecs, biceps, triceps and shoulders with compound and isolation but no matter what I do I cannot consistently increase my weight.

Push day exercises:

Bench Press (done on smith machine with slight outward angle due to working out alone and not having a spotter)

Skull Crushers w/ Dumbbells

Pec flys on cable machine

Shoulder press on free weight machine

Dips on cable machine with a counterweight to make it easier to do with your body weight.

Crunches

Am I not giving it enough time at 3 months? I feel like I'm doing something wrong and it's driving me nuts.

Any thoughts?

Edit: I have seen improvement in all my other lifts, it's only the bench press that is still lagging in my eyes.

 

[rescued2]

@heislove1980 Sounds like you need a deload my friend.

You either

A) take the whole week off

B) reduce your reps in half during the first half of the week and then reduce your reps in half AND your weight in half the second half of the week

You have been grinding and putting in work. A deload will give your body time to recover and you’ll come back even stronger. I’d guess you’d hit your goal bench press within 3 weeks.

Think of yourself as an iPhone battery. Right now you are charging up to 50% and using it all up. A deload will get you back to 100% and allow you to progress again.

Hope this helps,
Coach Matt

 

[nobeardlady]

@rescued2 Yep. I felt like I was stuck at 185lbs and actually started to regress. Work made me go to a hotel for two weeks. Came back and busted out 205 for the same reps as I left with at 185.

Sometimes taking a break is just what you need.

 

[dawn16]

@heislove1980 Sounds like you need a rest like others have commented. Do some cardio for a week or two and come back.

Also, try using Dumbbells for a while instead. Theres tons of smaller support and structural muscles that dont get activated by a bench press.

Another thing that helped me is never, ever ignore you rotator cuffs. Should be mixing rotator exercises once or twice a week on non-bench chest days.

Ive always been a fan of 5x5 splits for strength improvement.

Start with a stretch and light warmup set 10-12 reps

Then jack the weight up but only for 5-6 reps, so if you started at 90 before start at 115, 125, 135, 145, 155. Then I usually like to do a burnout set back at a mid-low weight, but thats not necessary.

Gl

 

[dch]

@heislove1980 Try a program called nsuns, it has a lot of bench press. Is available on the Boostcamp app

 

[nobeardlady]

@heislove1980 Things to try:

1. Deload for a week or two.
2. Try different chest exercises. Add in some flys or dumbbell bench press.
3. Try different lift strategy. Instead of 3x12, do 5x5. If you're dropping off set to set, add in more rest time.

 

[lyndam]

@heislove1980

2002

 

[heislove1980]

@lyndam Sorry, I meant 2022, it's been fixed.

 

[harko]

@heislove1980 What is your bodyweight? A Smith machine bench press is not a bench press so a lot of the information on proper form and progression is not going to apply to Smith machine bench. The numbers you're able to get on a Smith machine bench can be very different from a barbell bench. I'd recommend finding a bench with safeties or using a spotter. There's no reason you need to barbell bench you can always do dumbbell or smith machine bench if you're setting a personal goal of getting your bench press numbers up or getting close to the Strength standards (bench of 1.5x bodyweight) but dumbbell and smith machine bench numbers and progress won't necessarily correlate you equal progress on barbell bench

I'd look into double progression for your progression model. This can work essentially like drop sets or reverse pyramid sets. The difference from a drop set being that you're still getting optimal rest between sets where as with drop sets you don't. This can be applied to any lift.

For actual barbell bench you need to address where you're failing on the bench. It is the lockout? At the bottom? The approach you use for progression will differ depending on where you're failing. Also knowing if other muscle groups are lacking can help you break through plateaus. Weak shoulders, triceps, or upper back (for a powerlifting style bench) might be a cause. Doing extra accessory work on the lagging muscle group can help. Sometimes it can be hard to know if a muscle group is lagging without experienced help.

I actually had to stop benching due to a shoulder injury and it ended up being nearly a year before I was comfortable benching again. In lieu of the bench I was doing weighted dips. When I went back to barbell bench I crushed my old PRs and finally was able to get 225x5 and 265x1 for a max effort lift. In my case I think triceps were probably limiting me before the injury and the extra focus on triceps of the dips helped me out.

One last technique I've used just to keep lifts interesting for me after my daughters were born (I was really struggling with fatigue motivation) was to auto regulate my lifting. Each day on my main lift I would work in the rep range that I felt most motivated to push myself in. For example, some days the idea of going heavy was mentally exhausting to me so rather than work in the 8-10 rep range I'd work in the 15-20 rep range. Typically id try to push that rep same range for 3-4 weeks to see some progress but again if sets of 15-20 was a mental barrier I might work up to a heavy single or maybe work in the 3-5 rep range. Eventually I had PRs recorded for every number of reps from 1-20. I was able to workout and attack and set new PRs regularly which was highly motivating to me. This method probably isn't optimal for size and strength but I'm convinced that by doing something highly motivating I was still able to make a lot more progress then I would have if I just half assed my way through a proper program. Learning how to push hard and grind out reps is an important skill to learn and I think that and how important motivation is gets overlooked a lot in this topic when it comes to regular people training for health and fitness.