Stuck in the 230s for bench press

[harley]

@worship4him Oh, it sounded like you are doing powerlifting style in bench because you said for every flat bench session you're doing 4x4. Yeah some do it that way and once they have reached a certain weight increase the reps for hypertrophy.

 

[worship4him]

@harley Yea I’m ngl, I’m not too deep into weight lifting and I don’t really know how powerlifters would workout cs how body builders would workout. I just workout while being a CS student. But I’m trying to get more dedicated and involved now. Thank you

 

[julienott90]

@worship4him 235 is really good for only weighing 160....put on some weight and should see gains.

 

[worship4him]

@julienott90 Thank you. I’ll Try gaining weight. What weight would you recommended me hitting and staying at for the bulk ?

 

[julienott90]

@worship4him start out with 10lbs and see how it goes.

 

[worship4him]

@julienott90 I only gained 5 pounds in the end but my bench went up from 235 to 260 in 9 weeks. Thsnks

 

[tp243]

@worship4him Linear progression only works for so long in terms of strength gains and you need to periodise your training

 

[worship4him]

@tp243 Thank you, I’ll look into periodization

 

[kavi0808]

@worship4him I’m 5’7 and 190lbs trying to put up 3 plates by Xmas. Currently I’m at 275 for 3 sets of 5 up from 275 being my max earlier this year. I focus on progressive overload and change up my rep schemes. I’ll do 3 sets of 8 and then next week 4 sets of 8, then the next week I’ll do 4 sets of 4 sometimes 3 sets of 3 you get the idea. What’s helped me the most is pause reps. I find good strength gains when I do 1 or 2 sets of paid reps on bench where one rep consists of a pause half way and at the bottom. So you pause 3 times. Once on the way down, once at the bottom, once halfway up. I mix it up in my workouts by varying the weight and total pause repetitions. Hope this can help you too!

 

[worship4him]

@kavi0808 Thank you for this axtually, I’ll try and implement this based on my program. I’ll actually try and follow a program and maybe implement these pause reps

 

[hummingbirds]

@worship4him Not sure how old you are but 160lbs is very light. Your bench is very impressive for your weight, but yeah if you want to get to bigger poundage’s you’ll probably need to push up your bodyweight.

 

[worship4him]

@hummingbirds I’m 19 right now and thank you, my chest is probably my most developed muscle and my bench is probably my strongest compound lift out of the three. Thank you for recommending me to gain weight. I’ll look into bulking. What would you say would be an ideal weight to maintain during a bulk for my height?

 

[hummingbirds]

@worship4him Depends how much mass you’re trying to add brother but the highest I’d go is around 190. Bulk and cut slowly as you can to maximize your body composition.

 

[worship4him]

@hummingbirds I gained 5 pounds in the last 9 weeks, but I was able to go from 235 bench to 260 in that span, just hit it today

 

[tdidymas]

@worship4him Bench is going to be slow. I would suggest defining your goals though.

Hypertrophy: look for a BB routine like MFT from RP strength

Strength: look for a powerlifting routine with periodization. Different percentages of your 1RM and different reps during the training block.

A blend of strength and hypertrophy: look for a powerbuilding program. Barbell Medicine has a good one.

Full/Balanced health (strength and cardiovascular): look for hybrid training or concurrent training. Tactical Barbell is a great example.

I ask you this as going pure strength is going to be different then hypertrophy.

 

[worship4him]

@tdidymas I would be most interested in powerbuilding. Thank you for recommending one. Have you heard of russwole vol 3? If you did what do you think of that program.

 

[tdidymas]

@worship4him I am not familiar with that one. I am partial to the evidence based approaches of Barbell Medicine or Renaissance Periodization.

 

[stellanguyen]

@worship4him Gain weight
Eat MOAR

 

[dawn16]

@worship4him I’m in a similar situation…was wondering if I should eat more to overcome the plateau