Benching for Mortals help!!!!

sudokuu

So Five years since Ive been in a gym. So i've been back down the local club for the last 6 months. But think I have a problem. I've never ever been able to bench more the 40 Kgs. I've also noticed that some other gym users seem to platae at 40 as well. Does anyone else have the same problem or advice as to how best to increse the weight

BossArky

You are probably all stuck in a comfort zone which you keep reinforcing for each other. Pyschological? Try a different gym where there are some heavy lifts going on.

How many reps and sets at 40kg do you do? If you can manage 3 sets of 8 reps then you should be able to manage 3 sets of 5 reps at 42.5 or 45. After a few weeks increase the reps to 8.

Eat well too and hey presto there you are. I realise this is harder than it sounds.

NoQuarter

steroids.....no only joking!!! :eek:
when i go to the gym after a few months of not training i can only bench around the same myself, just have maybe 4 or 5 diff exercises for your chest and do them after your benching, bench to failure(have a buddy with ya!!!) andwhen u can do maybe 5-6 reps with one weight bang on another 5 kg, get up to 5-6 reps with that and bang on another 5......
and train your back, that will help too!

davyjose

sudokuu wrote:

So Five years since Ive been in a gym. So i've been back down the local club for the last 6 months. But think I have a problem. I've never ever been able to bench more the 40 Kgs. I've also noticed that some other gym users seem to platae at 40 as well. Does anyone else have the same problem or advice as to how best to increse the weight

Are you sure it's not 60? I only ask because I see a lot of people in my gym bench 60kg, and its worth noting that an oly bar is itself 20kg.
Make sure you are getting technique right. This is very important, without that you can get those niggly little injuries which seem to always get in the way of progress.

sudokuu

15 Reps @ 5kg
10 reps @ 15kg
8 reps @ 25kg
6 reps @ 35 kg
4 @ 40 kg

I work arward hours so havent a hope of finding a training partner.
Oh and Im also a veggie. Dont use shakes. But wolf down 50g of unsalted peanuts washed down with 1L of Supermilk diretly afrer training.

sudokuu

davyjose wrote:

Are you sure it's not 60? I only ask because I see a lot of people in my gym bench 60kg, and its worth noting that an oly bar is itself 20kg.
Make sure you are getting technique right. This is very important, without that you can get those niggly little injuries which seem to always get in the way of progress.

Its a smith machine. Dont know wat the bar weghs but i put 40 kg on the bar

NoQuarter

i would say your wasting your time doin the low weights, id warm up wit maybe 2 sets of 8 reps with 20 and the go straight into 40's and pyramid down instead of up, i got from 40 to 82 this way in around 5 months, took whey protein after every workout too

davyjose

sudokuu wrote:

Its a smith machine. Dont know wat the bar weghs but i put 40 kg on the bar

Ok, well then it's just 40, but you've answered another question. Don't bench with a Smith Machine - use free weights. Get your technique right and you'll start to see improvements.

sudokuu

Any More suggestions or advie on pyramiding

Hanley

20kg x5
30kg x5
40kg x5 (then another set or 2 of 5 if you can)
30kg x5

Don't waste your time taking small jumps like that. All it's doing is tiring you out before you get to the real worksets.

NoQuarter

after a warm up start on your heaviest weight and work down, next time in the gym try start on 45 and then 40, then 35 then 30 but i wouldnt bother going much lower than that, i would say use free weights as they are better for technique too but if ya wanna go for a 1 rep max ya need a buddy, other people in the gym doing weight are usually happy to spot for ya though!

sudokuu

So how quickly should I look at incresing the weight

NoQuarter

id say every time you can comfortably do 4 reps of 1 weight you could get 1 rep of a weight 5kg heavier, so if i got 4 reps of 50kg, the next time i worked my chest i would (after a good warm up!) try a rep of 55kg and then pyramid down, then every chest workout after keep trying 55kg first, pretty soon youll be able to do 4, then up the weight to 60kg and start again!

Colm_OReilly

Can you bench without a Smith Machine?

Smith Machines will not allow you to work in an anatomically correct manner, and can lead to injuries.

If you can bench freely with lower weights you'll be a lot healthier. I'd wager that the weight will increase as well.

Also, work on push ups, dips and shoulder presses, and this will increase your benching ability.

Colm

tribulus

I agree with the above and I'd also add to do plenty of upper back and lat work as well as shoulder prehab, scapular and rotator work.

walt0r

Ditch the smith machine and start using a free bar. Also, as everybody above has said, stop doing so many warm-up sets because you're only really tiring yourself out. Start pushing yourself harder

TerrorFirmer

I use the smith machine as well but only because the gym is nearly always empty when I go so I don't want to suddenly fail and be stuck under the bar....I assume that'd the reason alot of people use the smith. That and I just hate the free weights in there, something about the bench I can't stand...ANYWAY moving on

Also you should work downwards not upwards, you'll get more done that way. If you can do 4x40, I'm sure you can do 45x1 at least, then 40x8, 40x6x, 40x4or whatever. I'm not a great one for advice as to be honest I have a crap regime but it's not hard to get to 60/65kg, its above that that gets more difficult (I''m stuck at 65 for ages).

the best thing for weights is actually having someone else there to motivate you. It really does work wonders. I don't do it often but when I do I always squeeze more out of the session.

Just out of interest what other things do you do apart from the bench?

Linoge

walt0r wrote:

Ditch the smith machine and start using a free bar. Also, as everybody above has said, stop doing so many warm-up sets because you're only really tiring yourself out. Start pushing yourself harder

To add, start your workout with the bench press (after your warm up of press ups or whatever you choose). Your triceps are usually the limiting factor for a bench press, not your chest, so doing say dips in the set before is not ideal.

rubadub

I used to drop reps quite a bit between benching sets. I used to aim for a 12rep start, then 10, then finish on 8- all on the same weight. Next workout I would try and get another rep in, maybe 12,10,9.

Strange thing I presonally find is I am restricted to about 12 reps max with lower weights too. e.g. if I had 60kg on one week, and 55kg the next I would be the same reps- dunno if my mind was focused too much on counting, rather than what I could actually lift.

Pushups helped my benching a lot, also I used to do about 3-4reps at a much higher weight some weeks to shock the system, then drop the weight and do 2 more normal sets. You can get online calculators to help you guage what you can lift. e.g. enter "I can do 8 reps at 60kg" and it might estimate you can do 70kg for 2 reps.

the-lad

What i did when I plataeued at 50kg using a barbell was switch to using dumbbells I had to drop the weight initially (to 40kg i think) and worked it back up to fifty. when i went back to using the bar i found i could now push 60kg :eek:

BossArky

My current max bench is 70kg. No way I could lift two 35kg dumbbells though.

Hanley

the-lad wrote:

What i did when I plataeued at 50kg using a barbell was switch to using dumbbells I had to drop the weight initially (to 40kg i think) and worked it back up to fifty. when i went back to using the bar i found i could now push 60kg :eek:

That's completly normal...

I've benched 120 for 5 reps, but would struggle to use 40-50kg 'bells for the same reps.