Bench Strength Plateau

MisterCadbury

OK hopefully someone can help me out with this, was benching for last 9 months approx on a smith machine. Doing about 12 reps of 50kg working my way up to 6 reps of 65kg in a set. But to be honest I always feel that by using the smith I'm cheating and that by doing the same exercise but on a standard bench I'll get more from it. So anyways I started about 2 months ago doing my sets on a free bench and as you can imagine I was down a good 10kg at least on what I could lift. But iI was concious of the fact that I was using balancing muscles and what not that were never exercised with the smith bench. Anywho i seem to have hit a plateau of about 60 kg that i just cant seem to get over, trying for a month now and still struggling to start gradually upping the weight. Any advice would be much appreciated.

cardio,shoot me

Maybe try changing the reps around,Like doing 3 sets of 10 or 3 sets of 5,maybe try dumbells ?

mloc

What is your diet and the rest of your training program like?

itsallaboutheL

mloc wrote: »

What is your diet and the rest of your training program like?

+1 at that kind of weight its unlikely to be a genuine plateau

MisterCadbury

For that day I do my chest only

Start with the Bench usualy cos I notice that if I leave it to later I cant lift my normal.
12 x 50kg warm up
8 x 60kg
6 x 65kg
6 x 70kg
Then do same rountine for incline bench press
4 x 8 dumbell incline
4 x 8 dumbell pull overs ( emphasis on keeping arms straight so I can feel it in my chest)
Incline flys 3 x8
3 x 8 vertical flys
3 x 15 normal press ups with interval set between each of hands together press ups usually 8 reps a set
3 x 8 Vertical chest press

All that said I feel im getting good chest growth but my bench strength just isnt what it should be.

MisterCadbury

Dont focus too much on diet, could be my problem, Have 2 protein shakes on days I train and obviously steer clear of junk food and what not. Also tend to try and predominantly eat carbs in the evening /night.

itsallaboutheL

MisterCadbury wrote: »

Also tend to try and predominantly eat carbs in the evening /night.

thats a bit arseways!!

Joe C

Do you do any strength work on your external rotators ?

MisterCadbury

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

thats a bit arseways!!

How come? Main objective bulking up, so read that best if you can try and have most of your carbs in the evening. Read it on the tinternet though so im all ears if you think its wrong?

MisterCadbury

Joe C wrote: »

Do you do any strength work on your external rotators ?

Never even heard of them man!

itsallaboutheL

Joe C wrote: »

Do you do any strength work on your external rotators ?

+1
wouldn't be a bad idea, it's the main area that would be lacking from the smith benching

DB powercleans

L-Flyes

Scare Crows etc

Joe C

MisterCadbury wrote: »

Never even heard of them man!

haha, maybe you should look them up!

I've got a torn one and my physio said it would be practically impossible to increase my bench press by much without being able to strengthen the external rotators (rotator cuff).

I've been at a fairly steady plateau with my bench press ever since I did my injury 18 months ago.