No Gains From Bench Press

[rjr5353]

I never did bench press before (only been lifting 2 months), I always did dumbell bench press. So I decided to swtich to regular bench press, 5 weeks in and I havent been able to increase the weight at all... Its like Its not working for me? Is this strange or what? I think Im gonna go one more week and then go back to the dumbell bench....

 

[goal_500_bench]

How much are you trying to increase the weight by because if you are adding 20 pounds or more than it is too much. Try adding like 5 pounds on each side or even 2.5 pounds on each side. Also it takes time. If you can do 12 reps then you can add more weight like about 10 pounds.

 

[Evil ANT]

Yeah, let us know how many reps you're doing along with your number of sets.

 

[Mudge]

Form is also of great importance.

 

[rjr5353]

I start my warmup sets with a 45 on each side. Then I add 10 lbs. to each side. I then do about 8 reps or so. Then add the 2 1/2 pounders on each side and do probably 4 to 5 reps. and thats pretty much all the weight i can add and continue this throughout the 4 fourth set. Like I said its my 5th week doing the standard bench press and havent been able to add weight. Weird thing is when I first did it - I added the 5 lbs. on each side, instead of the 2 1/2 and did just fine.

 

[Arnold]

on another note, if bodybuilding is your goal a barbell bench press is not really necessary, stick with dumbbells.

 

[kvyd]

Yeah use dumb bells. and switch up between flat decline and incline.

 

[rjr5353]

Ya, thats what I hear....Regular barbell press isnt all that good for building the chest up.......Back to dumbbells it is.....Im soooo stupid for switching it up....lost 5 weeks...oh well.....Ive been doing 4 sets of dips on my chest/tri day. Do dips work the chest at all? I know theyve been doing wonders for my tri's. Is there another great excersize that will get my chest bigger?

 

[kvyd]

Dips hit your chest with proper form.

 

[Riverdragon]

I find that flat DB flies really hit the upper outsides of my chest. Another underrated exercise is the good ole' push up.

 

[JoeR.]

Its not that it doesnt build up the chest, becasue it does, but there are other exercises that hit it more.

 

[Saturday Fever]

Dips hit your chest with proper form.

Depends how you define "proper form." If you let your elbows flare out, it will hit your chest. But that doesn't make it proper.

If you keep your elbows tucked in tight, it won't hit your chest. But that doesn't make it proper.

Better we should just say that dips CAN hit your chest, if you do them that way. Or so I think, anyways.

 

[Erik]

Okay....someone jump in here and help me make my advice.
At the NFL combine they test muscle strength and endurance on the bench press by testing the bench press...225 x #of reps= score(max).
Anyway...I tried this program out where you bench 225 as many times as possible
then do 25 push ups, then 225 x as many as possible then 25 P/U
205..max times then 25 P/U
185 max times then 25 P/U
165 max times Then 25 P/U ( if you can at this point!)

Anyway...it worked for me, actually I was shocked with the results after 2 applications of this nonsense

Does anyone know what this is called or where the idea came from.?

 

[JoeR.]

Sounds like they combined supersets with dropsets.

Superset bench with pushups, drop the weight by 20 repeat.

 

[SJ69]

Ya, thats what I hear....Regular barbell press isnt all that good for building the chest up

Yes it is.

 

[Evil ANT]

Yes it is.

Agreed. I've built my chest up tremendously using barbell bench presses.

Do dumbells work your inner chest more or something? I need to build up my inner chest in a bad way.

Regardless, I've made a ton of progress using the good ol' fashion barbell.

 

[pumpchaser]

Seems there are two camps, those who develop easily on bench presses, then all the rest. For the rest i suggest experimenting with db incline and flat presses, incline and flat flyes, and pulley flyes. Big difference from my experience in directly targeting the chest and getting a better pump with less stress on the shoulders.