Bench seems to be stuck?

[MT375]

Any tips you guys can give me for a bench press that isnt making much progress? Before you flame me and tell me to read sticky's let me explain whats going on

Basically my Squat & Deadlift have made AWESOME gains in the last 6 months, squat has almost doubled to be exact. But my bench hasnt made a whole lot of progress, I use a form more like a bodybuilder, bringing the bar down just below my nipple and my elbows about probably at about 45 degrees.

I had given up on flat bench for awhile and switched to declines due to shoulder pain, then I read Dave Tate's article on Pressing 600 lbs and decided to really focus on pressing like he recommends...this is where my confusion starts.

Last time in the gym, I did my best, loaded up my warm up set, unracked, brought it down more on my belly so my elbow, wrist and bar were all vertical and pressed up, felt prett good actually, didnt feel anything in the shoulders, seemed to have good power behind it etc. So at this point I was pretty excited thinking I may have found my problem...

And then...I loaded on my normal work set, unracked, followed form like before...terrible...could barely get one rep, didnt feel right at all, also felt like I didnt have control of the bar, like it was too far away from me almost?

So Im wondering, should I stay with this form and drop the weight way down and kind of "start over" with this new form? Or does it sound like I totally did something wrong?

Sorry for the rant

 

[Liftbig]

stay with the correct form, drop your weight for the time being untill the muscles that bench get stronger. in time your bench will move far past where it was with the other style.

a few tips
when you squat take your hands out, this will save your shoulders for benching.

squeeze the crap out of the bar when benching. this will bring your triceps into the movement more

train your triceps alot. extensions, boards, close grip benching etc.

form is the most important part of benching, you can have all the brute strength in the world, but youll never bench as much as you really can unless your form is dead on.

 

[Dalton]

what gym u go to in sioux falls, i live here too MT375

Whats ur squat secrets

 

[BigWh1tey]

if you are going to use that westside style bench then I think that speed work is essential to develop proper form. Like Lift said, train the shit out of triceps ,break the bar, and train lats in the same plane as your bench.

 

[MT375]

Liftbig & BigWh1tey - Thanks for the advice, I'll stick with it for awhile and see how it goes, hopefully I'll see some improvement!

Dalton - I lift at Avera right now on Southeastern, my workout partner has a free membership there so that's the main reason I joined there, though I am thinking of checking out the Powerhouse sometime in the near future as I think that might be a little more my speed, especially if I switch to a WSB style (I can't see bands going over well at Avera and I know they'd shit a brick about chains ) Where do you lift at? Whats your training style?

As for squats I don't know what to tell ya, one thing that helped me was another article by Dave Tate, I'm not sure if it was posted on this board or not, but you can probably find it on google, the name was "Squat 900 Pounds - 10 surefire ways to help you squat BIG" I realized after reading that my stance was very narrow, man did that make a HUGE difference.

 

[Dalton]

I lift at elite fitness

 

[Devastation]

Dalton & MT, you two ever pass thru yankton? I'm down here and could use someone serious once or twice a mo.

 

[toilet hamster]

Great tips LiftBig