bech maxing problems
 

ive been having trouble while maxing on bench in the first 6-8 inches from my chest, when i do negitives its the same thing. is this jst human anatomy or is there an accessory lift or 2 that will target the lower part of the bench press?

edit: sorry about the screwed up subject, i cant see anything today...

Try some pause presses. I preferred doing mine wide grip (ie ring finger on the rings). Try to work for a 2 second pause on the chest, and being explosive all the way to lockout. You could also try some pin presses in the powerrack by setting the pins at your sticking point above your chest. IMO, if you can get some 2x6 boards, they'd be a lot better than rack presses.

Aside from that, you need to continue basting your shoulders with military presses.

Another route to take is to incorperate some SPEED training for the bench. You'd be training your body to become more explosive and essentially speed past your sticking point. Start off conservative and do 9 sets of 3 reps with 45 seconds rest between sets. Keep it light enough to where you can execute all three reps within the time it takes you to count to yourself "one mississippi". The first three sets is close grip, second three sets regular (medium grip), and the final three sets being wide grip. I've had a lot of success doing this.

Try doing some of those lifts I just talked about before you try the speed training. DE days depend on what you are currently doing.

thanks man, il give those a shot. whoops, i rarely do shoulder press so ill get on the horn with that. i do have a journal up if that in any way helps also.

I agree with the pin presses suggestion. If I am understanding you correctly you are saying you are having problems pushing the weight from the bottom of the lift through the first 6-8 inches. If thats the case then pin presses will work wonders because you are pushing more weight through your difficulty range and when you go back to your regular bench training you should notice the difference.

If the difficulty area is actually near the lockout or a couple inches off your chest, then I agree with 0311 that boards are the way to go. From my experience boards feel alot more natural as compared to pin presses and can really help you break through your max.

I had a very similar problem early on with a lack of power coming off of the chest. I tried various approaches with some success, but the pin presses by far had the most impact. I think just as Sleazy and 0311 recommended pin presses will help, especially if you incorporate some speed work to your routine. Good luck and let us know how things work out. :weights:

The only suggestions I could possibly add to what the others have said is a little wide grip benching and dumbell benching.

The wide grip would be only slightly wider than your regular grip. But don't do them if they are too uncomfortable in any way.

Dumbell's will allow you to go lower so that can also help to train power at the bottom end. Think of it like doing deadlifts with a deficit (off a plate).

In terms of effectiveness, although dumbells are a useful thing for all benching the suggestions the others made I think are first in order of preference and these are just some additional things that could help.

yea, my sticking point is from 1/2 inch from my chest to about 7 inches from my chest. so, now i just need to know what pin presses are because ive never heard of them. i tryed googling it but that didn't help to much, and we dont have a power rack, would a squat rack work?... sorry for the hassle guys.

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAo1OnQRapg[/MEDIA]

kind of a shitty example, but you will get the jist from this. you can do them in the squat rack, just set the pins at the level were your sticking point is (1/2 inch off the chest).

thanks man, if a picture is worth 1000 words youjust saved yourself about a million. now i should go all the way to lockout, or just till i get to the top of my sticking zone?

I'll be honest, i dont know what is optimal for that, but personally I would go till lock out. You might as well be working through whatever range of motion is available to you.

I would go to lockout myself to get the benefit of as much range of motion as possible. :)

^^ we seem to be on the same wavelength alot widdoes ... great minds think alike :banana:

well i might as well be doing normal bench then because pin press for what id be using it for is only 1/2 inch less range of motion then then a normal bench press, right?

Not really, think of it this way, if your benching, your starting from the up position, so your first concentrating on not dropping the bar on your chest, then there is the reversal of strength from deceleration of the bar into the push.

When you do Pin Presses, your only focus is pushing from the bottom. there is no deceleration, no reversal, its just straight push. This allows you to focus on that specific part of the bench, and gradually get better at it, until you have the functional strength to put it all together on the flat bench.

^^^Exactly. During a regular bench press you store up what you could call elastic energy on the way down. Take that out and it focuses more on building up stength at that portion of the lift. Part of the problem is the shorter your arms are the less elastic energy you get so sticking at the bottom is a problem with that...this is a way of compensating.

I don't necessarily know that you have short arms but if you do then this will tend to be the weak portion for you.

And I agree also you may as well carry it through the full range of motion. Another good thing to do is to have a spotter to help lower the bar back down to the pins after each rep. This way you're not giving up any energy to the negative portion and can concentrate all your work in getting it off the chest.

ill get on it tommorow if my triceps are up to it after that 12x5 i did yesterday on bench idk what kind of shape they'll be in..

It just occured to me from your journal that your lat work needs improvement too. You need to do more pullups instead of lat pulldowns and you need to use heavier rows. During the first few inches of the bench press the most active muscles are the delts and lats.

When you get on the Rippetoe, if that is still your plan, you'll probably see improvement on the bench without any special work.

can do, all the more reason to start that rippetoes program over whatever coach wants us to do.

That was exactly my thinking.