weak rigth arm

[medium sized]

Hey guys, i've noticed my right arm is weaker then my left arm when i'm doing bench press. I was wondering what kind of exercises you'd recommend for strengthening my right arm. At the moment i'm doing barbell bench presses with my right arm only. If you could recommend any other specific exercise it'd be greatly appreciated.
Thx

[widdoes2504]

Have you tried dumbbells? Using dumbbells requires the body to use more of the smaller stabilizer muscles when compared to the barbell which could help your strength imbalance. Let us know how things go. Good luck.

[Kane]

How much weaker? Is it limiting your bench because that arm can't actually press the weight or does that arm get fatigued faster/easier than the other?

If you can't press it then I would follow widdoes advice and do some dumbbells. Even staying with the barbell might be alright too, just use a weight that is a tiny bit to heavy for the weak arm and the strong arm will help you overload the weaker one and eventually even out. Keep the bar level as well, if the strong arm is hitting lockout before the weak one (bar goes up on an angle), then it will shift the load to the weaker one and you will be done.

If you get fatigued I would stick with the barbell and things should work themselves out.

[Scorcher2005]

How do you do barbell bench press with one arm?

[Kane]

^^ You just use really light weight (5lbs a side) and balance the bar. I've seen it done and I've done it before. It's really hard but its do-able.

[medium sized]

sorry guys, my mix up i meant i've been doing dumbell bench press with only my right arm, and yes eric my bench press has been affected by my right arm, since i can't keep going up in weight. If i do, like you said my right arm collapses and then my left arm can't hold it. My mistake i wasn't completely thinking while writing this.

[Eric3237]

Originally Posted by medium

and yes eric my bench press has been affected by my right arm,

Thanks for thinking of me, bro but I think your responding to Kane.

Speaking of which, you say you can't add weight because you weak arms fails. I have a couple of questions. Are you seeing progression with the weak arm as you've been working it with the dumbell? And also, if you can't add weight have you tried adding reps and or sets.

The way I would handle an uneven bench that I couldn't add weight too is I'd pick a weight I could do around 3 sets of 5 to 6 with. Meaning I could do that much and keep the bar parallel for all the sets and reps (leaving one in the tank). Then next workout I'd try to add reps to each of those sets. I would keep adding weight until I could knock out 3 sets of 8 to 10. Then I'd try to add a set to that. Once I could do 4 sets of 8 to 10 I have a feeling the strength imbalance would be gone and I could reduce the reps and add weight.

If you use dumbells you still want to do both arms. Just do the amount you weak arm can do for both arms. Never just work out one side of your body.

[medium sized]

yeah sry eric i was replying to Kane, my bad, what your saying is interesting, but why add more reps??

[widdoes2504]

Eric is absolutely right. The reason you want to add reps with each workout (getting at least one more than the previous workout) is that it slowly forces your weak arm to get stronger. Taking a weight you can do with proper form for 5-6 reps and adding one rep each week will get you to the point where you slowly add weight to the bar (once you can do 8-10 reps with good form). Good luck and keep your chin up as it will all work itself out.