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Benchpress decision time…

justinr

Level 1 Valued Member
My benchpress has always been my relative weakest lift out of the SBD. I usually hover right around 300. Can’t seem to get to 3 plates. The last time I tested my sorta max, I got to 285.

Tonight after my deadlifts, I was feeling pretty good. So I decided to test my sorta max on benchpress again. Got to 295 for a double.

Here is where the decision comes in…

I need 305 to be at 1.5 x BW (I’m currently 202). So…do I push to add 10 pounds to my bench? Or do I drop 5 pounds off my bodyweight (down to 197) and have a 1.5 x BW bench? :)

I think losing the 5 pounds would be easier…
 
Intermediate goals ideally are along the path to the long term goal. What are you aiming for beyond this? That should help influence your decision.
 
Oh boy, this is a really in depth conversation as bench is very, very BW responsive. Almost anyone's bench will go up with simple BW increase...has to do with leverages. Conversely, a drop in BW will likely drop your overall weight lifted. You might get to 1.5xBW but at a lower overall weight PR. I have done this and it just pissed me off. I would recommend you look for where your weakness in the bench is (most common would be off the chest) and train that part along with a lot of front delts, triceps and back. In general I would do a conjugate style bench set up with twice a week training with a heavy day of 2 sets APRE style bench on one day ( plus heavy back, triceps and delts) and then another day in the week of speed work with 50% bar weight of your PR and do 8 sets of 3 or 5x5 (plus heavy dips x10, heavy back, and delts).

Do this for 8 weeks and then retest and I bet the weight goes up. Also, eat 1g of protein for ever pound if BW you want to be at when you do this feat of strength.

You can DM me for more particulars if you wish
 
If your only current goals is to have a 1.5 x BW bench then I would just keep training to up your bench. Messing around with your weight is likely to mess around with your lifts as well. Gotta eat big to bench big, etc.
 
justinr said:
I need 305 to be at 1.5 x BW ...
Click to expand...
Why?

Although I haven't done this myself, I have coached a few people to follow the PTTP Bear protocol for bench press - they all got bigger and their bench press numbers all went up.

-S-
 
Wow. Lots of great advice and support in here.

I posted this mostly tongue in cheek because the swing in either direction was pretty small. But I competed for a long time, and my self worth was really tied up in my totals. And then eventually each individual lift. It wasn’t mentally healthy for me. But I’m over that now.

As many ask - why or what’s my goal? No reason why other than why not? Training is the goal. If my lifts go up, great. If my bodyweight goes down, great. I mentioned the 1.5 x BW metric because that gets brought up a lot. I hit that metric a couple of times in my life when I was lighter. But I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. And at 200-ish, I feel the best I ever have. But that 1.5 on the bench will allude me while I weigh what I weigh. And that’s OK.

Thanks again for all the support and training advice. The APRE suggestion @DocMike is one I might try out. I’ve read up on Dr. Mann’s APRE quite a bit. But never run a program based on it. So that was a nice reminder.
 
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