NO MATTER WHAT I DO MY BENCH INCREASES SO SLOW I sleep 9 hours a night, enough protein, +500 calorie surplus of clean food, have no major form flaws, and get 15-20 sets of horizontal push movements in per week AND MY BENCH HAS STALLED AT 215X2 FOR 3 MONTHS
Knock the weight way down, like 20%. Work back up with more volume. Add even more volume. Pinpoint your weak point (are you failing to lock out, get it off your chest, etc) and add some accessory work based on that.
Matthew Morales
What are some accessory movements that target midway failures? And what should the end goal volume look like? 25 sets?
Ryan Martin
Delts. Do more of THE PRESS™ or some incline bench. Volume is reps not sets. You need to be doing some bench pressing around 8 to 12 reps per set, 3 to 5 sets.
Leo Campbell
Do some tricep exercises towards the end of every gym session when you engage them. Dips, skull crushers, etc. Helped me a lot
Bentley Murphy
Are you using leg drive? What's your programming?
Samuel Hernandez
>that target midway failures? Floor press
Juan Hill
Are you doing just normal flat bench or are you doing different variations and tempos?
Cameron Gomez
Some people just have benchlet genetics
t. Bench is only 40lbs heavier than my 140lb press
Nathan Butler
bump for bench press tips and programming
Christopher Martin
I guess Johnie Candito and Omar Isuf had a bench focused program - you could give it a try.
I've stalled in bench (so as OHP) for months with frequent weight resets and injuries. In the end, was low test. TRT is helping. Get yourself checked.
Austin Cox
Midway through the bench is delt dominant, focus on developing/strengthening the delts and then the tris, especially with exercises that have them working together synergistically, like the overhead press. Also do you do dips? Dips are IMO a better exercise than the bench anyway but generally have good carryover to strengthening your bench.
Logan Gonzalez
Get your micros right, may help
Nolan Foster
Leg drive, arched back, scapular retraction all in the bag. I’m doing the candito 6 week program but with a bunch of added upper body volume
I always focus on flat bench, but change yo rep ranges and also incorporate close grip, barbell incline, dumbbell flat, etc
I’ve tried doing dips, but for some reason every time I program then I get that feeling in my front delts that I’m about to injure myself
Fiber, vitamins, all good. Eating lots of oatmeal and at least 6 vegetable servings a day
Bentley Cook
I’m 21, and everything else seems to be progressing fine. I don’t really think it’s my test
Jordan Jackson
I’m doing about 10-15 sets per week of extra tri work, should be enough right?
Easton Cruz
dude you are just plateauing. It's part of getting stronger. Reread that: it's PART of getting stronger. It's not a negative. It happens.
Candito is notorious for being low on volume. Contrary to what tha tperson above said. Volume is actually reps x sets x weight. You want your volume to go UP over TIME. So you should be lifting more in volume training cycle to the next.
This is a multi-year endeavor. If I were you I would switch to a linear block periodization program. for bench. If candito is working for your other lifts keep going. What I remember from that is you are squatting and deadlifting enough.
So First meso Week 1 First Bench day Primary movement: Bench 60% of your training max 4x8 65% 5x6 70% 5x5 Secondary Movement. This one really depends on what your weakness is, off the chest mid way up etc. Spoto is a good secondary for off the chest and midway. If your problem is lock out try some heavy tricep movement. Spoto Press 3x8 3x6 3x5 Start with a weight that is like an rpe 8 to 8.5 so you have like a couple reps to a rep and a half in the tank. You can start with like 10% less than your working weight for the week on bench. Incline DB press. Find a weight you can do for a set of 12. If you are able to do three sets of 12 increase the weight next week.
Accessories Highly up to you and what your weaknesses are. skull crushers in the 10-12 rep range curls in the 12-15 range face pulls reverse flies. whatever you want to do or have time for.
For your second bench day you can do the exact same thing, do the press instead of the bench press and do pin presses instead of spoto. Just use same rep/set scheme.
Next month do: 70% 4x5 75% 4x4 80% 5x3
For secondary keep doing three sets of whatever number of reps on the main movement.
Don't overcomplicate rep/sets as your training cycle progress your intensity inceases your volume will decrease.
Noah Fisher
ran out of room.
You will want to lift a little lighter on your second bench day as the loads are getting heavier. obviously I can't write you a whole training cycle, but you get the idea in the amount of volume you probably need to be doing for the bench press. Third meso can be a peaking cycle if you wan to do a meet or test your one rep max. Or you can repeat the whole thing and increase your training max by 10.
Jeremiah Russell
I stalled for like 6 months at 205x5 this year then shot up to 220x5 in a month changing nothing. Its whatever bro, I'd just eat more for a week if I were actually worried about it.
Sebastian Powell
This guy is speaking facts. You could also try to do a third rep thats a half rep and just keep doing that until you get a full one, that sometimes works for me.
John Parker
This program has a lot of submaximal volume; will I still get enough of a stimulus on the first meso? 60% is around 130 and I could bust out around 15-16 of those, 8 reps is barely any stimulus. Most of my sets currently are done to near failure.
Also, this prescribed sets of around 30 per week, how do you keep from going to snap city with that volume?
Thanks for the post though, very very helpful
Wyatt Edwards
Also for anyone wondering, I’m around 16% bf at 6’2 203~ish
Nathaniel Jenkins
well the loads are low enough in the first month that they shouldn't pose as large of an injury factor. Also while eating in a surplus you will build muscle with which to build strength in the second and third months of the cycle. You could try it and dial back the volume (drop a set) and see if that works. It might if you haven't been doing a lot of volume. This is just similar to what I had to do when I hit plateau around 315 a year or so ago. I ultimately just wasn't doing enough volume.
Additionally, if you the weight is too light and you can do more reps, increase your training max. You will know you are there when your rpe is like an 8-9. You don't want to train to failure or miss a rep. Always have some left in the tank.
remember that submaximal work will get you stronger as long as the overall volume is high enough. It all adds up over time. I can't explain all the science etc behind it but here's the gist: Increase your work capacity over time, you will get stronger.
Elijah Gomez
Rest
Parker Ross
>2 reps
had same problems until I started doing Texas Method
your volume is too low, you gotta cut down to 90% of your 5 REP max and do 5 sets on first day, then on last day do a new PR of your 5RM and gradually progress
Jaxson Morales
I was just testing to see what my estimated max was. Usually I hang out in the 5-8 zone