Bench Press Frustration

I’ve been so excited for this blog post, but I wanted to make sure I had actually completed what I am going to write about before I actually wrote about it.

For the last few weeks I have been really frustrated with the progress of my bench press. I felt like I had been completely stalled at 70 or 75 pounds. I had been steadily making progress and then all of the sudden I was having trouble lifting 75. So I went back down to 70, lifted that and then tried to go back up to 75. No dice.

This was the first time I had experienced a plateau with the StrongLifts program. I thought that maybe my form was off or I just wasn’t being persistent enough, so I tried to struggle through on my own. Finally, after another frustrating lift, I asked Nate to help me.

He happily obliged and we went to the gym together last Saturday morning. Saturday’s are my cardio days. I use them to get active and keep my body loose, so I was less than thrilled about the prospect of doing a bench press training day. (It was messing with my imaginary schedule of events and I am nothing if not a type A planner.)

Nate and I walk over to the bench and he has me set up and do a few reps with 70. The first thing he noticed is that I was up way too high on the bench (I needed to make sure my eyes were directly under the bar), that my grip was a little too wide, and that I wasn’t setting my shoulders correctly.

After fixing these things, I felt immediately better with my lift. The reps were easier. Nate then added more weight to the bar. A lot more weight. He raised the weight to 85. Which I had never benched before.

He told me to set up, take a deep breath, and make sure that after I unrack the bar, I stabilize it before going down.

I was able to lift it.

Oh my god I cannot tell you how good it felt to blow through my stall. I went from struggling with 70 to being able to do 4 reps of 85. Turns out it was just a little fear (and some bad form).

Nate also thinks that maybe my triceps are a little weak and recommended that do some close grip bench presses on days I don’t bench press to help with my progress.

So today was my first real test of if I had actually blasted through the stall. My lifts normally go squat, bench press, barbell row on days like today, but this couple were working in the squat racks doing literally everything but squats so...I bench pressed first.

I was able to do a full 80 pounds for 5 sets of 5. All by myself! Needless to say, I am thrilled. And hot damn am I so excited that I blasted through that stall.

Moral of the story: If you find yourself in a stall, find someone that will challenge you to lift heavier (and offer you a solid spot) so you can get through it.