Lee1

Hi - I have been training for 6 six weeks and everything is progressing other than my flat press. I have gone from 1 dip to 20 dips and from 1 overgrasp pull-up to 11 and my shoulders, arms, legs etc are getting stronger each week other than a flat barbell press.

I train chest once a week and I can press 80kg unassisted but I cant do 85kg. My goal is to be able to do 100kg unassisted for 5 reps.

Also, my mate and I started training together and he is now pressing 90kg and he lives off sandwiches, yogerts and crisps while I eat a low carb, high protein/good fat diet.

Any tips? I train flat barbell press/incline dumbell press (5 reps max) and pressups.

Thanks Lee.

Nine Pack

Drop the flat bench, set goals other than just your strength & introduce some carbs into your diet. Carbs are an essential element of your diet. If you are denying your body the fuel it needs to perform workouts, it's hardly surprising you are struggling on a compound exercise like bench press.

Ditch the bar altogether & use dumb bells on an incline or decline. I have explained on several threads why flat benching is a no no for anyone other than a pure strength athlete, have a look on the board for benching discussions.

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SportDr

Defo as above, flat bench can give you a torn rotator that will end your strength training days for sure if you don't have sufficient anterior deltoi and rotator strength.

If you will do it anyway, I suggest training the tricep and anterior deltoid, either of these may be lagging behind and after all flat bench is pretty much a tricep exercise anyway...

SD

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Lee1

Thank you Nine Pack and SportDr - As suggested I will ditch the flat press due to the reasons you have explained. I personally don't like the exercise anyway as I find it difficult to isolate the chest under load (I find it all shoulders!).

Is it ok to flat press dumbells or should I simply stick to incline and decline?

Thanks.

Lee1

P.S. To give you an idea of whether my upper body is balanced I can incline dumbell press 70Kg, dumbell shoulder press 52kg and can do 11 shoulder width over-grasp pull-ups (I weigh 14st). I am progressing but just cant get on with that flat barbell press - Not sure why (but I suppose it doesn't matter as I will now be ditching it).

SportDr

Thats good lifting mate the numbers should get smaller as you raise your arms from flat through incline and finally shoulder press, yes Dumbell Press is much better and Incline Dumbell even better than that! It is the free nature of the dumbells which will stress the pecs, just don't take your elbows too much below parallel or your shoulders will be doing the work, ok if you are a house, but if just starting then not so good.

Presses arent that great for shoulders buddy, they are a good compound to start with, lateral raises or upright rows (done safely) are much better imho.

SD

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trickymicky69

i agree with ditching the flat bench.
i would rather LOOK like i can lift 150kgs by doing incline dumbells instead.
i used to train flat bench all the time and i have got well over 100kgs at 75 kgs bodyweight but my chest looked smaller than it does now.
people cant see how much you lift unless you are in the gym showing them so forget strength training unless you decide to compete.
its like buying a flash sports car to pull a girl in a club.
totally useless unless you drive the car onto the dancefloor to show her.

big

Just to check, before you throw flat bench out of the window, what are you goals? Because if they are powerlifting-related, the last thing you want to do is throw out one of the three movements in the sport.

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Lee1

Thanks all - My goal is to get a bigger chest/shoulders and not to powerlift so it will be all dumbells from now on.

Lee1

Just trained my chest with dumbells - what a difference! All the stress is on the chest and not the shoulders and I had a much better workout - I'm going to be sore tomorrow ;) Cheers all.