How should I go about doing this?

For most of my training, until late last year, I tended to pull more than I could push. My rows and deadlift would constantly go up but my bench remained somewhat static.

Now I have improved that a bit but later realized that I had dominant front deltoids, which I used much when performing push exercises. Luckily I found this out before I almost injured myself and I am recovering from a slight pull in my right shoulder which impacts some of my push routines.

Anyways bench is my one lift that is lagging behind the rest. I can contribute it to previous issues as mentioned or I can start changing it. Here is what I did today for chest during my upper body - strength day:

225x5
245x3
265x2
285 - FAILURE SET

The last set my partner assisted me with one rep. Granted I did some military presses and some warmups for my lateral deltoids before this exercise it was okay. I want to push my bench to 305 within a couple of months but I want some suggestions as to how to approach this.
______

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/kell...quency-benching

I like ballistic benching on smith machine at 10-25% of
max and lots of slow eccentrics with isometric holds for bringing up chest

That's a sick technique. I figured that the best approach was to overload your chest a bit.

I'm trying to think what have I done to improve my bench. I went from shoulder injury at 185 to benching 230 in competition. To a recent single of 300 in a year. 225 was my max for a long time. I was more into deadlifting and squatting.

I can't say there is anything specifically I did.

Now for powerlifting technique is very important. The main idea is to minimize bar travel. That's it. How?

1. Bench to the bottom of of your chest

2. Wide grip, index on the last two rings

3. When you position yourself, plant your shoulders as if trying to pick a pencil between your blades. Arch your back....way more than that, more than you've ever arched. Now plant your butt. Feet behind your knees.
Uncomfortable? Yes, it is. Now you have maximum leverage, and can really push through your legs.

4. After you are set up and before someone hands you the bar, Let the shoulders naturally drop (while maintaining tension). You have shortened bar travel some more

5. Now you are ready to bench

Great post. Also, tuck your elbows in when benching, as opposed to flaring them out.

Note that the technique Ozzy mentioned is how PL'ers maximize the amount of weight lifted. If you wanted to bench for chest development you would do the exact opposite of most of the above - flare elbows out, bring bar down to mid chest, etc.

Great advice supplied here. You need to start by asking the question "What is my #1 goal - strength or development?" I actually dropped flat bench work and begin every chest day with 4-5 sets of incline barbell bench. I've noticed substantial growth since making the switch, and I find it to be less stressful on my shoulders than decline or flat bench. I even prefer it to dumbbell incline, which used to be my bread and butter.

For pure pec development, decline DB press has been shown to activate the most fibers in the pecs. I think DB is usually the way to go (for this purpose).

Thanks guys, especially ozzman

GFK, I still have separate days set aside for strength and hypertrophy. Recently I've been doing dumbell decline press for my pecs and have noticed an improvement. What I want to accomplish though on my flat bench is an increase in raw strength.

I held this belief too, but have gotten much more development from bbell incline than dbell incline. Some of it must be up the the individual and how they execute the lift.

Well, I'm just speaking generally based off of EMG analysis. It could very well be that incline BB works better for you.

now now, this is bench not chest development talk boys.

I think a huge part in improving bench (and has been for me, see my post in my log that I'm about to make) is identifying your weaknesses. My chest has always been a strong point for me, but not my tri's and especially not my shoulders. Working on explosive strength with the tri's and putting less focus on my bi's has really helped. Then my shoulders were very obviously my weak point (and still are but they're coming along). So I started doing put-press and incline db presses. Focusing again on explosiveness and strength.

I think hypertrophy (the kind we all want) can be had, but shouldn't be focused on until strength is past that of what you would normally do. See Iron Addict's thoughts on not going to HST until after benching 300 for reps.

Yes, but often when someone says "I want to improve my bench" they really mean "I want a bigger upper body". This is why we asked Sword which he was interested in. I'm a big proponent of form following function of course, but modifying bench technique to haul up as much weight as possible makes it (overall) less useful for hypertrophy due to a shortened ROM, shift of stress to different muscles (triceps vs. pecs), etc.

I agree. But again, see what I wrote above.

I am tuned into your frequency.

Sort of like people going into a coffee shop and wanting a 'cappuccino' when they really want a truck stop cappuccino which is in reality a latte of sorts.

He specifically mentioned powerlifting, that's why I suggested as above.




???
Like the kind you get out of a glory hole?

I started using this work out and I am in my third week and it seems to be working. My stats are about the same as yours and I want to get back to +300 as well. The first week was 275 and Monday was 285 but I believe I had more in me, it was easier than expected. I will give it 2 more weeks see where I am and then switch to a DB routine for a month and possibly revisit the heavy work again after that. The only other chest exercise I do other than bench is dips on the first day and that is it.

The one thing I have been very surprised with is that I have actually been sore after doing so few reps. After going as high as 15 reps in my past routine I really did not think this program would make me as sore as it has. Going heavy (at least for me) has also caused me to find some flaws in my technique that I can work on.

Any success here?