Troubleshooting my bench press

So what’s the problem?

My bench is playing up at the moment.  It’s not a major stress for me right now because building a bigger bench isn’t in my top 3 goals.  But it might be in my next set of top 3 goals, so I need to keep an eye on it.  I like to plan ahead, you see…

Also, I have been surprised at the lack of transferability between my dipping and my bench.  My dip has gone up considerably in the last 6 months, to the point where my 3RM is 145kg (320lbs) and my estimated 1RM is 155kg (340lbs).  I will be testing this in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!  In the meantime, though, my bench has plateaued horribly at 95kg (210lbs).

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So what am I going to do about it?

Well, I’ve written before about how much I’ve learned about benching properly from Elite FTS and, in particular, Dave Tate.  The main things I have focussed on in the past are technique, shoulder and back stability and overall body tension.  With my pull up work in the background, and the extra rowing work I’m doing, I’m fairly confident that my lats and upper back are up-to-scratch.  I think it might be my arms that are letting me down.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to start planning some additional triceps work for when I’ve finished dieting.  I suspect that I probably need some more muscle mass in order to add significant strength, so I’m looking at both strength and hypertrophy goals.  Before I start writing a programme, though, I needed to do some research and here are the results…

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Researching T-Cell Alpha

There was a recent round-table thread in T-Cell Alpha about building bigger arms and one of the questions asked was “are isolation exercises necessary for triceps mass?  If not, what are the benefits?”  Most of the forum participants provided 2 exercises, so I limited my note accordingly.  As at the time of writing, this is what was recommended:

1. close grip bench + one-arm dumbbell extensions
2. skull-crushers + pushdowns
3. skull-crushers + close grip bench
4. (machine) pushdowns and (machine) extensions
5. extensions and skull-crushers
6. dumbbell press + reverse grip bench
7. 4-board close grip bench
8. close grip bench + EZ bar extensions
9. 3-board close grip bench + close grip bench pin press
10. 3-board CGBP + close grip bench pin press
11. close grip bench pin press with chains + band pushdowns

So that’s 9 votes for close grip bench variants, 3 votes for skull-crushers, 3 votes for pushdowns and 4 votes for extensions (of varying kinds).  Of the 9 votes for close grip bench variants, 6 were for partial reps (either 3 or 4 board presses or pin presses).  The rationale here is that the top part of the rep puts the most stress on the triceps, whereas the lower part of the rep relies more on the chest.

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Mike Robertson gets technical

I recalled that Mike Robertson wrote a comprehensive article about triceps a while back and suggested two routines for developing triceps strength as follows:

• Routine A workout 1: max bench, throat crushers
• Routine A workout 2: speed bench, close grip decline bench press
• Routine B workout 1: rep bench, weighted dips
• Routine B workout 2: 3-board press, dumbbell extensions

Comparing these programmes with my current routine shows that Mike rates dips (and close grip decline bench, which might as well be a dip once all is said and done) highly for triceps work.  So I’m still puzzled why I’m not really seeing much cross-benefit from them.  Other than that, Mike seems to agree with the T-Cell Alpha results that partial rep presses and close grip bench are the most beneficial approach, followed by extensions.

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Louie Simmons’ favourite triceps exercises

I couldn’t even contemplate planning a routine for developing my triceps without reading what Westside have said about it.  While I understand that a general principle of Westside training is the rotation through various exercises until progress is no longer made, Louie did do an interview with Powerlifting USA in which he recommended:

• close grip bench presses (all variants)
• dumbbell triceps extensions with the palms facing each other for 6-12 reps for 60 total reps
• JM press to 4” above the chest for sets of 3-5 reps
• straight bar triceps extensions for sets of 5 reps

Again, the overall message seems to be close grip bench presses, partial rep presses and extensions.

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Conclusions

So that’s the highlights of my research so far.  I’m going to think about it a bit more and maybe do some more digging.  When I’ve got a programme idea, I’ll post it up.  In the meantime, I think it’s pretty clear that the consensus is that a programme comprising (partial rep) close grip bench presses and (dumbbell) extensions would be fairly solid.

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