I have been benching for the last 5 months. Yet I am still not able to bench press a plate. What is wrong? I always believed and still believe that one should be able to bench press (1 rep max) 1.25 times his lean body weight. I mean it will not happen over night, but from what I heard the progress is pretty quick and one should be able to add 5 lbs to his bench press every week until the 1.25 times body weight limit. Then it becomes challenging to go upward from there. But it has not been the case for me.
My current body weight is about 121 lbs at 12% body fat. Which means I have about 106 lbs of lean body weight. Multiply it with 1.25 and you get 132 lbs. But I am currently able to bench press only 110 lbs and I get about 4 reps which correlates to about 120 lbs 1 rep max. Why is it so hard for me already. I am unable to increase my bench press by 5 lb every week. It is kind of a slow process. More like 5 lb every 2 or 3 weeks is where I am at currently. Am I doing something wrong?
I have read through "Starting Strength" a couple of times and tried to perfect my form. But I might still be missing a few things. Right now I don't place my hands wide on the bar. Most people place their middle finger on the groves. I tried that but for some reason my rotator cuff used to hurt a lot when I used such a wide grip. So I started putting my pinky finger to the left of the grove because I have a small frame. Now my rotator cuff does not hurt as much. However I suspect that I probably should go even narrower (at the risk of working my triceps more and chest less). For the following 4 weeks I will use a narrower grip and see how things go.
As I go through my own self designed weight training I keep experimenting with various things. This is one more of those tweaks. Let us see if it helps me move the bench press barrier a little higher a little quicker. I just wish someone would have gone through what I am going through now and told me the solution. But after scouring the internet I found no one wrote any experiences. So I am hoping at least my blog will be the thing that will help others like me.
My current body weight is about 121 lbs at 12% body fat. Which means I have about 106 lbs of lean body weight. Multiply it with 1.25 and you get 132 lbs. But I am currently able to bench press only 110 lbs and I get about 4 reps which correlates to about 120 lbs 1 rep max. Why is it so hard for me already. I am unable to increase my bench press by 5 lb every week. It is kind of a slow process. More like 5 lb every 2 or 3 weeks is where I am at currently. Am I doing something wrong?
I have read through "Starting Strength" a couple of times and tried to perfect my form. But I might still be missing a few things. Right now I don't place my hands wide on the bar. Most people place their middle finger on the groves. I tried that but for some reason my rotator cuff used to hurt a lot when I used such a wide grip. So I started putting my pinky finger to the left of the grove because I have a small frame. Now my rotator cuff does not hurt as much. However I suspect that I probably should go even narrower (at the risk of working my triceps more and chest less). For the following 4 weeks I will use a narrower grip and see how things go.
As I go through my own self designed weight training I keep experimenting with various things. This is one more of those tweaks. Let us see if it helps me move the bench press barrier a little higher a little quicker. I just wish someone would have gone through what I am going through now and told me the solution. But after scouring the internet I found no one wrote any experiences. So I am hoping at least my blog will be the thing that will help others like me.
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