Your bench press can stall for many reasons, including poor technique. A specific muscle or muscle group may need strengthening, you may not have enough bar speed to accelerate the bar through a sticking point in the bench press or you may just need to change your program. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any strength training program.
Technique
To continue to progress in the bench press, you must use proper technique. Your hips must be stable on the bench, which requires your feet to be firmly planted on the floor. Do not let your feet just flop anywhere; pull them back as far as you can while keeping your feet flat. This creates tension in your lower body and stabilizes you on the bench. In addition to keeping your shoulders flat, pull your shoulder blades together tightly, as if you were trying to crack a walnut between them. This keeps your shoulders stable. When lowering the bar, lower it to your sternum, not your neck. If you bring the bar down to a higher point on your torso, you increase the distance you must move the bar as well as the strain on your shoulders. When pressing the bar, press the bar up in a straight line. While at first it may be easier to allow the bar to drift up toward your face as you shove the bar toward lockout, this is a sign of needing to improve technique.
Speed
If your bench gets stuck in the bottom or middle, you may not be accelerating the bar enough. To lift heavy weights on the bench, you need all of the force your muscles can generate, and acceleration is a critical component of force. To develop acceleration, devote one day a week where you train your bench press with lighter loads, using no more than 70 percent of your single-repetition maximum on the bench press. On this day, lower the bar under control, but shove it to full extension quickly, trying to generate as much force as possible. Perform eight to 10 sets of three repetitions. The short sets allow you to remain fresh and generate maximal acceleration. Longer sets cause the bar to slow down. Rest at least 72 hours between each training session.
Effort
Another reason for failing at the bench press is poor motor unit recruitment. Motor units are specific units within your muscles that activate muscle fibers. The more motor units you recruit, the more muscle fibers you can recruit. And the more you practice this, the faster you recruit them. This is one of the reasons why strength athletes, who frequently train at near-maximum levels in the gym, are stronger that other athletes with a similar level of muscularity. To improve this, devote a second workout to training with weights in excess of 90 percent of your single-repetition maximum. Perform single lifts on the bench press, close-grip bench press or incline bench press, and perform between three and five singles per workout.
Muscles
Specific muscles can need to develop more strength, often your triceps. Your triceps are the most active muscles in the bench press, according to a 1995 study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research." Additional work with the close-grip bench press will help develop your triceps. Strong shoulders and a strong back also contribute to the power of your bench press, so overhead pressing and rowing can be done for a variety of set and rep schemes to build strength and power in these muscle groups.
References
- "The Westside Barbell Book of Methods"; Louie Simmons; 2008
- "Westside Barbell Bench Press Manual"; Louie Simmons; 2009
- "Science and Practice of Strength Training, Second Edition"; Vladimir Zatsiorsky, et al.; 2006
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Effects of Variations of the Bench Press Exercise on the EMG Activity of Five Shoulder Muscles; Chris Barnett, et al.; November 1995
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