Big lifts still go up but bench get stuck always?

Hey guys, I've been doing 3 day full body workouts for a while and noticed more growth out of it than anything else. Fast forward to now, I brought my deadlifts and squats up to bodyweight and past it but benchpress doesn't move for ****s.

I was in a 5x5 doing something like starting strength and got up to 155Lbs and couldn't past this point in a month after deloading and stuff. My deadlift and squat is a workout everytime but the end of the day I have plenty of room left to increase it. My strong point is my legs though always been big and my upper body lacking.

I'm even able to increase my chinups which is hard to do (thanks everyone for that) but right now my bench is on 165Lbs but that's only because I'm doing 3x5 now so if it was still 5x5 it probably still would of been 155Lbs I believe.

My routine now is    A-squat,bench,bb rows,standing oh press,chinups
                         B-deadlift,bench,bb rows,standing oh press,chinups

Right now I'm going to be alternating between bb oh press and arnolds since it's hard to increase the weight everytime and figured alternating might help me.

I did the samething today with the bench and did incline bench but I would like to know if this is a good idea in order for me to pass that point and avoid stalling too soon on flat bench? Or alternating it with dumbbell flat bench is better for me???

I have a couple of goals like reach 1.5x bw in squat and 2xbw deadlift and reach 225Lbs (2 plates) for benchpress. Doing well in everything so far but this.

I'm 6'1 and weight has been about 210Lbs but now trying to do cardio to reduce bf% and so far down to 207Lbs now.

hmm, how is your diet first off?  and secondly how is your bench press form?

sounds like you might need to try finding a partner, and doing some negatives.

don't worry bro.  being stuck for a month is nothing.  i've been stuck at 300 for 9 months (say nothing of the number now.. being stuck is the main point here)

i'm doing some strength training right now, so we'll see if that changes.

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

My bench still sucks but I stopped doing shoulders on push days.  The day after Push days I would do a short shoulder workout.  This has helped my bench press.  In the past month I have gone up 15 lbs with DB bench.

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do you think its your chest or triceps that are stopping your lift?  I know i have always heard great things from a routine that IBB set up.  Jheft was in a similar situation as you are in too.  his journel might be a good place to research.
 
I have not been on a strength program in a while and before that I had noob gains like crazy so I have not ran into your problem yet.

No the leg press is not the same as doing squats.

Felonyr, I had the same problem as you. I was doing 5x5 and stalled at about 165. So I switched over to doing 3x10. I started with 115 and did that 3x10 3 times a week. I did that for about a month and a half and then went back to the 5x5. I could 185 for 5 sets of 5. Now two weeks later I'm up to 205 5x5 and it's easy. This used to be my max now I can do it for reps. So try the 3x10 and you might get some size as well. You can just add this to whatever routine your doing now.

Here's my workout that I did:

Week 1
1st day
bench- 3x10x115
db bench- 1x10x40
2nd day
same as before
3rd day
try to add 10 pounds
I went up to 135
so
bench- 3x10x135
db bench- 1x10x45

week 2
1st day
bench-keep fridays weight
db bench- keep fridays weight

2nd day
bench-same as before
db bench same as before

3rd day
add 10 pounds

Also add some tricep work to this. Like dips or skullcrushers.

This is the workout I did. I got up to like 160 doing sets of 10. Then I upped the weight and started doing 5x5 again. Hope this helps. If you do this by the end of summer you should be able to do your bodyweight for reps. Good luck.

Old Lifts: Bench-335, Squat-455, Deadlift-495
New lifts: Bench-375, Squat-545, Deadlift- 585

Strongest 17year old on DBB

I would say you should break up some of the monotiny of your routine.  Every workout you do is the exact same aside from squats/deads.  If you're stalling, you need to change it up.  Switch one day to incline DB bench instead of flat.  You said you're gonna alternate arnolds in, that's good too.
 
You should also alternate your grip on pullups (supinated, pronated), as well as putting in some one arm DB rows.  These are all just suggestions.  My main point is that you gotta change it up a little.

ORIGINAL: dmobley01

do you think its your chest or triceps that are stopping your lift?  I know i have always heard great things from a routine that IBB set up.  Jheft was in a similar situation as you are in too.  his journel might be a good place to research.

I have not been on a strength program in a while and before that I had noob gains like crazy so I have not ran into your problem yet.

i'm actually doing one of his routines right now, for strength.   it's pretty cool.  liking it alot so far.   just wish my legs would get stronger.  they're the things that are stopping EVERY OTHER LIFT from improving so far.

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

Have you thought of moving your bench to the start of the workout?

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ORIGINAL: rippedchick

Have you thought of moving your bench to the start of the workout?

Yess!! i was reading this and saying to myself "why hasnt anyone mentioned that yet?!"

Leg Beast: Thats an interesting way bro. How would your workouts look though?
Was it like a strenght routine? Bench/Dead/Squat? or splits? Chest/shoulder, Chest/back. chest/arms and (legs on saturdays) I'm gonna check that out after my HST is over.

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ORIGINAL: Tommy_Boy420

ORIGINAL: rippedchick

Have you thought of moving your bench to the start of the workout?

Yess!! i was reading this and saying to myself "why hasnt anyone mentioned that yet?!"

Leg Beast: Thats an interesting way bro. How would your workouts look though?
Was it like a strenght routine? Bench/Dead/Squat? or splits? Chest/shoulder, Chest/back. chest/arms and (legs on saturdays) I'm gonna check that out after my HST is over.

I did what I mentioned above with bench, db bench, and tricep extensions. I stalled with 5x5 so I figured I would change it up. I did that routine 3 times a week. And squats on thursdays and deadlift on tuesday and saturday. I did some trap and bicep work with deadlifts. And calves work when I squatted and that was it. All I know is that it helped my bench like crazy. I don't really remember working shoulders but that doesn't mean you couldn't. Tommy PM me if you want the exact routine I did.

Old Lifts: Bench-335, Squat-455, Deadlift-495
New lifts: Bench-375, Squat-545, Deadlift- 585

Strongest 17year old on DBB

I don't get it though why move it first? I understand on deadlift day since arms being used but squats don't really get in the way for benchpress???

Something else that's been bugging why do we have to follow the same reps for every exercise??? I'm just using common sense here but every muscle is different like the bigger muscles benefit more with low reps/heavy weight while smaller muscles like calves probably be better suited with higher rep work.

Anyways yea I was thinking about the alternating thing and already did one arm db rows for todays workout instead of barbell rows since those are getting heavy and want to prevent from stalling from it. Arnolds is also in for oh press work and for benchpress I did incline again.

So if I did db for benchpress to alternate from it's better to do it incline instead of flat??? Also instead of doing one arm db rows what about two arm db rows where it's similar to barbell rows but with db's?

ORIGINAL: felonyr301

I don't get it though why move it first? I understand on deadlift day since arms being used but squats don't really get in the way for benchpress???

Something else that's been bugging why do we have to follow the same reps for every exercise??? I'm just using common sense here but every muscle is different like the bigger muscles benefit more with low reps/heavy weight while smaller muscles like calves probably be better suited with higher rep work.

Anyways yea I was thinking about the alternating thing and already did one arm db rows for todays workout instead of barbell rows since those are getting heavy and want to prevent from stalling from it. Arnolds is also in for oh press work and for benchpress I did incline again.

So if I did db for benchpress to alternate from it's better to do it incline instead of flat??? Also instead of doing one arm db rows what about two arm db rows where it's similar to barbell rows but with db's?

You don't have to follow the same rep scheme. I do low reps for compound lifts like bench, deads, and squats. Then I do high reps for isolations and stuff.

Old Lifts: Bench-335, Squat-455, Deadlift-495
New lifts: Bench-375, Squat-545, Deadlift- 585

Strongest 17year old on DBB

I don't know what I was thinking I mean something like shoulders even with a compound lift compared to something like squat and deadlift.

For example squats and deadlifts work the biggest muscles and 5 reps is probably best but something like shoulders even with a compound lift might be better with a little higher rep scheme like I don't know 7 or 8 reps and the smaller muscles keep getting the little higher the reps should be you know what I mean???

I don't know I was just bored and thinking lol...

I think I might do dips in between but a little different from pullups as in do a certain rep for 3 sets and when I do achieve it then move up the rep. When I reached like 12 reps or so then I start doing weighted dips.

Might help me out since dips is the exercise that I really feel it in my pecs and triceps compared to any benchpress.

Why is that???

b/c the more you lean forward during your dip, you are shifting the work being done to NOT JUST your triceps... but your chest as well.  

and vice versa.. the more you lean back, the less chest is utilized.


*i murdered my triceps on dips for 3 sets of 10 with 40 pounds strapped to me.  let me tell you... i got on flatbench right after this and it seems that my bench had gone down 30 pounds haha.   i was relying COMPLETELY on my chest to get the weight up during the benchpress.    i was mad at the time, but today my chest is extremely sore.  the most sore it's been in years.

it's almost like i did some pre-exhaustion for my triceps/chest.  

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.