I’m about to finish my second run through of powerbuilding I. I’ve been really happy with my results so far (thanks btw!), and my current plan is to run the same template again. However, I feel like I’m not really progressing my bench press, and I was wondering if you have any advice for how I might tweak the program to improve there.
Some context:
Age: 39 years old
Male
Weight: 180lbs
Height: 6’
Waist: 35.5’’
I started training 14 months ago. In that time I’ve done Starting Strength (5 months), The Bridge, Strength I (9 weeks), Powerbuilding I, Powerbuilding I - in that order. While running powerbuilding I twice I’ve dropped about 6lbs of body weight and 2’’ off my waistline. I’ve also seen great progress in my squat/deadlift as you can see from the charts in your app below:
For bench press, I haven’t been able to get back to my best 1@8 that I set during Strength I, and I’ve stayed within a pretty narrow range of e1rms during the last 20 weeks. For all the other lifts in the program, I’m regularly setting PRs and seeing steady progress. Given that progress does it make sense to run powerbuilding I again as I’ve planned? I was thinking maybe I’d try adding another set while benching, or changing up the alternate benching exercise - but I’d appreciate any recommendations you have.
Here is a recent video of 2ct pause bench (powerbuilding I wk8, day3). This was supposed to be 5@9, but I rated it 8.5 that day.
I don’t have a video of 1ct pause, but the only real difference is that I wear a belt and have a shorter pause. I’ll try to grab a video next time I bench if the one above isn’t informative enough.
Thanks for the video. These aren’t bad by any stretch, but I can see some opportunities for improvement:
I would use a spotter or bench with safeties given the setup here
When the bar is unracked, pull your shoulders back into the bench before every rep. It looks like your shoulders are a bit protracted here throughout the rep.
Before each rep, take a big breath and push your chest up as high as possible. Keep the chest there and breathe held throughout the rep. This is likely to put you in a good position to press from.
Bring the bar down faster to your chest. It’s a bit slow each rep and this is likely limiting strength performance.
Drive the bar up and backtowards the rack each rep. It looks like it’s moving vertically in most of these reps.
I think I’d just do PB I as is again or Strength I while sorting out some of these technique issues.
If one is interested in LVHL strength (1-5 rep range), would it be reasonable (from your coaching perspective) to run PB 1, but swap bench/press programming for the one from S1? That is, if we know from recent training history that the bench responds very well from S1 but not as much from PB1, while the other movements seem to do just fine on PB1. And if yes, would you begin experimenting by keeping the time capped isolation stuff in or out?
I’ve been working on the coaching points you gave above about a month ago and I wanted to follow with a few questions.
When the bar is unracked, pull your shoulders back into the bench before every rep. It looks like your shoulders are a bit protracted here throughout the rep.
Q1) Would you expect that as I get better at pulling my shoulders back, I won’t need to do it before each rep, but rather can just keep it in the retracted position throughout the set?
I find that even though I think I’m keeping my shoulders back while pressing, when I go for the next rep there is often room to pull them back further. This is definitely something I’m still working on, and I can see on video before some reps how the bar drops down a few inches as I prep by pulling my shoulders back.
Bring the bar down faster to your chest. It’s a bit slow each rep and this is likely limiting strength performance
Drive the bar up and backtowards the rack each rep. It looks like it’s moving vertically in most of these reps.
Trying to review myself, I think I’ve improved downward bar speed and bar path, but I’d appreciate some feedback on if this is what “up and back” is supposed to look like.
Q2) Does this bar path (traced orange line) look correct?
