Coming in with a “help, my bench sucks” post and asking for tips. I started BBM programming in early 2020. After three years of consistent training, here’s how my progress has been.
e1RM (lbs)
Deadlift: 340 > 460 (+35%)
Squat: 245 > 345 (+40%)
Bench: 185 > 210 (+13%)
Very happy with DL and Squat. Bench, though, has not grown as much. Asking for tips on a path forward for more progress.
Height is 5’8”. Bodyweight averages around 155 lbs, up to 160ish for gain phases, and have cut down to 145 at the lowest. “Mass moves mass” so one time I got up to 168 lbs and was able to bench 205 lbs, but then I started snoring so loud that it began to disrupt my family’s sleep lol. Sleep doc I saw diagnosed me with “Primary Snoring” and recommended weight loss. So, now I stay under 160, and DL and squats still improve. Bench has never gone up since that snore-inducing bulk. Waist circumference… usually a size 30 jeans, on bulks sometimes 31, on cuts maybe a 29.
I’ve kept an eye on others’ “help, my bench sucks” posts over the years and the tips have always been to choose good programming and stay the course. Since 2020 I’ve run The Bridge 1.0, Bodybuilding, PB 1, 7-week Hypertrophy, and Low Fatigue, so programming is good, I think.
Appreciate any tips from here. Thanks!
Saqib,
Thanks for the post. I’m thinking that your goal of strength improvement on the bench press is likely to respond well to a strength-focused program. While you’re on the low ISF template, I don’t think this is what I would’ve recommended at this point of your training career given your history so far. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, as evidenced by your lower body progress. I just think there is more appropriate training to be done at this point, particularly for your upper body.
I would do the upper body programming from Strength I or II in place of what you’re doing now and keep the lower body stuff as it is, provided you like it.
That, making sure you’re getting enough protein in, resting between sets long enough, and using efficient technique would all be on my checklist here.
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Thanks, Jordan. And I realized just after posting I didn’t begin with a hello and thanks for all the content, guidance, tips, podcasts, IG “LiFeStYLe” stories, and just BBM in the first place for helping me get here, but couldn’t edit the message until it was approved.
Helpful tips re: upper body, was thinking similar: maintain lower body approach but for upper body choose something higher volume. I saw from the legacy 7-week Hypertrophy template it has more Bench in place of Squat, which gave me that idea. Low Template I only ran for a bit as kind of a pivot, but actually have gone back to the 7-week Hypertrophy because I found I respond to it well. Here’s a recent PR of a 425 lb single from that at 158 lbs BW: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yh8h1fgSMqkae4XQ6
Protein, other than a bit of following the higher recs from the ol’ To Be A Beast article when discovering BBM, I’ve been consistent with 1.6-2.2g/kg, usually closer to the higher side, and without micromanaging split between meals.
Will look into Strength I and II for that upper body, and report back after some time. Thanks, again!
Sounds good and thank you for the kind words. Truly. Nice deadlifts as well, but even better shoes!