I have been strength training for several years now. Here is how my bench progress has gone:

Started out benching 105lbs
105 -> 135 took a few months
135 -> 225 was steady & consistent progress the whole way
225 -> 275 took a LONG time
275 -> 315 took more than a year and I had to work HARD to get to this point

This week I maxed at 325. It took more than a year just to get from 315 to 325.

Does this type of slowing bench progress ring true for anyone else? I remember seeing a youtube video where this guy said he went from 405 to 495 in 1 year... I'm nowhere close to making that kind of progress. I would love to be at 365 so that is my target right now.

More than a year to gain 10 lbs you did something very wrong

And that was your programing. Youre now an advanced lifter and cant make progress all the time

What program have you been following?

where in the movement do you hit the sticking point when you try to move up in weight or max out?

what do your sets and reps look like when maxing out?

what sort of accessory work do you do aside from benching?

have you ever included any type of overload training (board benching, assisted eccentric reps), speed work (reverse band bench, reps at 40%-60% of 1RM as fast as possible), varied resistance (chains or bands)?

i hit a plateau on my flat barbell bench for awhile and i switched over to DB's for awhile and when i went back my bench went up weight and reps.

Part of me wants to think that something is wrong with my routine, but the other part says any routine that got me to 3 plates is solid. I can't imagine bench progress beyond 1.5x bodyweight happening quickly without some serious dedication (2perday workouts, 3-4 hours/day spent on diet, etc.)

My chest day is pretty typical...

-Bench
-Incline (machine or DBs)
-Flys (machine or cables)
-Triceps (skull crushers or rope pull downs)

I never use chains or bands. At last once per month I try to set a PR to ensure progress is being made. Next goals:
7 reps @ 275
10 reps @ 260
3x10 reps @ 235

I think my biggest problem was right after I hit 315 my partner moved away and the next 3 months I never lifted above 275 (because no spotter).

Took me like 2 month to go from 95 to 115 5x5 now I'm gonna go for 5x5 at 135..

Dont want to imagine doing 225 because it'll take me forever...

As long as you're enjoying it then I guess it shouldn't matter. Like 5people on this forum can even bench their body weight probably.

If you haven't tried wendler 531 I'd try that.

i think range of motion and control over the weight as just as important as the actual weight

sometimes, u increase the weight slowly because your rom is getting better or something else

nice bench




This post was edited by serialj0e on Mar 13 2016 04:09pm

Yea. If it was easy, everyone would be benching 350+ .

Your body type/weight/make-up will impact your gains.

When I was at 185 lbs ( pics in photo gallery if you care) it took me around a year to go from a 295 max to 345, and I plateaud.

Some guys take years to add even 5 lbs to their max once the weight gets up there. 270-275 usually happens much quicker than 345-350. 370-375 etc

Might not apply for that heavy of weight because I can't move that around unless squatting/deadlifting.

BUT! When I was plateau'd at 225, what worked for me was high rep over training until complete and utter failure. Before I got to the "burn out," I'd lift 80-90% of my max and do 3-5 second slow, tight controlled negatives, pause (just above chest, not touching) then explode through (if I even could. Obviously so your warm ups and don't just hit 80% first lift