Bench Presses (Not adding weight)

[The_Grinder]

First of all, I am new to the forum and I'm glad to be here. I have been working out for 2 or 3 years, but nothing really serious. I play college golf, so I am not trying to get all that big, but a decent amount of size wont hurt too much as long as I keep up my stretching too.

Anyway, now that my background is out of the way, I have been having problems with improving my bench gains. As of now, I am looking more for strength than for size, due to the fact that I already have a fairly well defined and good sized chest. I am 6'0" and 180 lbs. I work out 3 days a week (Thats the most we can get in the weight room) My workout schedule is basically like this.

(*Side note, since I can only work out 3 days a week, and our time is somewhat limited, I divide my leg excercises up throught the week so I can get them all in.)

Sun- Chest/Triceps/Leg Press/Abs
Mon- Rest
Tues- Back/Biceps/Forearems/Leg Extensions
Wed- Rest
Thurs- Shoulders/Triceps/Abs/Leg Curls & Calf Raises
Fri & Sat- Rest

I'll try to go through the excercises I do on Sunday and Thursday, since they will probably most affect my bench presses.

Sunday- Bench Press (Usually 10-8-6-To failure on last set with about 185ish)/Incline Flies/Close grip bench/Tricep Extensions/Skull crushers/Tricep pulldowns

Then on Thursday I do triceps again to go along with my shoulders, since they are a valuable muscle to the golf swing.

Thursday- Bench Presses (nothing big, just light weight 6 sets of 6 reps, mainly working on my speed going up)/Shoulder presses/Lateral raises/Front raises/Skull crushers/Tricep pulldowns/Dips

My main problem is, my bench gains have not gone up much at all the best few months. It's like I'm stuck. I'm sure my form isnt perfect, but I have read a lot about benching technique to try to make it as good as I can. I have only been benching with free weights for about a year and a half, due to the fact that before college I was only able to use the machines because I had no one to spot me. Am I wrong in thinking that the two main muscles used in bench are chest and triceps? For some reason, my roomate (who weighs about 30 lbs less than me) benches about 250 while I am down around 200. I find it interesting that all of the other chest and tricep excercises we do (i.e. Flyes, skull crushers, tricep pulldown, etc.) I am able to handle just as much, if not more weight than he is. Are there other muscles that I am leaving out that are more important to benching? Is my routine flawed? My max is only 200 lbs. right now, but my goal is to be at 300 by the time I graduate college in about 2 and a half years. I hope this post is structued ok, sorry it was so long. Any help would be appreciated, you have a great forum here.

[ROCKILLER]

Your routine needs major help. I cant see that splitting legs is a good idea.Do you do big core movement stuff like squats and deads? that would probably help your golf game.You dont have chest for thurs but you are doing bench press? wide grip bench is more of a chest exercise wheeras the narrower you go the more you focus on tris. If you are working a muscle as hard as you can there probably isnt any reason to work it more than once a week. I'm not as knowledgeable as some of the people around here but you should post in the training section exactly what exercises you do each day of the week so that you can get some help straightening things out. Also, make sure your diet is correct.

[phatchopper]

It looks to me like you're not doing enough for chest but focusing more on tris, I understand they are important for golf, but doing a few more chest excercises in place of some of the tri excercies would help a bit IMO. You are only doing Bench one day, then incline flys for chest you need to add some more pressing movements to get strength, instead of doing incline flys do inclind db press, and add in some dips in there that will definitely help your strength. Just try to add more basic pressing movements for stregth

[The_Grinder]

Thanks fellas. Yeah I can see what you mean by not doing enough chest stuff in there. I would love to have a day for legs but I don't have access to the weight room more than 3 days a week, so I kind of have to make do until this summer. I do dips 3 times to failure on Thursdays, when I do shoulders and tris. I was incorrect when I wrote that I do incline flies on chest day, I honestly meant to say incline dumbell presses (newb mistake, get the two confused sometimes). As for core stuff like deadlifts and squats, I do deads on back day, but I still need to find a place to fit squats in, as I have neglected them. As far as extra pressing movements, what would you guys think would add on the best to the pressing movements I have now on Sundays? (Flat Bench, Close grip Bench, Incline DB press are my only current ones) We dont have a bench that can decline in our weightroom, so anything decline would be out. I will probably take out the benching on Thursdays as I started a new bench program I read on another post here. It is an 8-week program that was mentioned to have been used by some various olympians. Hopefully this and some extra pressing movements will help me out a little.

[ROCKILLER]

I still think you need a better split. maybe chest and tris, back and bis then a day with legs and a little bit of shoulder work. I recently started doing squats and other big core movements and it has really helped everywhere. Now squats are my favorite day because I want to push myself farther every time. The way I see it, if the big major muscle groups in your body are growing, it will be easier to get all of the others to follow along

[phatchopper]

Throw in flat bench dumbell presses you will notice a marked strength improvement if you do heavy dumbell presses. And close grip bench is a tricep excercise so you can knock that off on chest day you are just weakening your secondary muscles and decreasing the amount of weight you will be able to move. Remember just stick to the basic movements and go heavy and you will get what you want.

[The_Grinder]

Thanks fellas. I think I'm gonna go ahead and drop triceps on Thursdays and make that Legs and Shoulders day. I'll try both incline DB presses and flat DB presses too on chest day. Thanks again!

[samsonov]

looks like you got alot of solid advise already. what i would do with a limited time in the gym is do a push day, legs day, pull day. focus on power movement military press, bench press, squat, dead lift, clean and jerk. it's not about looking cool in the gym it's about getting the job done. try and not do the same thing two weeks in a row. that way you'll never be board and you body will never know what to exspect.

[GearTripper]

IMO, change everything... 3 days a week is more then enough for what you want. Sun - Tue - Thu (1 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1off, 1 on, 2 off). you should completely change your routine because you've hit a sort of plateau (according to you) and thus there is a need to shock the body again. you're looking for a strength increase but are neglecting one of the most important parts of the body which would aid in exactly that - your legs. your legs are your largest muscle group and are the foundation of a strong overall physique. split your routine three-ways with a dedicated leg day.