Bench press without a spotter

[Lewberry pie]

I've had quite a lot of close grip work included in my training for the last few months, and some skullcrushers. Not sure why it hasn't improved that much.

I just use the pull down machine and do tricep extensions, reps of about 10 and keep going till I'm paggered.

 

[The Spezial One]

The squat rack is for bicep curls only.

 

[mattT]

I do miss having a training partner for this reason. I've got a good idea of when I can or can't squeeze out another rep, although this morning I pushed it very fine indeed but I managed to get the bar up eventually.

Dumbell bench is a good alternative once in a while as you can go to failure without a spot. Can also go deeper than barbell.

Got stuck under a bar doing incline bench today

 

[maygo]

Anyone used rest pause sets for this? I've been heading for 5 reps, and you can tell on the 3rd or 4th rep if you can keep going. I will rack the bar, wait 10- 15 seconds then do another 1 or 2 reps
Works most of the time

 

[PhilSAFC]

Anyone used rest pause sets for this? I've been heading for 5 reps, and you can tell on the 3rd or 4th rep if you can keep going. I will rack the bar, wait 10- 15 seconds then do another 1 or 2 reps
Works most of the time

I do it sometimes. Read about it on Jim stoppani's website. 4 minute muscle is a good as well. Similar idea.

 

[oROSSo]

Anyone used rest pause sets for this? I've been heading for 5 reps, and you can tell on the 3rd or 4th rep if you can keep going. I will rack the bar, wait 10- 15 seconds then do another 1 or 2 reps
Works most of the time

My top set is 5 reps. The other day I managed 4 knowing i couldn't hit the 5th, so racked the bar, waited a minute a repped out another 3.

 

[maygo]

My top set is 5 reps. The other day I managed 4 knowing i couldn't hit the 5th, so racked the bar, waited a minute a repped out another 3.

^^^This

 

[mattT]

I'm about ready to up the weight on the bench press as I'm comfortably able to do 5 sets of 5 reps with about 2-3 minutes rest between sets.

But if I cannot ask anyone to spot me is the next best thing to use a rack as suggested on the stronglifts website?

http://stronglifts.com/bench-press/safety/

Is this a gym faux pas? If I want to do some squats and someone is using the power rack for something else then I always feel that it's a bit of a waste. Is there any other method to safely bench press please?

When I was working up to the current weight I'd sometimes have to stop at about the 4th rep in the occasional set so I can gauge when the weight's too heavy. But I'd prefer not to have to 'de-load' if I fail regularly as the weight is still relatively pathetic.

I'm glad you started this thread actually. I have been benching without a spot for a long time but after reading this thread decided to ask someone to spot me this week and I will definitely be doing so from now on.

 

[Deleted User 11453]

I'm glad you started this thread actually. I have been benching without a spot for a long time but after reading this thread decided to ask someone to spot me this week and I will definitely be doing so from now on.

Cheers, I've been having mixed results but benched in the rack today and even if I wasn't that great I had the safety bars there and rolled the weight off twice.

 

[Lewberry pie]

My top set is 5 reps. The other day I managed 4 knowing i couldn't hit the 5th, so racked the bar, waited a minute a repped out another 3.

This is definitely the way to go, fair enough you failed 5 reps but your overall volume is more which is just as important

 

[The Spezial One]

This is definitely the way to go, fair enough you failed 5 reps but your overall volume is more which is just as important

Isn't that more cluster sets than rest-pause though mate? I always believed the "pause" in rest-pause should be max 20 secs.

If there's a minute rest with low rep heavy sets it becomes more a cluster for overall volume. Not that there's anything wrong with either like.

 

[Lewberry pie]

Isn't that more cluster sets than rest-pause though mate? I always believed the "pause" in rest-pause should be max 20 secs.

If there's a minute rest with low rep heavy sets it becomes more a cluster for overall volume. Not that there's anything wrong with either like.

I don't think it matters That much, as part of programme it does because it tells you how you're progressing, but overall volume is a main factor in progress imo so I wouldn't care too much if it was me

 

[Deleted User 11453]

This is definitely the way to go, fair enough you failed 5 reps but your overall volume is more which is just as important

I'm doing stronglifts 5x5 and reached a point where I can do 5x5 on a certain weight at bench press so I've added 2.5kg total to it.

For the past 2 sessions I've managed to do something like 1 set of 4 reps, 3 of 3 reps and today the last set was 2 reps. Tried to get to 4 reps on a couple of the middle sets which was when I had to roll the bar off.

Should I 'de-load' when I fail to reach 5x5 in the next session? Barring a miracle I won't reach that amount. I.e. take the 2.5kg off for a few weeks and decrease the rest between sets to about a minute as I was having a rest of 2-3 minutes before I increased the weight.

Or should I continue but add in more sets to take the total reps to 25ish?

No bother if you can't answer specifics I'll have a skim of the interweb after a rest week.

 

[maygo]

I'm doing stronglifts 5x5 and reached a point where I can do 5x5 on a certain weight at bench press so I've added 2.5kg total to it.

For the past 2 sessions I've managed to do something like 1 set of 4 reps, 3 of 3 reps and today the last set was 2 reps. Tried to get to 4 reps on a couple of the middle sets which was when I had to roll the bar off.

Should I 'de-load' when I fail to reach 5x5 in the next session? Barring a miracle I won't reach that amount. I.e. take the 2.5kg off for a few weeks and decrease the rest between sets to about a minute as I was having a rest of 2-3 minutes before I increased the weight.

Or should I continue but add in more sets to take the total reps to 25ish?

No bother if you can't answer specifics I'll have a skim of the interweb after a rest week.

It's a suck it and see situation. I often do the rest pause stuff, but sometimes the energy/ drive/ motivation just isn't there to push it espesh if I've had a shit sleep, so will either stop at 3/4 reps, or take a bit weight off and rep it out.

 

[Charmless Man]

I'm doing stronglifts 5x5 and reached a point where I can do 5x5 on a certain weight at bench press so I've added 2.5kg total to it.

For the past 2 sessions I've managed to do something like 1 set of 4 reps, 3 of 3 reps and today the last set was 2 reps. Tried to get to 4 reps on a couple of the middle sets which was when I had to roll the bar off.

Should I 'de-load' when I fail to reach 5x5 in the next session? Barring a miracle I won't reach that amount. I.e. take the 2.5kg off for a few weeks and decrease the rest between sets to about a minute as I was having a rest of 2-3 minutes before I increased the weight.

Or should I continue but add in more sets to take the total reps to 25ish?

No bother if you can't answer specifics I'll have a skim of the interweb after a rest week.

The programme has specific instructions for this. If you fail even one rep on the same movement three sessions in a row you deload by 10%, on that movement only and start again from there. So failing 60kg for 5x5 on bench would mean a 6kg deload. Which is probably going to mean 5kg or 7.5kg unless you've got access to 0.5kg plates.

You then eat more and keep on pushing.

 

[Lewberry pie]

I'm doing stronglifts 5x5 and reached a point where I can do 5x5 on a certain weight at bench press so I've added 2.5kg total to it.

For the past 2 sessions I've managed to do something like 1 set of 4 reps, 3 of 3 reps and today the last set was 2 reps. Tried to get to 4 reps on a couple of the middle sets which was when I had to roll the bar off.

Should I 'de-load' when I fail to reach 5x5 in the next session? Barring a miracle I won't reach that amount. I.e. take the 2.5kg off for a few weeks and decrease the rest between sets to about a minute as I was having a rest of 2-3 minutes before I increased the weight.

Or should I continue but add in more sets to take the total reps to 25ish?

No bother if you can't answer specifics I'll have a skim of the interweb after a rest week.

Do a reset, all that means is take 10% off your weight and start your progress as before. You'll have to resets all the time, as you get stronger and you reset more and more, use your judgement and decide when your ready for another routine.