My 8 reps has slowly improved as I changed my diet recently (not especially healthy, I still live in the US and am broke af so healthy food is a treat for me) and I’m up to 185 lbs (bar+ Plate and 25 each side), I very rarely do 1 Rep Max because it gets me exhausted for the rest of my exercise unless I drink a shitload of water. Last I checked I’m at 205 (bar+ Plate and 35 each side). Sorry if this is confusing to anyone because of the Lbs to Kilos dilemma. Around 84 kilos for 8 Reps, around 93 kilos for 1RM, what are yall at?
I've never done a bench-press in my life. It's an overrated exercise, which can create injuries in your shoulders. Instead I do dumbbell presses, my max was 27.5kg on each arm. So combined it's 55kg. Today I'll see how much I can lift, but I've struggled to go past 25kg on each arm for a long time now.
I personally love benching, but to each their own, dumbbell lifts are also typically better for range of motion, so I may think about working that into my routine
I managed to do 2 reps today with 27.5Kg on each arm. This time, I didn't need a spotter so that's some progress.
The problem with the bench-press is that you don't have a big range of motion. This is why some people struggle with developing the inner chest area. This happens when you don't fully stretch and compress a muscle. In fact the best exercises for chest are the Machine Peck Fly or Cable Crossover.
Yes. The dumbbell press is so much more natural because the distance between your hands isn't fixed. It's also probably builds muscle faster because you need stability which seems to work muscles in a more thorough way. The problem is testing a 1rm is really intimidating and not worth the risk if you work out at home. There's a big intimidation factor just getting into position. I also remember stopping at 60 lbs each arm. I might have tried 70 once, but it felt dangerous to rep too close to failure because it's just a lot of weight to drop in an apartment. I increased the number of reps and sets at 60 lbs but never felt comfortable to go any higher without a spotter. It seems to really make progress in this exercise you need to go to a gym and have a spotter, but going regularly was a problem for me.
For 1rm it makes more sense to use the bench-press. If I'm not mistaken, the bench-press was created to be a strength test, not an exercise.