posted Sun, 03/16/2014 - 16:29
3312
Tall guy bench press help
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To all the tall guys out there. Currently 6'3" 205 pounds and been natty for the past 2 years. My chest is the weakest of my physique and always been tough lifting heavy on bench press. I've been reading different forums on the inner web and have a few guys saying to widen the grip to lift heavier and grow more. I thought wider grip would just work the outsides of the chest more. I don't need that, I need upper and middle to fill out. Any thoughts/ideas/what works for you?
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I struggled with this as well. I like to do some barbell rows before I bench and get the lats full of blood. When I come down I keep my elbows kind of tucked in and learn to use your lats to help push. Also heavyflys and make sure you full contract the pecs every rep.
Flys are great for inner chest. Also, narrow grip flat bench, hands about 12-14" apart on a barbell. Focus on squeezing your chest at the top of the contraction, this will hit inner chest as well.
I have pretty long arms for my height (can nearly touch my knee standing straight up) and I train for strength and size
I warm up with a foam roller to loosen up everything then I do rotator cuff exercises with bands then I do rear delt flys with bands
Flat bench press 3 warmup sets, then 4,5 working sets going for 1-3 rep range with last set being my heaviest
Guillotine press on a smith machine 4sets of 6-8 reps
Dumbbell flys: 4x12 I go super deep so I generally use a lighter weight
Machine press 3x8-12.
That's my chest routine and it's put size and strength on and whenever I venture away from it my gains decrease.
However if you really want to get a bigger bench, instead if doing chest on Monday, do shoukders and include heavy overhead standing presses with strict form. Do chest on Thursday instead, I guarantee you'll have better chest workouts
So you wanting size not strength? some guys with long arms can switch to reverse grip and over time exceed their normal grip bench for 1RM.
For size though, keeping it simple. Start with incline, move to flat and then finish with dumbbell flys and maybe 2-3 sets good dumbbell pullovers. Most people do flys wrong and it just turns into a wide pressing movement. You gotta lock your movement into a wide arc and let it pull you almost till your knuckles hit the floor, than follow the same arc up like your hugging a huge tree.
4-5 sets each for presses working down to 6-8 reps then 5 sets of flys 8-12reps.
There is a reason some of the more old school BB's had bigger chests. 3 simple movememnts
Thanks bro. You suggest bar press or Dumbbells?
I change it up every 3rd work out.
If u want a big bench press work ur triceps the most and twist ur elbows in when goin down squeeze the bar tryin to rip it apart. if want a big chest u dnt need to bench use dumbell machines n cable even regular push ups concentrate on the muscle contraction n pumps not too much on weight cuz it seems like u want a bigger chest.benchin is fun n more of an ego lift. Us long armed tall dudes have a hard time building the b.press but slow n steady increments work
6'2 and 225 now around 12% bf. Not naturally a big guy, I was 165 when I graduated high school (a bazillion years ago) it took me forever just to bench 225, now I'm at 350 for 1rm.
I think variation is key. I do my heaviest lifts first and mix it up every 4 four weeks starting with either dumbell or barbells and in incline or flat. I also do decline, but never heavy (it's terrible for your shoulder joints)
Press for chest thickness, fly for width.
hate to be the one to say it; but you might need to look at your form. heavy weight is not always the answer and if you go back to the basics and start low and get your form in order then you can add weight and grow Otherwise you are chasing your tail. Long arms, short arms make no difference contrary to popular belief.
If you are working it out and it is not growing; change it to something else. You have to shock the muscles and nerves to get them to grow and if you choose the same routine over and over again your muscles are so used to it they will not grow at all.
BetterOnTopWhy do you need to lift heavy on the bench? Im 5'11 214lb and rep out at 145-190 and my chest is growing just fine. Also widening your grip isnt ganna make your chest grow faster, but it will emphasize on chest and front delts more vs making your grip closer and hitting less chest and front delts and more triceps. You want a full chest you gotta hit every area, my chest routine always starts with barbell or dumbell bench. Then some form of incline press, with straight bar bench, hammer strength incline, or dumbell incline. Then ill go to decline flys with cables and one more form on incline press. I Always start with a nice long warm up followed by 4 exercises with 5 sets: 12x12x10x10x10 with dropset 8-15
I struggled all my life me being 6,4 with long ass gorilla arms It was hard for me to build up a strong chest.. My best advice is on chest days give it 120% focus on the movement the squeeze do every rep right make every rep count. I tried all kinds of different workouts and that's what I found that worked best for me
RustyhookerPost your chest routine
Chest/back
Flat bench bar 5 sets of 5
Chin-ups 5 sets to fail
Incline bench bar 5 sets 5
Dumbbell rows 5 sets 10
Incline flys 5 sets 8 with 3 sec pause at bottom. Last set drop set
Dumbells pullovers 4 sets 8
reps are way tOO lOw.
Yup! ×2
Even to build mass? All I've been reading about taller guys with longer arms show they work 2x harder then a shorter guy and low reps heavy weight for mass is key....
Less weight, perfect form a, full range of motion - these are key. I used to do the 5x5 and low rep sets - but drop the weight some, and the ego (it's hard to do
rep out 4 progressive sets of 12, 12, 10, 8 and maybe one of 5. Often times dudes will lift heavy but there form is shit. It really just promotes injury and not hypertrophy.
Also, mix it up... A lot!!! I never start with the same exercise per body part 2 weeks in a row. Your strongest lift is your first exercise, so mix it up. One week dumbbell bench first, next week barbell incline first, than maybe, barbell flat bench or decline.
Just my 2 cents.
Good luck
Thanks man I will give it a shot. I read an article last night about using Dumbbells more often because you can really come out a little wider and squeeze at the top for a good contraction.
Yeah man, I've learned to love dumbells, they definitely have helped me grow. Over the past 4- 5 years I've gone fro 15 1/2 " arms to 18 (fully pumped of course) I'm slow hard gainer, so for me that's a hug deal - I'm also 41 this week
Friggin awesome bro! I need to work on karma so I can +1!
You tube the guillotine press.
do a lot of isolated workouts brother I use to be in the same boat im 6'4 and I work my butt off on chest day and still don't have a great max like I do on legs or arms...there are a lot of good articles that explain the workout power as being weight lifted and distance and in the case of a tall guy that's a lot longer distance but I do a lot of flys and cable pulls and that's helped me a ton maybe try getting some boards and do a few board presses as well...key is just to keep at it and hopefully if youre like me you always have legs and arms
Thanks guys. I don't do ANY cable chest so I'll try working on that
hunteron20sWell the wider grip helps lift heavier becuase it is less travel lenght going up .now upper chest is incline and cable pulls ..inner chest is peck deck ..