Why am I behind so much on chest?

[Windex]

Between the big 3 (Deadlift/Squat/Bench), I feel my bench is significantly worse relative to my other two lifts. Is this possibly due to an injury when I was younger of my rotator cuff (non-lifting related), or possibly poor genetics ? I don't feel my chest workout is lackluster or that I am doing my lifts with improper form but I suppose that could be the case as well ? To put it in perspective, I deadlift 405 lbs, squat 315 lbs, but can only bench 135 lbs on Incline and 150 lbs on Decline (I don't do flat bench due to the pain I get).

[falco21]

I think it's a mixture of genetics and the injury. Rotator cuff plays a huge role in benching. I know from experience. I just came off rotator cuff surgery and my bench will never be the same. I also know quite a few people that have huge chests and are strong as shit, but their bench is stupid light. They just don't have the strength like you would think they had.

You should try and mix it up a little. Try a different form of lifting to see if that gets you past that plateau. Confuse the muscles a bit and see if it increases your strength.

[wmaousley]

Between the big 3 (Deadlift/Squat/Bench), I feel my bench is significantly worse relative to my other two lifts. Is this possibly due to an injury when I was younger of my rotator cuff (non-lifting related), or possibly poor genetics ? I don't feel my chest workout is lackluster or that I am doing my lifts with improper form but I suppose that could be the case as well ? To put it in perspective, I deadlift 405 lbs, squat 315 lbs, but can only bench 135 lbs on Incline and 150 lbs on Decline (I don't do flat bench due to the pain I get).

I would def attribute that to injury. Have you been to a Orthopedic specialist?

[falco21]

The problem with the rotator cuff is that once you injure it severely enough, it will never be the same. Sad to say, but you probably will never lift a lot of weight doing certain exercises. When my therapy was done, I asked the doctor, who also did the surgery, how my strength would be weight lifting, and he said that I should be able to fully recover, but my strength with some exercises will forever be limited. Sucks, but that is the nature of injuries

[Nooomoto]

What about flat bench?

[falco21]

What about flat bench?

Don't know about him, but flat bench kills my shoulder. That's the one exercise I have a ton of trouble with.

[Whammi]

WINDEX, I had the same thing happen to me. It took almost 18 months before I started to feel good in the gym again (I'm still only about 80% health). Once healed, I started light with dumb bells. I couldn't do flat bench if I wanted to. It was too painful. Injury or not, I was embarassed to be seen lifting such light weight. Just wondering if your rotator cuff never healed properly.

[devildog1967]

Superset with flys then you will get the growth without using so much weight , In turn it will increase your lifts in time. Training is not all about how much we lift its how we lift it .

[Gym_]

Ya see IMO its genetics.. and ill tell you why ..
i have a massive chest... huge broad shoulders but i can only bench 135 + the bar thou i can almost bicep curl that ...
squat over 700lbs ( including my own body mass) so whats the short story ?

Shit happens bro... my mate can run 10k and not break a sweat but i can barely walk up the front stairs ...
but at the same time he can't even pass me the weights off the rack that i use for curls .. everyone is different.

Ya see guys put a harness on and pull a jumbo jet the length of a runway... but that same guy cant even jog around the block
Some African Dode cant pull a kid on a skate board but he can run flat out for 36 miles in the Olympics .. ask him to rack ya weights for ya and watch the guy buckle ..

That kenyan runner will never be as big as me even if he takes juice and i don't but I'm never EVER going to be able to run more then a few blocks with out dropping dead
Genetics ya cant beat it...
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