really confused

Hi all, this is my first post. I have read a bit on this board and I am pretty impressed by the posters here.... I have run into a problem when it comes to my bench press. Before I get into that let me just give you a little back ground.... When I was 18 I weighed 170 pounds and could bench press 260 pounds once which I thought was pretty good.. I didnt lift weights back then. I just did push ups, dips, and pull ups.. I stopped working out(school, girlfriend).... Flash foward five years, I am now 25 and I have been working out for about 7 months. At first just doing push ups and some boxing training. I starting lifting weights about 2 months ago using the Bill Phillips body for life work out which I like because it is pretty damn intense........ During the first two months for chest I never did straight bar bench press. I only did dumbell press, flies, and incline dumbell press.. I have been working out with pretty good weight so then I thought I should change it up and try doing so straight bar bench press.. I started off really light just so I could get used to balancing the bar( using just 25 pound plates) and did 12 reps just for a warm up.. But then I added a little bit more weight and I was floored to see that I was barely pushing up 135 pounds!!! I did only about 8 reps and felt quite humiliated. I am not a small guy. I am about 5'9 195 pounds and getting pretty lean. My friends and guys at my job are always telling me that they wish they had my chest and yet I am lifting p#ssy weight. When I do the dumbell press I could do so pretty good weight but at straight bar it is like I have no streangth. I did straight bar again today for the second time and the same thing happened..... What is going on??? Can anyone help me..

Well is your form good? It could just be you're not used to the movement of the lift and once you get that down you'll go up in weight.

How much weight and how many reps can you do with the dumbell press?

yes you say pretty good weight on DB's but what is the weight? Your db's will be way less in total weight than your BB lift , because it takes alot more stablizer muscles to keepthe weight stedy!

I would say keep the form good and every time you can achieve 10 reps at a certain weight add more! theres no question you could add 50 -75 more lbs to a 1-2 rep max......... which also from what you said in your opening thread 260 1rep almost six years ago and NOW 135 almost 10 reps add 75 lbs and your 1 rep max around 210 .....only 50 away from your prious record with minimal traing!!!!!!!!!!!! Just want you to see what your describing to use Sounds right to ME..............! :unsure:

KEEP at it with good form you will hit it in 1 month GURANTY IT!!!!!!!

start light with good fourm!!!!!!!!! :D

are your shoulders weak? if so and you are using them more than chest on barbell that is your reason, if not then you just have bad form right now and your muscles have no muslce memory to that specific excercise

form is everything!

Thanks for the responce guys..

I do the body for life work out which is 5 sets with only one minute of rest in between and then a sixth set of 12 reps of another chest workout with no rest after the fifth set..

So I start off with a light warm up of 30 pounds and do 12 reps and then 40 lbs 10 times and then 50lbs 8 times and then 60 lbs 6 times and then back down to 50lbs 12 times and then right to flies with no rest for one set of the maximum weight that I can do for 12 reps..... There is exactly one minute rest between the sets except between the fifth and sixth set.

This is just strange to me because of the fact that I used to max 260 by just doing my push ups and now that I am lifting I am doing some low weight..

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Originally posted by Meisel
.. I stopped working out(school, girlfriend).... Flash foward five years, I am now 25 and I have been working out for about 7 months.

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I'd guess this is the culprit right here. You quit workingout altogether and just recently started again. Give it time...you'll gradually work back up to it again.

if you can only do 60's about 6 times then i dont expect you would do very much on bench. I'm repping 60's about 10-12 times and i rep about 145 10-12 times on barbell bench press. for a long period of time i only did dumbell press, and when i got back on barbell bench it took me a little while to get back to my typical weights. but i dont expect you will be benching 260 soon. i think if you start committing urself to barbell bench again youll see a significant increase in your bench gains at first. best of luck and work hard

I would definately say it was just the fact that it is a new thing to you. It sounds like when you get under there you are worried about the weight looking bad to everyone else and things...keep at it and give it time, magical things will happen....concentrate on the weight and your movements, don't worry about what other people will think while you are under there, it's all about you bro. A friend of mine who started flat barbell benches for the first time went up around 75 lbs. in two week just by getting used to the movements...keep at it bro.