Am I cutting myself short?

[thewickedtruth]

Now here is a question that I've wanted to ask all weekend when I could finally get to a PC. I've decided that I won't ever bench past 335 for fear of hurting myself like I did awhile back. Since I've chosen just to increase my rep range with 300-315 instead of going past it weight wise, am I going to lack the size I might be looking for? Or can you develop a nice chest without benching 400 or more? My current routine has gone back to the old way of doing things. A decent warmup with me doing 3 sets of 315 with each set to failure. That is all. The second day of chest training is just speed work. 135 for reps then 225 and so on. I don't do any less than 275 for 15 reps on the speed days but stop there. On heavy days it's just working with 315 for now. What do you guys think or feel about this topic? 

[Bluto]

i'd say you definitely can get a good chest without benching 400, ive seen world class amateur bodybuilders benching less raw in competition. there's so many ways to work your chest, it's not all about big numbers on the bench. you can do dumbbells, weighted dips etc

[dontknowit]

Change exercises. (heavy)cable, flyes, wide dips etc. Press is a good exercise but not the holy grale.

[Hedgehog]

Using a low incline when benchpressing (cerca 15-30 degrees), usually helps.

Try it for awhile, work up the load slowly.

-Hedge

[jpm101]

In spite of popular belief, the flat BB  BP is not a prime pec/chest builder for most people. Also try not to be swept away with that 400lb number, or any other number, when it comes to building muscle mass. Those 400lb + benches (in reality, some of those weights listed fall more into the 330-350 class) that you read about  the Pro's and other men using, are usually between a quarter to three quarter range, very fast reps. Rare are the full ROM movements of these huge guy's.

You could develop an exceptional chest/pecs with weighted dips (V bar dips are useful for wide to narrow hand gripping...different angle & stretch), DB flat/incline presses, pec deck, cables, etc. Can also consider BB benches to the neck (wider hand spacing places more action on the pecs). Though this exercise is not for everyone. Might use caution and go light on this one at first. Good Luck.