If you are asking yourself ” Why I can bench 195 lbs for eight reps but can’t do 230 for 1″? then read this. After a certain amount of time in the gym, most of us will be unable to increase the weight we want to push.
Although many people have good form, they cannot escape this situation. We call this situation the bench press does not improve. Join me in the essay if you want to learn more specifics.
I Can Bench Press 195 lbs For Eight Reps But Can’t Do 230 For 1, why?
- Inefficient training schedule
- Poor nutrition
- Poor resilience
According to the 1RM calculator, 195 for eight repetitions typically suggests a 1RM of 225-246. Naturally, it differs from person to person.
In my personal experience, most of those calculators overestimate the 1RM at higher reps (more than about 5). I’d estimate a 1RM of about 230. (225–235). A 3RM bench is around 92%, a 5RM bar is approximately 86%, and an 8RM court is about 82%.
Have you had a seasoned powerlifting coach analyze your form? While I don’t think your condition is wrong, if you watch a competent coach, like Calgary Barbell, give form checks on YouTube, you’ll see that everyone can improve. No one is perfect.
Otherwise, you don’t have enough experience lifting bigger weights, which is the most likely explanation. Put, performing eight repetitions is not the same as raising a 1RM. You require significantly more leg force, tightness, and arch. Even though eight reps suggest “strength potential,” it cannot be translated accurately.
I advise performing five reps for 2-3 weeks, say 5×5 or something similar, followed by four reps, three reps, and so on, while increasing weight. With 205 pounds, performing eight sets of 3 will better prepare you than performing 3×8 at 195.
Inefficient training schedule
There are many reasons why we are not improving the bench press. To understand common sense, most importantly, you must first understand how your body adapts to exercise training (weight lifting/gym).
However, we don’t need to go into complicated details; we need to understand as simple as the following. After an intense resistance training session, hormones and other chemicals are released into the body.
This will stimulate our muscle cells to grow bigger and stronger. Naturally, this process will make previously heavy weights easier to handle. And as the consequences become more accessible, the stimulation level will decrease.
As a result, the muscle and strength gains from the workout will also be attenuated. This is the reason why the key to continued muscle growth is to force your muscles to work harder over time.
And this is mainly achieved by using heavier and incremental weights workout volume. When we do this, the muscles are being overstimulated ascending.
At this point, if you respond to enough stimulation, you will have more muscle and strength.
Otherwise, you won’t gain power. Many people don’t know this, and they work weekly at the gym to do the same exercises, weights, and numbers of rep. As a result, their bodies also look the same (no progress) from month to month or even year to year.
In short, without progressive overload, we wouldn’t have significant improvement in strength and muscle observed.
And in most cases, what causes them to have progressive deficiency overload is caused by one or more of the following mistakes: inefficient training schedule, poor nutrition, and poor resilience.
On the internet, we will find a lot of different opinions about volume, frequency training, the selection of exercises, and optimal rep ranges. Without relying on the basic rules.
So it’s no surprise that most people don’t understand what to do in the gym. And they keep changing exercises, reps, sets, and weights for no reason.
The above will make for good “exercise” regimes (moving the body, sweating sweat, burn calories), but by no means an effective gym regimen to improve the bench.
Because they are not correctly calculated toward performance goals or change the body composition, shuffling too many training variables too often makes it nearly impossible to create progressive overload in your muscles.
When benefits return on improvement narrows with exercise experience (more extended practice, the slower you progress), it’s not enough to strive for a “good workout.”
Instead, you must have good and productive training sessions. Another mistake in the training program is the avoidance of weight training heavy, high-intensity training and choosing lighter training methods (lots of reps, light weights).
Usually, the reason for this is that heavy training sessions are pretty scary and uncomfortable. However, we must continue to get stronger to get a larger muscle size.
Moderate, gentle training sessions will not have much effect. To make real progress fast, you must give your best every time you step into the gym. In addition, you cannot neglect compound exercises and expect optimal results.
Poor nutrition
Regarding nutrition, it’s mostly about eating enough calories and protein – two critical factors for gaining muscle and strength. The body’s muscle-building mechanism works best when energy and protein are plentiful.
Many people fail to improve their bench presses because of this. They don’t eat enough calories or protein or even both.
On the other hand, some people are interested in nutrition but eat less than they did and think they are getting enough nutrients. This seems to be especially common in women.
Reading this far, surely some people will be apprehensive. I’m happy to report that in order to grow the most muscle, you don’t need to eat a lot of calories.
. As for calories, 16 to 18 calories per pound of body weight per day should help you get the job done.
As for protein, the dosage ranges from 0.8 to 1 gram per pound of body weight every day. Also, although not as important as calories and protein,
The amount of carbohydrates consumed is also significant.
I Can Bench Press 195 lbs For Eight Reps But Can’t Do 230 For 1,why?
Poor Resilience
Progress isn’t limited only by how hard you can push yourself in the gym; it’s also determined by how well you can recover from your workouts.
That way, even if you can work out daily, at a high volume, and do all sorts of “advanced” techniques. However, the results will go nowhere if you cannot restore the file.
Remember, we don’t build muscle while we exercise. It happens after training sessions when your body repairs the damage and prepares for the next workout.
And for this to happen, you have to give your body the right amount of stimulation (lifting weights) and recovery (sleep, time off, deload, food, relaxation).
When you are a beginner, meeting these factors will be very easy. Our bodies then respond impressively to exercise and don’t need much stimulation to gain significant muscle and strength.
Even if you overdo it a little when you first start, those weights are also not heavy enough to damage you. However, all things will change as you become an “intermediate” weightlifter.
You’ll then have to train much more complicated to continue to build muscle and strength and handle heavier weights.
And this makes it more challenging to strike a balance between training stress and resilience. Thus, to progress effectively, we need to do everything to support its recovery program.
To do that, you need to avoid some common mistakes during recovery. These mistakes are: lack of sleep, eating too little, and exercising too much.
Final thought
I answered the question: Why can I bench 195 lbs for eight reps but can’t do 230 for 1? and answered why the bench press does not improve. I hope the article can provide you with the necessary information.
How to fix that?
As I mentioned above, your failure to improve the bench press can be due to many different reasons. Therefore, we must identify what is holding you back from fixing this situation.
Many people lose weight in the gym because they don’t work out (too few sessions), or it could be that they don’t push themselves in their workouts, or their schedule isn’t challenging enough.
Maybe you are worried because of work, not sleeping well, and suffering from persistent pain. Whatever the reason, the fix for these is the same; it’s more effort in the gym.
Every time you enter the gym, focus more on your workout. Allow yourself the privilege to set aside other issues and concerns for an hour.
You can also try working out at a different time of day when you feel your most vital and most energetic. Not only that, but you may also need to be more patient during times of injury, strain, or muscle soreness.
If you have met the above factors but are still not getting the results you want, your exercise program likely has a problem.