My biggest struggle with my bench has always been the lockout. For years and years, I really focused on hammering my triceps and working on my lockout. This happened both when I was trying to break an 800 equipped and a 600 raw bench.
I had everyone and their mothers telling me how to improve my lockout. I kept spending more and more time on the lockout and was having no greater success.
Then I decided to exploit my strength which was my explosive power out of the bottom. I started loading up on speed bench and kept adding resistance with weights, bands, and chains. By spending my efforts this way I was able to blow through my sticking point on my lockout. That's when I was able to hit that 800 equipped bench, which eventually ended up at 900, and my 600 raw in three different weight classes.
The moral of the story is, don't get lost focusing on your weak points. Sure, it's important, but sometimes exploiting your strength is a great option that people often forget.
