how do i increase my bench press?
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12-29-2008, 06:28 AM
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how do i increase my bench press?
i have been lifting on and off since high school. since then i have been dealing with a couple injurys (motorcycle injurys)which set me back a lot, but now i'm finally back on track. with my schedule now i work every muslce once a week. i'm pretty satisfied with my size, but the most i have ever benched is about 250. this year i want to take it up to atleast 300. any advice? i'm thinking i might do a second workout for chest a week for strength. what i do now once a week is flat, incline, decline, and flys, 4 sets of each, and a 30 rep burn out on what ever exercise i do first.
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12-29-2008, 06:46 AM
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Rank: Light Heavyweight
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It sounds like you're doing too much as it is. A seperate workout is fine though, just scale it back. Burn out sets are great for burning out your body and inhibiting strength gains. Speed work might help you to increase your bench press. I would add more variety overall. Close grip bench press, weighted dips, skull crushers, DB bench press (flat & incline), and BB bench press (flat and incline) should fit into your workout IMO. CGBP and dips are great for accessory work. I would change it to where you are doing one primary movement (speed bench, flat bench, incline, or db) and then do a couple of accessory movements (dips, CGBP, skull crushers, etc). How many reps per set are you doing?
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12-29-2008, 07:46 AM
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well i do flat, incline, decline, then flys. 4 sets each. 1 set 10 reps, increase weight....2nd 6 reps increase weight....3rd 4 reaps decrease weight and for the 1st exercise (if i do flat or incline first) ill do 30 reps, but everything else on the last set ill do 10. might sound like a lot, but its pretty basic. i just started doin the 30 rep thing a few months ago and it has boosted my workout a little bit
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12-29-2008, 08:37 AM
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Rank: Middleweight
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Quote:
Originally Posted by latemp
well i do flat, incline, decline, then flys. 4 sets each. 1 set 10 reps, increase weight....2nd 6 reps increase weight....3rd 4 reaps decrease weight and for the 1st exercise (if i do flat or incline first) ill do 30 reps, but everything else on the last set ill do 10. might sound like a lot, but its pretty basic. i just started doin the 30 rep thing a few months ago and it has boosted my workout a little bit
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Like Ross said, there's too much going on there. You don't need all 3 variations of bench.
The only real strength work you're doing is the 3rd set of 4 reps, which really isn't very effective imo. You would be much better served to make all 3 sets 2-3 reps and have a 4th set of around 8-10 reps with a lighter weight. Now you're seperating the strength from the hypertrophy and drawn a line in the sand.
If you really insist on more than 1 variation, you could do the 3 heavy sets (2-3 reps) using flat bench and then you could switch to incline or decline or even flat db bench for that last set of 10. Flyes have been good to me, in terms of hypertrophy, but really haven't done much of anything else. Remember, pecs are not the primary mover in bench, they take a backseat to tris and shoulders. IMO you would be better served doing flat db bench if you want some hypertrophy. Its very close to flyes, hypertrophy wise, but it also has carry over to your pressing, whereas flyes do not. You could also look into a neutral grip db press.
It might not sound like alot of work, I agree (aside from the kill set), but you've got the wrong combination of sets/reps in there.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'boosted your workout' so I will leave that out for now.
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12-29-2008, 09:31 AM
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when i say "boosted my workout" in other words, my strength started goin up. i just started doing the 30 rep thing, along with moving up in weight. but besides that, i've never heard that i was doing "too much" before. i was always taught to do something for all movements of the chest, so even if i'm not doing all bench stuff, i will do it another way like do weighted dips instead of decline. before i started moving up in weights (pyramid workout), i would start out heavy, and move down in weight, but the reps were different, mainly lower. either way i always did something for flat, inc, dec,and inner chest (flys or whatever i may do). i didnt just make up this workout on my own. my uncle has been bodybuilding for over 20 years, and i learned from him. (although he always taught me to go down in weight)
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12-29-2008, 10:17 AM
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So, I take it you really didn't want an answer but instead you were seaking validation of some kind? Obviously you have some type of doubt about what you are doing or you wouldn't need approval.
You said you wanted to increase your bench press. Is that what your want or do you just want to bodybuild?
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.
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12-29-2008, 11:44 AM
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no, more like looking for some strength building stuff to add in. i was just goin to stick to my regulaur workout, and do something for strength the extra day i do chest
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12-29-2008, 12:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by latemp
no, more like looking for some strength building stuff to add in. i was just goin to stick to my regulaur workout, and do something for strength the extra day i do chest
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The ideas I gave are just that. You get your strength training plus some hypertrophy with the added bonus of being able to completely seperate the two of them in your sets.
You can't just "add in" some strength building stuff and expect to make a 50lb gain in your bench. Strength training is an entirely different animal, you need a flexible gameplan. What happens if your spreadsheet says 270x3 but you can't even hit 260x1?
It doesn't make sense to add in strength work after hypertrophy (whether its in the same workout or the same week it doesn't matter) you want to be able to hit a high intensity when you perform strength work. Intensity will get lower as fatigue becomes higher, and with higher rep work it will take longer for the fatigue to dissipate. If anything the strength work would come before the hypertrophy.
You're the one that asked for advice...I gave you some. I'd rather not waste my time though, just my own personal preference.
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12-29-2008, 07:49 PM
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sorry...i didnt mean to come off like i'm rejecting yalls advice. i was mearly defending my workout because it seemed at first that yall were saying what i was doin was all wrong, but now i see that yall are basically saying i have to choose between a strength workout and what i am doing now. well my question to that is, might sound dumb, but will i loose any size or muscle doing that?
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12-29-2008, 07:57 PM
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no, you won't.
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